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Farm & Livestock News Africa

Independent Agriculture Reporting

Silent Killer on the Riverbank: Anthrax Outbreak Grips Zambia's Muchinga Province

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Silent Killer on the Riverbank: Anthrax Outbreak Grips Zambia's Muchinga Province

A wave of unexplained animal deaths along the Munyamadzi River has turned into one of Zambia's most closely watched health emergencies of the year. With hippos, elephants and buffalo dying in the dozens — and a dozen villagers now infected after eating bushmeat — authorities are racing to contain a disease that has stalked this corner of Africa for over a century.

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Silent Killer on the Riverbank: Anthrax Outbreak Grips Zambia's Muchinga Province

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The Solar Freezers Fighting Africa's 40% Post-Harvest Food Loss

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Africa's $210 Billion Livestock Question: Why the Continent Still Imports What It Could Produce

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Silent Killer on the Riverbank: Anthrax Outbreak Grips Zambia's Muchinga Province

livestock_farming

Silent Killer on the Riverbank: Anthrax Outbreak Grips Zambia's Muchinga Province

A wave of unexplained animal deaths along the Munyamadzi River has turned into one of Zambia's most closely watched health emergencies of the year. With hippos, elephants and buffalo dying in the dozens — and a dozen villagers now infected after eating bushmeat — authorities are racing to contain a disease that has stalked this corner of Africa for over a century.

Staff Writer • Sep 16, 2026

The Solar Freezers Fighting Africa's 40% Post-Harvest Food Loss

technology_innovation

The Solar Freezers Fighting Africa's 40% Post-Harvest Food Loss

Investors are betting big on solar freezers and biodigesters as Africa loses up to 40% of harvests before they reach market. Here's why the money moved.

Staff Writer • Sep 10, 2026

Africa's $210 Billion Livestock Question: Why the Continent Still Imports What It Could Produce

livestock_farming

Africa's $210 Billion Livestock Question: Why the Continent Still Imports What It Could Produce

Africa's livestock sector generates over $210bn a year, yet the continent imports much of its meat and milk. Nigeria and AU-IBAR are betting big on change.

Staff Writer • Sep 10, 2026

From Skies to Soil: How AI and Drones Are Transforming Farming Across Africa

technology_innovation

From Skies to Soil: How AI and Drones Are Transforming Farming Across Africa

Drones diagnose sick crops in hours, not weeks, and AI chatbots now speak to farmers in local languages. Inside Africa's fast-moving agritech boom.

Staff Writer • Sep 10, 2026

The Envelope That Could Replace a Truckload: Inside Kenya's Quiet Potato Seed Revolution

crop_production

The Envelope That Could Replace a Truckload: Inside Kenya's Quiet Potato Seed Revolution

For as long as anyone can remember, growing potatoes has meant hauling tonnes of bulky, disease-prone seed tubers from farm to farm. In Kenya, a Dutch agtech company has spent years proving there's another way — one where a season's planting material fits in an envelope instead of a truck. More than 200 Kenyan farmers are now growing potatoes from true seed instead of tubers, and the rest of Africa is watching closely.

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

Flour Got Fortified. Cooking Oil and Sugar Are Still Waiting — Africa's Uneven Fortification Progress

nutrition

Flour Got Fortified. Cooking Oil and Sugar Are Still Waiting — Africa's Uneven Fortification Progress

Micronutrient deficiencies affect an estimated 2 billion people globally, with sub-Saharan Africa carrying a disproportionate share of the burden — iron, vitamin A, iodine, zinc, calcium, selenium, folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies remain widespread across the region. Large-scale food fortification, the practice of adding these micronutrients to commonly consumed, industrially processed foods, has long been considered one of the most cost-effective tools available to address the problem at a population level

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

The Invisible Toxin in Africa's Maize and Groundnuts — And the Farm-Level Fix Now Spreading Across West Africa

nutrition

The Invisible Toxin in Africa's Maize and Groundnuts — And the Farm-Level Fix Now Spreading Across West Africa

It cannot be seen, smelled or tasted, yet it may be one of the biggest hidden threats to food safety and child nutrition across Africa. Aflatoxin — a toxic compound produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus — contaminates maize and groundnuts at both the pre-harvest and post-harvest stages, and is classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and capable of causing developmental harm, with particularly severe consequences for young children's growth and immune function.

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

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Africa's Tractor Market Is Racing Toward $3.5 Billion — And Some of It Is Going Electric

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Africa's Tractor Market Is Racing Toward $3.5 Billion — And Some of It Is Going Electric

Africa's agricultural tractor market is projected to grow from roughly $1.8 billion in 2026 to as much as $3.54 billion by 2035, an annual growth rate of nearly 8 percent, according to industry market analysis. A separate assessment puts the current tractor and machinery market at $2.58 billion in 2026, rising to $3.26 billion by 2031

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

Forget Big Tractors: Why Africa's Mechanization Push Is Betting on Small Machines and Young Entrepreneurs

equipment_mechanisation

Forget Big Tractors: Why Africa's Mechanization Push Is Betting on Small Machines and Young Entrepreneurs

When policymakers, private sector actors and youth representatives gathered in Dar es Salaam in February 2026 for the first Africa Regional Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization, the consensus that emerged ran counter to decades of conventional mechanization thinking: the future of African farm machinery isn't more large tractors distributed through government subsidy schemes

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

One Startup Is Now Watching Over 50 Million Trees From the Sky — Welcome to Africa's Precision Farming Moment

technology_innovation

One Startup Is Now Watching Over 50 Million Trees From the Sky — Welcome to Africa's Precision Farming Moment

South African agritech company Aerobotics now monitors more than 50 million individual trees across 18 countries using drone-captured imagery and artificial intelligence, tracking everything from pest infestations to irrigation stress on a tree-by-tree basis for fruit farmers who, a decade ago, would have relied entirely on manual scouting and guesswork. It's one of the clearest signs that precision agriculture

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

African Agritech Funding Crashed to $200,000 in January. Five Months Later, It Was a Different Story

technology_innovation

African Agritech Funding Crashed to $200,000 in January. Five Months Later, It Was a Different Story

African agritech startups raised a combined total of just $200,000 in January 2026 — not million, thousand — according to funding data tracked for the FINAS 2026 conference in Nairobi. It was, by most measures, the lowest single month for the sector in years

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

No Dead Animals, No Claims Adjuster: How Satellite Insurance Is Protecting Pastoralist Herds

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No Dead Animals, No Claims Adjuster: How Satellite Insurance Is Protecting Pastoralist Herds

For pastoralist communities across the Horn of Africa, drought has traditionally meant one brutal, binary outcome: herds survive, or they don't. Losing a herd to failed rains doesn't just wipe out an asset — it erases savings, collateral and the entire economic foundation of a household in a single dry season. Index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) was designed to break that binary by paying out before animals start dying, not after.

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

Africa's Average Dairy Cow Produces 6% of an OECD Cow's Milk — Closing That Gap Is Now the Big Livestock Story

livestock_farming

Africa's Average Dairy Cow Produces 6% of an OECD Cow's Milk — Closing That Gap Is Now the Big Livestock Story

An average African dairy cow produces just 6 percent of the annual milk yield of a cow in an OECD country, according to figures presented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at the Africa Food Systems Forum

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

Cassava, Sorghum and Millet Are Leaving the Village Field for the City Bakery Shelf

crop_production

Cassava, Sorghum and Millet Are Leaving the Village Field for the City Bakery Shelf

Inside a growing number of bakeries across African cities, wheat is losing ground on the shelf. Loaves, cakes and pastries made from cassava, millet and sorghum flour are showing up alongside — and in some cases replacing

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

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Kenya's "Green Gold" Rush: Avocado Output Set to Hit a Record 727,000 Tonnes

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Kenya's "Green Gold" Rush: Avocado Output Set to Hit a Record 727,000 Tonnes

Kenya's avocado industry is on course for another record year, with production forecast to climb 4.8 percent in 2026 to approximately 727,000 tonnes, according to the latest US Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service assessment out of Nairobi.

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

Rwanda's $4.76 Billion Bet on Turning Farming Into an Industry

agribusiness

Rwanda's $4.76 Billion Bet on Turning Farming Into an Industry

Rwanda has put a price tag on its next phase of agricultural transformation: roughly 7 trillion Rwandan francs, or about $4.76 billion, the estimated cost of implementing the country's fifth Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation, known as PSTA-5.

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

East Africa's Smallest Agribusinesses Just Got a $49 Million Lifeline

agribusiness

East Africa's Smallest Agribusinesses Just Got a $49 Million Lifeline

Agricultural development financier AgDevCo has secured a first close of roughly $49 million for AgDevCo Ventures, a new early-stage investment vehicle designed to plug one of African agribusiness's most persistent funding gaps:

Staff Writer • Aug 29, 2026

The "Uber for Tractors" Reshaping How 2 Million African Farmers Access Machinery

equipment_mechanisation

The "Uber for Tractors" Reshaping How 2 Million African Farmers Access Machinery

Sub-Saharan Africa averages fewer than two tractors per 1,000 hectares of farmland, compared with more than 200 tractors per 1,000 hectares across the United States and Europe

Staff Writer • Aug 18, 2026

Zimbabwe Gets Its First Iron-Rich Pearl Millet — A Small Grain With a Big Nutrition Target

nutrition

Zimbabwe Gets Its First Iron-Rich Pearl Millet — A Small Grain With a Big Nutrition Target

Researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics have released the first-ever biofortified pearl millet varieties specifically bred for Zimbabwe and the wider East and Southern Africa region. The two new varieties, named Iniadi Composite 1501 and ICMP 177003, carry naturally elevated levels of iron and zinc

Staff Writer • Aug 18, 2026

Tunisia Just Lifted Its Drone Ban — But Only for Farmers

technology_innovation

Tunisia Just Lifted Its Drone Ban — But Only for Farmers

For years, Tunisian civilians faced a blanket ban on operating drones, imposed for national security reasons. That changed on December 4, 2025, when Tunisia's Parliament approved a measure in its 2026 Finance Bill specifically authorizing farmers to import and use drones for agricultural purposes —

Staff Writer • Aug 18, 2026

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