AgriMoz

VOLUME 1: ISSUE 1 MZN 125/US$5.30 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2018

FMD cripple Tete livestock breeding

GAIN help SME lure investors to nutrition food 9

Poor 2018 harvest hits Southern Africa nations 15

Project drive women into digital agricultural marketplace 17

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Editor:Andrew Maramwidzedrewmara@gmail.com

Editorial Contributors:More Love MafuDakito BiasMario DeusCasimo Muhimua

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Tete Office:Talhao 4109Matundo, TeteTel: +258 84 119 4017/ +258 212 230 941Fax: +258 212 227 698

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ContentsEDITORIAL COMMENT Authorities should flex muscles in fighting FMD : .................................................................. 4

NEWS BRIEFS Chinese lured to Lake Tanganyika sardine : : ............................................................................. 5Laboratories shortage cripples honey industry : ...................................................................... 5Machel’s dream agriculture project revived : ............................................................................ 5Xai-Xain vegetable processing centre opens : : ........................................................................ 5

COVER STORY FMD cripple Tete livestock breeding : : ........................................................................................ 6

LOCAL NEWS Compac offer packaging efficiency for fresh producers : .................................................... 7Food insecurity gap narrows : ......................................................................................................... 8GAIN help SME lure investors to nutrition food : .................................................................... 9Gaza benefit from China-Africa rice project : ............................................................................ 10New beginning for farmers : ............................................................................................................ 11Researchers conduct work on aflatoxin : ................................................................................... 12

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Gates Foundation spur Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda livestock : .............................................. 14Poor 2018 harvest hits Southern Africa nations : .................................................................... 15

NEW TECHNOLOGY & TRENDS Garlic, chillies among natural fall armyworm measures : ..................................................... 16Project drive women into digital agricultural marketplace : ............................................... 17BEVERAGE PACKAGING : ..................................................................................................... 18

AgriMoz

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MozAgric - October / December 2018

Livestock breeders in Tete are going through a rough patch, the worsening foot and mouth, depleting the farmers’ flocks needs to be controlled.

News of vaccines shortages should trigger authorities to do more that what they have already done.

Farmers heavily rely on the dying livestock and the quarantining measures further dents the breeders since all livestock produce from

Editorial Comment

Authorities should flex muscles in fighting FMD

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Andrew Maramwidze

the area cannot be sold neither can they bring any return on investment (ROI) for the farmers. has potential to worsen outbreak of the epidemic in Tete province.

Reports indicate that over 2,700 head of cattle have been infected since the outbreak was announced in the district of Doa last November

Though authorities remained on FMD alert, farmers have plunged into a dungeon and continue to scream for help.

We challenge authorities to avail vaccination and effectively find ways to prevent the spread of the disease and safeguard the health of over 300,000 animals in Tete province.

Another interesting development is news that the country has reduced number of people vulnerable to food insecurity from 50 percent to 24 percent in the last ten years.

Food security is a national concern that should dominate the country’s agenda despite the massive challenges the state continues facing in the sector.

More intervention called for in areas of nutritious food and resilience to climate shocks that have huge impact on food production at both local and international levels.

We welcome the announcement that authorities are eager to continue improving the country’s levels of food security.

Recently President Filipe Nyusi launched a new national water supply programme, known as Pravida (Water for Life Programme), which has an investment of $80 million to rehabilitate and expand water systems in towns and cities across the country, including the capital Maputo, Beira, Pemba, Nacala, and Cuamba where taps are turned off every other day.

President Nyusi the programme should take us a step further, as a nation, lets continue to pull together.

Till we meet again next year, have a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year!

Remember to send your comments, inquiries and letters to drewmara@gmail.com

Enjoy the read!

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MozAgric - October / December 2018 NEWS BRIEFS

Chinese lured to Lake Tanganyika sardine

Tete province is on the brink of to exporting lake Tanganyika sar-dine to China next year.

Fátima Cinco Reis, the provincial director of fisheries recently told reporters that negotiations are under way

The director said Chinese have expressed an interest to buy both kapenta and tilapia following initial contacts made at the Maputo International Trade Fair (FACIM) in August.

“We are pleased with this intention shown by Chinese business people,” said Cinco Reis.

Kapenta, a species of fish with high commercial value is currently exported to Zambia, Zimbabwe and Congo.

Once the deal is sealed off for kapenta exports to China, the development is expected to generate more income for the fish-ermen on Lake Cahora Bassa and more tax revenue for the gov-ernment.

Cinco Reis further said it was too early to say how much fish would be exported.

Laboratories shortage cripples honey industry

Honey processing facilities shortages in Catapu, Nhamapaza, Gorongosa and Sussundenga areas of Manica and Sofala prov-inces is affecting communities engaged in honey bee farming.

The producers have been forced to raise prices to offset high production costs.

“The greatest challenge facing communities is hygiene during the production process, which ultimately influences the retail price,” said Moisés Kakuno, a honey specialist at Local Economic Development Agency.

With honey production being delicate, processing is the key phase of the business chain, where certification takes place.

Kakuno however notes that for communities who do not have enough funds to build quality laboratories, dependence on the private sector is inevitable since community alone cannot com-plete the honey production chain.

The problems of the local honey industry emerged during a tour of Sofala province that brought together more than 30 peasants, beekeepers and managers of community lodges from the prov-inces of Zambézia and Cabo Delegado, as well as a team from the National Directorate of Forestry.

Despite the problems, the point of confluence for the areas af-fected is that producers should use better hives and improve hy-

giene techniques to meet demand for quality honey.

Machel’s dream agriculture project revived

Government has revived the country’s favourite agricultural proj-ect Chipembe irrigation, after 30 years on halt.

Located in the district of Balama, south of Cabo Delgado, the Chipembe project irrigating about 2,000 hectares of land, and has been revived after three decades of neglect.

After rehabilitating the dam’s floodgates, which had recently been capable of storing only about 25,000 cubic metres of water, or half the amount originally envisaged,

The development comes after government signed a memoran-dum of understanding with Plexus, the only company that ex-ports cotton from the province.

The concession of 600 hectares to the private sector has reac-tivated the irrigation system, hopefully securing further invest-ment in agriculture and accomplishing the first president Samora Machel’s dream of increasing food production and feeding the people.

Xai-Xain vegetable processing centre opens

African Development Bank (ADB) has sponsored a vegetable processing centre (CEPHOL) in Xai-Xain capital of the southern province of Gaza to the tune of over 3.175 million US dollars.

Armando Ussivane, the chairperson of the Lower Limpopo Irriga-tion Company (RBL) said the new processing centre is part of the Lower Limpopo Irrigation and Climate Resilience Project.

Ussivane said the development is intended to encourage farmers to increase production and productivity, to boost food security and to promote agro-processing.

Built on an embankment designed to resist any future floods in the Limpopo Valley, the area is half a metre above the maxi-mum level reached by the waters during the enormous Limpopo floods of 2000.

“This centre has been set up in an area of three hectares, where it is possible to install greenhouses in the future, to produce seed-lings, and demonstration fields for crop varieties,” said Ussivane.

CEPHOL buys from local farmers a range of vegetables, fruits, root crops and beans, which it then processes – it washes, selects, calibrates, packages, stores and conserves the crops.

Ussivane said CEPHOL is expected to contribute to vegetable production, linking farmers to the markets, reducing post-harvest losses through good conservation techniques, and ensuring that vegetables are available on the market throughout the year.

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MozAgric - October / December 2018COVER STORY

Shortage of foot and mouth disease vaccines has potential to worsen outbreak of the epidemic in Tete province.

With over 2,700 head of cattle having been infected since the outbreak was announced in the district of Doa last November,

authorities have remained on high alert.

Claudio Gule, the Head of Livestock Department in the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Food Security said the first cases of the illness were detected along the border with Malawi in the districts of Doa, Moatize, Tsangano, and Angonia.

“Being a highly contagious disease it spread rapidly to the districts of Marara, Changara, and the city of Tete,” said Gule.

Though there is no cure to the illness, vaccination is an effective way authorities are using to prevent the spread of the disease.

Sharing notes on its characteristics, Gule indicated that foot and mouth is a virus that causes mouth sores, particularly on the tongue, and in lesions in the inter-digital spaces in cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs.

“We are working on a comprehensive programme to raise awareness among livestock breeders and the population in general to take the relevant measures to safeguard the health of the 300,000 animals in our care,” said Gule.

Although foot and mouth disease is rarely fatal to adult animals, those infected are often killed to halt the spread of the disease, since it permanently reduces milk production, and restricts the growth of animals

(and hence the meat they can produce).

One of the measures already imposed is a total ban on the movement of cattle, goats, sheep and pigs to and from much of the three affected provinces: Tete, Nampula, and Gaza. Meat products from animals in these areas cannot be moved.

In addition, the inspection of animals, particularly of the mouth cavity, is now demanded on a weekly or fortnightly basis (depending on the districts) and the results must be reported to the National Veterinary Directorate (DINAV).

Authorities have said that any animals allowed for transfer from the other districts in the country must receive a clinical inspection before they are moved, and must be identified individually.

Meanwhile animals being transferred to different destinations must not be moved in the same vehicle, and vehicles carrying livestock must be sealed.

Gule stressed the importance of sensitising the population due to the difficulty of monitoring and imposing the restrictions.

“It is a complicated task because the breeders and traders need to make money and talk of preventative measures is unwelcome.”

However, the provincial government is inspecting the movement of animals with the support of the police, the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development, and district authorities.

FMD cripple Tete livestock breeding

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MozAgric - October / December 2018 LOCAL NEWS

Compac has launched Sizer Simulator a unique simulation that enables fruit and vegetable pack-houses to upskill operators and prepares for incoming fresh produce batches.

The tool creates a digital replica of the existing packhouse infrastructure allowing optimization of machine set-up and processes in a virtual environment.

According to Compac the new tool known as a ‘digital twin’ comes from the aerospace and energy industries.

Sizer Simulator also enables users to optimize packing efficiency by extracting maximum performance from existing equipment.

“Nothing like the Sizer Simulator currently exists in the fresh produce sorting industry. The Sizer Simulator eliminates the risks of tweaking software on a live production run, empowering operators to experiment with settings until they’ve truly optimized equipment performance.

In an industry where success depends on the ability to manage margins, this provides a unique competitive advantage,” said Gopi Ravi, Product Manager at Compac,

Compac provides integrated post-harvest solutions and services to the global fresh produce industry using the world’s most advanced grading technology.

Combining industry leading solutions with award-winning grading platforms like Spectrim, the company’s mission is to enable its customers to improve returns, gain operational efficiencies, and ensure a safe food supply via smart, usable technologies.

Compac is a member of the TOMRA Group that was founded on innovation in 1972 that began with design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers.

Compac offer packaging

efficiency for fresh producers

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MozAgric - October / December 2018GENERAL NEWS

The country has reduced the number of people vulnerable to food insecurity from 50 percent to 24 percent in the last ten years, ministry of agriculture has announced. This is despite challenges the country continues facing in the sector.

“However, we are aware that more needs to be done,” said the Minister of Agriculture Higino de Marrule.

“Despite this progress there are still challenges related to access to nutritious food and resilience to climate shocks that have huge impact on food production at both local and international levels,” the minister added.

Authorities have vowed to continue improving the country’s levels of food security, the minister said government has been promoting policies oriented to rural areas in order to boost the role of women in particular

and farmers in general.

Meanwhile President Filipe Nyusi has launched a new national water supply programme, known as Pravida (Water for Life Programme), which has an investment of $80 million.

Pravida is intended to rehabilitate and expand water systems in towns and cities across the country, including the capital Maputo, Beira, Pemba, Nacala, and Cuamba where taps are turned off every other day as climate change exacerbates the drought in southern Africa.

The President Nyusi said the programme will be implemented with funds from state budget.

Luanched in Mueda where there has been a chronic shortage of water for many years, due to the complex hydro-geology of the region, the project is expected to prop up agriculture.

Food insecurity gap narrows

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MozAgric - October / December 2018 GENERAL NEWS

Agribusiness companies recently attended the 1st Investment Forum for Nutrition in Africa (NAIF) in Kenya to showcase local farming industry’s appetite for investors.

The delegation included five small and medium enterprises that were selected to attract investment to Mozambique.

Katia Santos Dias, Global Alliance for Improving Nutrition (GAIN) country director said more than 100 companies wanted to go to NAIF.

“We could not take them all, but we want to demonstrate that investing in nutrition has several advantages, namely providing more nutritious food in the medium and long term and making it more accessible to the consumer,” Dias said.

Most companies in the agribusiness are looking for $100,000-$250,000 worth of investment.

“Access to finance in Mozambique is very complicated for SMEs, especially if they are based outside Maputo and other the decision making centres,” Dias said.

GAIN is a Swiss multinational organisation that mobilises public and private funds through partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Canadian and Dutch governments, and British and US development aid agencies, among others.

The initiative, launched in 2002 by the United Nations aims to improve nutrition by intervening throughout the food chain, from producer to consumer.

According to Dias, one of the aspects that most distinguishes GAIN is the way it values the private sector.

After launching the so-called Nutritive Food Market, which has invested more than three million Euros to improve the productive capacity of 23 food companies over four years, other projects are now coming down the pipeline.

GAIN is also working with the Mozambican Ministry of Health to implement a pilot project to improve nutrition in the labour force.

GAIN help SME lure investors to nutrition food

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MozAgric - October / December 2018GENERAL NEWS

China-Africa Development Fund’s largest rice farm at Gaza has brought the modern agriculture to the local market.

Wanbao rice farm is a comprehensive business that incorporates plantation, storage, processing and sales, aims to develop 20,000

hectares of farmland, and will lead farmers in surrounding areas to grow crops over another 80,000 hectares.

The ‘company plus farmer’ cooperation model that is already leading some farmers toward prosperity is the cornerstone of Wanbao rice farm.

Through this model, farmers themselves are trying to maximize their profits by hard work and skills training provided by the Chinese.

“I benefited from the rice technology transfer program, and learned to produce rice using Chinese technologies on one hectare of land,” said Matilde Filomone Mariquele, a mother of five children, born and raised in the same area where the project is developing agricultural activities.

“Wanbao provides seeds, herbicides and fertilizers. The company also did land leveling, water pumping and provided infrastructure and maintenance service,” she said.

After the company deducted the initial costs of production, the remainder profits are for keeps.

“With the money, I have improved a lot my life. I have built my house and my children are going to school,” she said.

Meanwhile, 62-year-old Antonio Manuel is now even teaching other farmers how to grow rice as he is heavily involved in the project by cultivating crops over 40 hectares.

“I have an old tractor that I used, but with Wanbao I learned how to use modern tractors. My old tractor and non-mechanized methods produced only 1.5 tonnes of rice per hectare in the past. However, with modern tractors, the yields rise to as much as 8 tonnes, which is unbelievable!” Antonio said.

“Thanks to the project, both my children and grandchildren are living a stable life. Now I go to the fields to support the other farmers with teaching. In the future, I hope Wanbao will extend the growing areas to other corners of the country to help fight poverty,” Antonio adds.

Gaza benefit from China-Africa rice project

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MozAgric - October / December 2018

Filomena Alfredo Xandlala is a farmer in the Chongoene District near Magula. Her community was devastated by record-breaking floods in 2000. Families were cut off from aid and many residents died.

For her part, Xandlala lost the entirety of her rice crop, and seeing no way to rebound, decided to abandon farming altogether. In the years that followed, she lived from hand to mouth, subsisting on nothing more than the support of an emergency aid program.

Fortunately, Xandlala, a grandmother to 18 children, learned of an opportunity to return to farming and be trained in sustainable agricultural practices.

In this flood-prone region, the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) is investing $15 million, in cooperation with the African Development Bank (AfDB), to bolster crop production and improve the lives of some 8,000 farming families.

By offering training in climate-smart agriculture, new climate-proofed seeds, weatherizing for rural roads and irrigation systems, and localized processing and storage facilities, the project is a model for other parts of Africa.

Xandlala and 479 other farmers enrolled in one of the training programs that teaches them how to grow crops in all seasons, rain or shine. Now she is farming again and says the skills she has learned here – flood irrigation, maintaining water levels, weed control, and applying fertilizers – will improve her yields. She also appreciates the fact that unlike before, she no longer feels like she is farming all by herself.

“This project has taught us a lot about farming and we’re excited about having better harvests. We feel hope for the future,” she said.

Climate change will continue to take a heavy toll on Africa, especially where appropriate adaptation and mitigation plans for agricultural systems are not in place. But Xandlala and her fellow farmers are showing that a more resilient future is not only possible, but already underway.

Source: Climate Investment Funds

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MozAgric - October / December 2018

New efforts to end chronic malnutrition in children have lead to United States through Agency for International Development to launch a study to assess the relationship between aflatoxin exposure and chronic malnutrition.

US government has sponsored the project to the tune of $1.7 million. The studies are to be done at the Nutrition Innovation Lab at Tufts University, Universidade Lúrio, the National Institute of Health (INS), the Association of Nutrition and Food Safety, and the University of Georgia in the United States.

The results of the study will be used by the INS, the Ministry of Health, and others to inform future policy decisions related to nutrition and agriculture.

Agriculture represents 24 percent of the country’s GDP, and 80 percent of the population depends on agricultural as a source of income.

Some of the most commonly cultivated crops, such as maize, cassava, and groundnuts, are easily contaminated by aflatoxin.

Aflatoxins are found in many key staple crops such as maize and groundnuts at levels that are linked to a number of health problems including malnutrition.

Similar studies have found strong associations between aflatoxin exposure and stunted fetal, infant, and child growth, prompting nutrition experts to undertake the study in Mozambique.

Participants for the projects have drawn from districts such as Angoche, Larde, Malema, Meconta, Mecuburi, Mogovolas, Moma, Monapo, Murrupula, and Rapale.

Researchers conduct work on aflatoxin

GENERAL NEWS

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MozAgric - October / December 2018

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MozAgric - October / December 2018

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Elanco Animal Health’s first ‘Shared Value’ project made possible through a $3.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is expected to help increase livestock production.

The project dubbed East Africa Growth Accelerator (EAGA) enables the registration, manufacturing and distribution of affordable, high-quality veterinary products, along with intensive training initiatives for smallholder farmers and channel partners, the company explained.

Elanco believes the project is to provide sustainable development solutions to address food insecurity within East Africa in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

“At the intersection of business value and societal value, we find ‘Shared Value.’ The EAGA project is focused on assisting smallholder farming families in East Africa increase livestock production by providing them with access to high-quality, reliable veterinary medicines and knowledge to combat livestock disease,” said Maria Zampaglione, Elanco One Health and Shared Value advisor.

“As the project leader, I realize how much supporting these farmers reduces hunger and poverty in a sustainable way, improves their income and livelihoods while opening new market segments for Elanco.”

Meanwhile Dr. Moses Gitonga, director of Jesmo Agrovet Ltd a retailer that deals with veterinary and agrochemical products, said EAGA intervention has seen a radical decrease in the fly population, and our dairy cows are now at peace during feeding and milking time.

“Tick-borne diseases are now also very rare, and the fly menace affecting households and livestock is effectively controlled.

“These measures have translated into improved hygiene and livestock production in terms of meat and milk output, significantly impacting the sustainability of our dairy farm and livestock,” said Dr. Gitonga.

Livestock disease remains a significant threat to achieving food security in East Africa, where 25 percent of protein from farm animals currently is lost due to animal illness, in turn reducing the supply of high-quality milk, meat and eggs and creating significant economic losses for farmers.

According to the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization, 34 perecent of the people in East Africa are undernourished.

“We have just 12 short years to achieve the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal, which is about ending hunger by 2030,” said Julie Lawless, Elanco senior director of corporate affairs.

“With global hunger trending up in recent years after a decade of decline, we must increase capability and capacity in developing regions to meet this goal. Supporting smallholder farmers in East Africa is Elanco’s concrete contribution to reduce hunger and poverty in a sustainable way while opening new business growth markets.”

The company’s goal is to enable more than 240,000 dairy and poultry smallholder farmers to access small-sized, quality products by 2020.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grants further helps achieve this goal of improving the lives of smallholder farmers through sustainable livestock production.

Elanco is a global animal health company that develops products and knowledge services to prevent and treat disease in food animals and pets in more than 90 countries.

Gates Foundation spur Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda livestock

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MozAgric - October / December 2018

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Famine Early Warning System Network’s latest focus on Southern Africa has indicated a further increase in staple food prices expected through the lean season

According to the international research body, the lean season has started early across large areas of Southern Africa due to the poor 2018 harvest from prolonged dry spells during the second half of the 2017/18 rainy season.

The report says most poor households in affected areas, including parts of Malawi, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Lesotho, are already experiencing crisis outcomes.

“Many households in conflict-affected parts of DRC are also in crisis. In the absence of humanitarian assistance, these outcomes will persist through January 2019, and more households are expected to face crisis outcomes,” reads part of the report.

The report further says due to limited staple supplies in some markets and earlier than normal demand for staple food purchases, prices continue to increase.

“Maize grain prices in parts of Malawi and northern parts of Mozambique are 11 percent and 32 percent above the five-year average, respectively. DRC, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho have also reported increases in maize grain prices.”

The staple food prices will likely continue to increase through the lean season when most households are expected to exhaust their harvest.

“Households have started land preparation activities for the 2018/19 agriculture season. In a typical year, poor households earn income through land preparation activities to purchase food from markets.”

However, this year these opportunities are anticipated to be below average in most countries as better-off households were also affected by the poor harvest and subsequently face increased difficulty paying laborers.

In addition, the forecast weak El Niño is expected to negatively impact the start of the season, lowering agriculture activities through the projection period.

“Overall, poor households will have lower than normal ability to purchase staple foods, and crisis outcomes are expected.”

Poor 2018 harvest hits Southern Africa nations

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MozAgric - October / December 2018NEW TECHNOLOGY & TRENDS

Munyaradzi Makoni*

Garlic, oranges, chillies and sex pheromones are among the potentially viable natural control measures that could be used against fall armyworm, according to a study.

Researchers have identified a number of pesticides derived from natural materials such as animals, plants, bacteria, and certain minerals – also known as biopesticides – that are safe, sustainable and effective against the fall armyworm in Africa.

Fall armyworm is devastating crops across the continent. Last year, Ghanaian farmers experienced an estimated 45 per cent loss and in Zambia there was 40 per cent loss from the destructive pest.

The annual total production loss was 8.5 to 21 million tonnes, valued at US$250 – US$630 million, says a UK’s Department for International Development commissioned study.

Center for Agriculture Bioscience International (CABI, the parent organisation of SciDev.Net) experts in a study identified 50 such products registered in 30 countries globally and selected 23 which included for safety assessment and accessibility to farmers.

“Biological pesticides are safer to humans and the environment than synthetic chemicals.”

Fall armyworm is an important and challenging pest management target in Africa’ so safe, sustainable and effective interventions such as biopesticides are a ‘key component of management strategies’ to consider over chemical controls, says Melanie Bateman, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Applied Entomology this October.

In 2017, the researchers reviewed literature and product labels, profiling active ingredients particularly those in Africa to assess effectiveness of biopesticides against fall armyworm and other armyworms in general.

Analysis of registered pesticides and biopesticides specifically for fall armyworm was conducted in January and February of 2018 in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

In general, biological pesticides are safer to humans and the environment than synthetic chemicals, says Roger Day, programme executive, Action on Invasives at CABI.

“This is particularly important in Africa where farmers often use dangerous chemicals without the necessary safety equipment, due to their resource limitations,” he tells SciDev.Net.

Elizabeth Bandason, insect scientist based at Bunda College of Agriculture, University of Malawi, says that biopesticides are a viable control method compared to chemical control.

“They degrade from the environment at a faster rate than the chemical pesticides,” she says.

However, the potential of biopesticides to curb the fall armyworm menace comes at a price for smallholder farmers, says Jean Baptiste Bahama, crop production and protection officer at the UNs’ Food and Agriculture Organization in Ghana.

The problem is that the purchasing power of farmers is very low, Bahama tells SciDev.Net, and biopesticides can cost more than chemical treatments, and can be slower to act.

“The low prices that smallholder maize farmers receive for their products cannot economically justify their use,” he says.

“Most biopesticides, the ones that are easily accessible to the farmers, may work more slowly than expected, so there is a need to improve the existing biopesticide combinations so that they act faster,” Bandason tells SciDev.Net.

Many countries, international research organisations and biopesticide manufacturers have prioritised the identification of low-risk management options for fall armyworm, says Bateman in a statement.

Supporting governments to discuss registration and policy framework for biopesticides use considering the economic context of smallholder farmers could help, suggests Bahama.

*Munyaradzi Makoni produced this piece for SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.

Garlic, chillies among natural fall armyworm measures

www.moz-agri.com 17

MozAgric - October / December 2018 NEW INDUSTRY TRENDS & TECHNOLOGY

New women empowerment scheme - Women in the Network (WIN) has intentions to address the digital gender divide in the country’s rural settlements.

Financed under USAID’s WomenConnect Challenge, the project proposes to integrate BLUETOWN’s connectivity solutions, experience with connecting the unconnected and LOCAL CLOUD platform with the Gapi proven approach to promote rural women financial participation and entrepreneurship skills development.

The joint project has been selected as one of the winners of the WomenConnect Challenge.

WomenConnect Challenge is a global call by USAID for solutions to meaningfully change how women and girls access technology, to drive positive health, education, and livelihood outcomes for themselves and their families.

“We are very excited and proud to be one of the winners of the WomenConnect Challenge. And have high expectations to this project and our partnership with Gapi,” said Mogens Birk, VP Partnerships & Alliances, BLUETOWN.

Birk said solving the digital divide, including the digital gender divide, requires new models and innovative partnerships.

The partners foresee that integrating Gapi’s existing rural service delivery with BLUETOWN’s connectivity services and LOCAL CLOUD platform will increase adoption and effective usage of digital tools for women in rural communities.

Project developers believe this will help more women into the digital agricultural marketplace and give access to new income-generating activities.

“This is an important step in the recognition and support of Gapi’s rural development strategy.

“We focus on the promotion of women and youth to contribute for a more inclusive development through the rise and advent of startups and small enterprises,” said António Souto, Chief Executive Officer of Gapi-SI

The project will be initiated in the Nampula province next year and partners anticipate a great kick-off to drive meaningful digital adoption, improving rural livelihood.

Project drive women into digital agricultural marketplace

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DAIRY PACKAGING

Polyoak specializes in packaging with impactful decoration for dairy products with bottles for fresh and long life milk, drinking yoghurt, traditional maas and tubs for yoghurt, ice-cream and spreads. It also offers plastic crates.

FOOD PACKAGING

Polyoak's exciting range of food safe packaging with appetizing decoration will get your brand noticed on shelf. Its tubs, bottles, jars and bulk catering packs are ideal for everything from sauces, oils and spices to olives, feta, soft serve mix and more.

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Polyoak's robust industrial range covers drums for chemicals, containers for detergents, buckets and pails for paint, coatings and general purpose. Specialist closures are available to optimize performance and safeguard dangerous contents.

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Polyoak Packaging has regional head offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, along with sales and manufacturing plants in Harare, Windhoek, the Garden Route and in Polokwane, Limpopo and Middelburg. Polyoak's extensive sales and distribution network across Southern Africa, enables it to deliver excellent customer service.

Polyoak Packaging is a true 'one-stop packaging shop'. The service includes packaging design, mould manufacture, testing services, rental of filling equipment and technical support.

Keith Dilkes, Polyoak Export Sales Manager adds, “Polyoak's great strength is being able to offer a “one-stop shop” for our customers in Africa. Our experts can assist with pack design, technical support and machinery for new factories. Furthermore, our manufacturing plants are FSSC 22000 certified for international food safety, to guarantee top quality packaging.”

Polyoak is highly committed to environmental sustainability, with a sharp focus on its people and the communities in which it operates. It prides itself on excellent product quality with international ISO 9001 certification for food safety and quality management. It's packaging is 100% recyclable,

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Cobb_East African Agrinews October 2018 19/09/2018 12:45 Page 1

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