Rapper Akon lights up two more African nations with solar power.

Rapper Akon lights up two more African nations with solar power.The Senegalese-American artist Akon is looking skywards to splash his cash by investing in solar power projects across Africa. The rapper added The Gambia and Cape Verde to his Akon Lighting Africa initiative this weekend, a fund that already helps populations who struggle to connect to limited or absent national grids in 25 African countries. The Gambian village of Sareh Pateh, population 4,000, turned on solar street lights for the first time on Sunday night, along with power for a mosque and a pharmacy. Akon, real name Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, spent part of his childhood in a Senegalese village without electricity before settling in the United States. In Cape Verde on Saturday the musician met with Economy Minister Jose Goncalves and said he considered the poor but stable island nation to be his next investment prospect.The African Renewable Energy Initiative, launched at the Paris COP21 summit in 2015, aims to bring large-scale projects to the continent. source

How greenhouses are boosting property sales.

Agriculture is the new currency with every industry trying a slice for size. Agriculture and real estate is a fantastic merger that provides food, shelter,employment and business partnership. Agriculture and real estate see. Greenhouses are a new twist to the investment plan,the construction of greenhouses, which is the farming model being taken up by property companies is becoming an opportunity of recovering the invested capital within a year while the land is appreciating ahead of reselling. Denko Properties Consultant Gilbert Yator said more youths than before are interested in purchasing land for prospective reasons. But the inclusion of agribusiness incentives like a greenhouse is making the deal sweater as it adds value to the property. For instance, Denko Properties sells a plot in Juja, Kiambu County, at Sh630,000. The purchaser adds Sh295,000 more for the installation of the greenhouse, which is managed by the property company to generate at least a half a million shillings per year. “This investment targets the young enterprising generation that has not decided to settle, but want to invest in property for resale after appreciation of the prices. An opportunity to make an extra coin from the agribusiness without physically working in the greenhouse is contributing to the surge in this investment,” Yator said. The company has property in Kiambu, Kajiado, Nairobi, among other cosmopolitan counties and towns. After paying the extra Sh295,000, the company does all the production work until marketing, while the owner waits for the agreed money. This is perfect for the working class, who cannot be at the farm all through. Yator said the value addition, which has been adopted by many property companies, has increased the speed of selling of land by more than three times because of the recovery and turn-over rate. more

Bagging bananas to quicken maturity by two weeks.

A new research has shown that farmers, who cover banana bunches with perforated polythene bags, will quicken the maturity of the fruit by up to two weeks due to the conducive micro-climate that is created. The perforated polythene covers speed up the maturity time by between five days. The cover, which runs from the first hand to the tip, creates a micro-climate of high temperatures of an average of 0.5 degrees Celsius per 24 hours. On warmer days the ‘greenhouse’ effect micro-climate can reach 7 degrees Celsius. The cover leads to increased bunch weight due to optimum photosynthesis and reduced pests attack. The cover is placed from the base of the bunch and tied at the top, right at the scar of the first bract. Early bagging helps in preventing thrips from attacking the banana. In Central Kenya, a few farmers are adopting the method by improvisation using the common yellow polythene bags for shopping. The inner linings of synthetic fertiliser bags can also work in covering the banana hands individually or as a whole bunch. The research says thick bags increase and maintain temperatures faster and for long. Transparent covers allow in more than 90 per cent of the light required to photosynthesis while 73 per cent of the energy required in the food making process is at 73. Organic farmers around the world using this method to quicken maturity of the bananas impregnate the equipment with garlic and pepper solution to reduce thrips attack. source

How irrigation boosts banana yield by 30%.

Farmers, who regularly irrigate bananas, can boot the weight of the fruit by more than 30 per cent. More than 90 per cent of famers in Kenya- especially in Nyanza and Central regions- do not know bananas have to be irrigated like other horticultural crops for high yields. That is why some of the biggest bananas only reach 50kg to 80kg- depending on the rains. Naomi Wahu, who had a banana weighing about 110kg during a farmers’ event in Thika in February 2017, said reduced soil moisture affects food conversion in the crop for maximum weight. A plantlet requires at least 40 liters of water after planting. But as it grows, 20 litres of water must be added to the sucker until maturity,” Wahu, who is a field officer at the Aberdare Technologies Limited said. In the absence of rains, the banana sucker must get 40 to 60 litres of water every week. However, Wahu warned that excess water encourages rotting of the roots due to clogging. Bananas have broad leaves, with some spreading to more than two mitres. The leaves offer a large surface area for the loss of water through transpiration. This water, therefore, must be recovered via irrigation in absence of rain.more

Digital pen technology reports disease fast. and prevent outbreaks.

Livestock farmers in the country can now breathe a sigh of relief after the introduction of a digital pen technology used by veterinary officers to immediately report to the capital about any disease outbreak within ten seconds. The innovative tool which reports about an outbreak to the capital in ten seconds is aimed at saving millions of shillings worth of livestock which are lost due to longer periods of over three weeks that manual processes take hence making it difficult to contain an outbreak in time. The old trend has greatly been revolutionized with the Digital Pen Technology which reports about an outbreak to the capital in the shortest time span. The technology entails use of a digital pen, digital paper and an internet enabled phone. The digital paper has commands that are interlinked with the pen. It has a start and end command boxes. When one ticks the start box then the Bluetooth in the pen is activated and the pen will note anything that will be written on the paper using the camera on it and when the end box is clicked then the information is automatically stored in the pen’s memory chip. The veterinary officer just writes on the digital pare normally and then the details are recorded simultaneously by the camera on the pen to the memory chip. According to Dr. Kahariri,one of the brains behind the innovation noted, the technology is better than smart phones and gives users ample time to note the details. “Field workers and veterinarians cannot take time punching in information on a phone, trying to find the small keys on a touch screen that might be impossible to see in the bright sunlight. A digital pen, however, has a miniature infrared camera that records writing as the pen passes over paper sending the data wirelessly using Bluetooth technology to a cell phone and then onward to a central server.” The pen can store 40 forms on its’ memory chip. Once the information has been sent to the capital for analysis the platform also allows editing and adding more data on a similar report earlier keyed in. The innovative technology was first initiated by the United Nations agricultural agency; Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Since the introduction the technology, Dr. Kahariri noted that they have been able to detect and contain some of the fatal animal diseases on time and therefore improving their relations with the pastoralist communities. The digital pen technology can locate the exact position of the outbreak through GPS as the technology locates both longitude and latitude of the place. The use of the digital pen technology will help increase productivity by reducing endemic animal diseases that lower productivity but also lower zoonotic disease transmissions that threaten small-scale livestock producers in poor countries as well as human health in all countries. source

Gates, Dangote float new funding window for healthcare delivery in Kano, Yobe.

As part of its global humanitarian activities, Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, in partnership with Dangote Foundation, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the governments Kano and Yobe states. The aim is to boost primary health care delivery in the two states. The signing of the agreement which was witnessed by a large collection of major stakeholders various countries, was a follow up to earlier agreement entered into by the two Foundations and governments of the two states. Under the new agreement, the management of the Foundations will be partnering governments of each of the two states to float a funding basket to be used in financing Primary HealthCare Delivery in rural areas of the two states. more

Dangote to set up powder milk factory.

The Dangote Group of companies is to set up a multi-billion-shilling powder milk plant in Kenya. The conglomerate is looking at possibilities of exploiting the rich Kenyan dairy sector and the precise position, to set up a factory that would process dry milk for the Nigerian market, according to group vice-president Sani Dangote. “We will process the milk and have it shipped to Nigeria: We are first commencing with a full study to understand the value chain of the Kenyan dairy market and to evaluate the costs involved in running a full plant.” Mr Dangote said that the Nigerian market relied on a beverage company that imports in excess of 4,000 tonnes of powder milk annually. The company imports an estimated Sh1 billion worth of milk, which was still insufficient, he said. Mr Dangote said there was minimal local production of milk in the country, hence the increase in consumption of powder milk.source Mr Aliko Dangote, says 98 per cent of all dairy products consumed in the country are imported. He said that the nation was at the risk of hunger in the next few years if the mass food importation was not checked. “Ninety-eight per cent of all the milk and dairy products we consume in Nigeria are imported. “This is why Dangote Group has planned to develop dairy plants, and develop homegrown milk production, to reduce importation. more