Africa

The Zimbabwe government recently withdrew a tobacco tax less than a week after its introduction. The 10% tax on tobacco was imposed on 31 March and scrapped on 5 April.

Bruce Moffat, a great-great-great grandson of Zimbabwe's earliest white missionary, Robert Moffat, has won a protracted court battle over the ownership of a farm the Moffats have worked since 1910.

The 5th Commercial Farm Africa summit in Tanzania brought together industry professionals from all over the continent to share insights into transforming Africa’s agricultural value chain.

A joint venture between Schweppes Zimbabwe and a government parastatal, which invested US$3 million (R45m) in a fruit-processing plant near the capital Harare last year, is to spend an additional US$10 million (R150m) on another beneficiation facility in southern Zimbabwe.

The Ugandan minister of agriculture, animal industries and fisheries, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, has issued a warning about fall armyworm infestations in that country.

The slaughtering of fewer broilers and the production of fewer eggs had resulted in the decrease of poultry production in Zimbabwe in 2016. This was according to an industry report.

Tobacco processor, British American Tobacco (BAT) Zimbabwe, reported a 45% drop in its bottom line for the year ended 31 December 2016.

A €820 000 (about R11,3 million) mushroom project is set to create 5 500 jobs for the youth and persons with disabilities in Ghana.

Uganda’s government recently announced that at least 10 million Ugandans were in need of food aid after the drought affected crop harvests, according to media reports.

The International Red Locust Control Organisation for Central and Southern Africa (IRLCO-CSA) needs R13,5 million (K10 million) for the spraying of red locusts in Zambia in an effort to manage the pest and prevent swarms until September 2017.

More than 300 global leaders and youth agripreneurs will attend the MasterCard Foundation’s second Young Africa Works Summit on 16-17 February in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Zimbabwean government compensated 12 white former commercial farmers in 2016, and registered only five 99-year leases for resettled growers over the past 17 years.