Riyadh wants ports, minerals, food and influence. East African governments want the capital NEWS ANALYSIS | IAN KATUSIIME | In late January, a delegation of Saudi Arabian investors and officials arrived in Port Lamu, Kenya, with an eye on one of East Africa’s most ambitious infrastructure projects. Led …
Read More »Russia is cutting off Ukraine’s grain exports again
Here is why the latest chokehold could threaten a critical harvest and global food security COMMENT | IRYNA SKUBII | While the world’s attention is fixated on the US blockade of Iranian ports and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Russia has been subjecting Ukraine to a blockade …
Read More »Gov’t shifts Karamoja food relief distribution to UPDF, prisons
Kampala, Uganda | URN | Emergency food relief for drought-hit communities in Karamoja will now be distributed by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Uganda Prisons Service after President Yoweri Museveni directed the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to stop relying on private contractors for the exercise. …
Read More »Africa turns digital to protect crops and boost exports
The latest phase builds on previous rounds of implementation in 2023 and 2025, which trained plant health officials from 20 African countries NEWS ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | African governments are scaling up efforts to modernise plant health systems, expanding a digital surveillance programme to 38 countries in …
Read More »Uganda urged to bridge research-to-farm gap as AGRA marks 20 years of agricultural transformation
Two decades of progress provide a platform for Uganda’s next agricultural leap Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Uganda must do more to ensure agricultural innovations developed by scientists reach farmers if the country is to translate its vast agricultural potential into higher incomes, jobs and food security, stakeholders …
Read More »AGRA gets World Food Prize Foundation award for advancing Africa’s food systems transformation
Nairobi, Kenya | NEWS CORRESPONDENT | Pan-African institution AGRA has been awarded the Norman E. Borlaug Medallion by the World Food Prize Foundation, in recognition of the institution’s two decades of contribution to advancing food systems transformation across the continent. Since 2006, AGRA has worked with its partners, …
Read More »Africa’s food future does not depend on land alone, but also on its waters
OPINION | ABEBE HAILE-GABRIEL & MANUEL BARANGE | Across Africa, demand for aquatic foods is increasing as population grows. Yet, supply is struggling to keep the pace. This matters because aquatic foods are not a niche product in Africa. They are an important source of food, livelihoods and trade. According to …
Read More »Meals turn into health hazards, early graves for Ugandans
Kampala, Uganda | URN | Food once meant to nourish and sustain households is now, in many homes, increasingly linked to sickness, chronic illness, and even death. The Food Rights Alliance and partner organizations warn that unsafe food has become a silent public health crisis, with contaminated meals sending an estimated …
Read More »How unsafe food became normal in Uganda
The dangerous everyday habits behind the country’s growing food safety crisis Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | The young man making your morning Rolex barely notices the cloth anymore. Darkened by grease, flour, charcoal dust, and countless washes and rinses, it hangs from the side of the stall …
Read More »WHO: Children under five face highest risk from unsafe food
Kampala, Uganda | URN | Children aged less than five years face almost three times the risk of illness from unsafe food than older children and adults, according to new estimates released by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite being just 9% of the global population, young children suffer from …
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