World Bank donates $74 million to help poor Zimbabwean farmers

October 15th, 2009 NEW YORK - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $9.7 million grant for poor farmers in India as part of a $120 million programme for the uplift of agriculture in endemically poor regions of the world. "Melinda and I believe that helping the poorest small-holder farmers grow more crops and get them to market is the world's single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty," Gates said in Des Moines, Iowa, announcing the new programme.

October 12th, 2009 RAIPUR - The Chhattisgarh government Monday started procuring paddy at the minimum support price from about one million farmers. The procurement will continue till Jan 31, 2010 and farmers will get Rs.950 per quintal for common grade paddy and Rs.980 per quintal for grade-A.

October 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has bagged a World Bank project worth over Rs.10 million to train agricultural researchers to boost eco-friendly farm productivity. IGNOU's School of Agriculture has got a research grant of Rs.1.04 crore to undertake the prestigious project on 'Innovations in Technology Mediated Learning', varsity spokesman Ravi Mohan said Tuesday.

September 9th, 2009 LUCKNOW - A bank manager was held captive for nearly 12 hours in his office by farmers in an Uttar Pradesh village for allegedly demanding a bribe to issue their Kisan Credit Card (KCC), police said Wednesday. Angry farmers in Barsera village in Bareilly district Tuesday barged inside the office of a Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch manager.

August 3rd, 2009 HYDERABAD - Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Monday said he would not go back on his plans to introduce cooperative farming in the state.

June 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON/SEOUL - Most developing economies will slip into recession this year amid a global financial crisis that has prompted wealthy investors to pull their money out of projects for the poor, the World Bank warned Monday. The developing world will grow 1.2 percent this year after growing 5.9 percent in 2008.

June 12th, 2009 $50M in stimulus will help fish farmers buy feedOSAGE BEACH, Mo. — The United States is about to spend $50 million in stimulus money on fish food to help fish farmers who have been struggling since feed prices jumped 50 percent last year.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - With a $20 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation contribution, the World Bank will establish an Agriculture Finance Support Facility to support the expansion of rural finance in the developing world including India. In a time of tight credit, the Facility will support grants to bank and non-bank institutions for activities to increase access to financial services, such as savings, credit, payments and insurance, in rural areas in developing countries as profitable business lines, the bank announced Monday.

June 7th, 2009 LUCKNOW - The World Bank has given its nod to a whopping Rs.1,332 crore (Rs.13.32 billion) soft loan for reclamation of sodic land in Uttar Pradesh - a move that will help an estimated 250,000 farmers. Making the announcement at a press conference here Sunday, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said, "The scheme would help reclaim a huge chunk of about 130,000 hectares of sodic land in the state." The scheme, an extension of two previous phases of a similar exercise undertaken in the state, will benefit an estimated 250,000 farmers, he said.

May 12th, 2009 Roche donates over 5M packs of anti-viral to WHOBASEL, Switzerland — Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche Holding AG said Tuesday it is donating 5.65 million packets of Tamiflu, one of two anti-viral drugs known to be effective against swine flu, to the World Health Organization. Roche said 5 million packets will be used to replenish stockpiles that were depleted when WHO sent previously donated supplies to poor countries after the appearance of a new type of swine flu, dubbed A(H1N1).

May 11th, 2009 AMRITSAR - In a clear move to counter the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) show of strength in Ludhiana Sunday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Monday addressed an election rally here, during which they said the BJP and the Akalis ruling the state had 'done nothing for farmers'. Campaigning for Congress candidate Om Prakash Soni against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in this Sikh holy city, Manmohan Singh and Gandhi said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has made farmers' welfare its main focus for the last five years.

May 6th, 2009 Judge frees Zimbabwean rights activistHARARE, Zimbabwe — A judge has ordered Zimbabwean rights activist Jestina Mukoko and 14 others freed on bail, reversing her decision of a day earlier that sparked outrage among rights activists and politicians in this country and abroad. Harare Magistrate Catherine Chimanda gave no reason for her retreat, issued at a hastily called court hearing Wednesday.

April 26th, 2009 World Bank: Nations should speed aid to poorWASHINGTON — The World Bank on Sunday urged donor nations to speed up delivery of the money they've already pledged — and to give even more — to help poor countries weather the steep global recession. The bank said developing countries face especially serious consequences as the financial and economic crisis turns into what it described as a "human and development calamity." In a communique, the World Bank's policy steering committee said the crisis has already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty, particularly women and children.

February 1st, 2009 HARARE - Zimbabwe's central bank slashed another 12 zeroes off the country's worthless currency Monday, shrinking 1 trillion Zimbabwe dollars into a single Zimbabwe dollar. The move by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono comes just six months after he lobbed ten zeroes off the money in August last year.

January 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The World Bank Tuesday announced $444 million aid to Orissa for infrastructure development and rural livelihood projects. The bank has signed an agreement in this regard with the state government.