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Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Orogbu: Why I recommitted to Awba-Ofemili University of Agriculture - NaijaAgroNet

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The member representing Awka North/South in the Federal House of Representatives, Prof. Oby Lilian Orogbu, has explained why she recommitted to the bill for the establishment of the Federal University of Agriculture, Awba-Ofemili, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Orogbu: Why I recommitted to Awba-Ofemili University of Agriculture - NaijaAgroNet
Orogbu in her motion Wednesday in Abuja, called for the recommittal of the Bill to the Committee of the whole to fast-rack it’s passage.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Climate change: Agriculture experts advocates 'smart farming' - ITREALMS

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Agriculture experts have advocated “smart farming practices” to combat climate change, improve productivity and enhance food security in the country.
Climate change: Agriculture experts advocates 'smart farming' - ITREALMS
They noted that if climate change challenges were not nipped in the bud, more than 52 per cent of the country’s agricultural production would be threatened by 2050.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Senator Mustapha advocates for National Summit on Agriculture - NaijaAgroNet

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The Chairman, Senate Committee on Agricultural Production, Services & Rural Development, Senator Saliu Mustapha has advocated for a National Summit on Agriculture, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Senator Mustapha advocates National Summit on Agriculture - NaijaAgroNet
Senator Mustapha, who represents Kwara Central Senatorial zone at the National Assembly, made this declaration at the opening ceremony of a two-day Parliamentary Retreat on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) cum Biennial Review (BR) and Food Systems Transformation in Nigeria on Tuesday at Radisson Blu Ikeja, Lagos.

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Food security: Oyo to partner IITA - ITREALMS

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Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has expressed the readiness of his administration to collaborate with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to ensure food security in the state.
Food security: Oyo to partner IITA - ITREALMS
Governor Makinde stated this on Tuesday, while receiving the Director-General of the IITA and CGIAR Regional Director, Continental Africa, Dr. Simeon Ehui and his team at the Courtesy Room of the Governor’s Office.

Friday, June 23, 2023

Inclusive agriculture for Ugandan refugees - NaijaAgroNet

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Agriculture gives refugees an opportunity to earn a living and make new friends along the way.
Inclusive agriculture for Ugandan refugees - NaijaAgroNet
When Betty Ocira Acayo arrived in northern Uganda with her five children, her first concern was where she and her family would live – followed closely by how she would feed them.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

IWD 2023: Bridging digital gender divide essential for unleashing women’s potential in agriculture - NaijaAgroNet

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The trio of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) have jointly pushed to enhance rural women and girls digital capacity to unleash women's potential in agriculture, reports NaijaAgroNet.
IWD 2023: Bridging digital gender divide essential for unleashing women’s potential in agriculture - NaijaAgroNet
In a joint statement available to NaijaAgroNet, they pledged to tackle the barriers women face to access technology to be equal contributors to our agrifood systems.

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

ActionAid urges immediate creation of Agriculture Emergency Fund - NaijaAgroNet

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ActionAid Nigeria has called for the immediate creation of a separate Agricultural Emergency Fund outside the 2023 budget for agriculture.
Mr Azubike Nwokoye, the Food and Agriculture Programme Manager of the organisation, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

Monday, December 12, 2022

How LAPO is making great impact in Nigerian agriculture - NaijaAgroNet

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Agriculture is deeply woven into the fabric of Nigeria’s history and culture and it remains a central pillar of the economy. A dominant sector in Nigeria, it consistently contributes (specific figure) to Nigeria’s GDP, and accounting for the livelihoods of almost 84 percent of households in rural communities.
However, despite recent gains, the vast majority of farmers practice subsistence farming characterized by lack of modern implements and low yields. Sadly, farming is still largely defined by the poverty of practitioners, rather than its great potentials, although an emerging generation of young farmers are trying to change the narrative of Nigerian agriculture through a focus on new techniques and technology.

Monday, January 21, 2019

Africa must invest in rural development, agriculture for youth sake - NaijaAgroNet

The Africa countries must invest in rural development, and agriculture for youth sake and to checkmate the urban migration, reports NaijaAgroNet

The Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organistion (FAO) José Graziano da Silva said this at the weekend, highlighting the importance of focusing on the troubled areas of the Sahel.

As said by him by investing in rural areas and agriculture is crucial to achieve prosperity in Africa and to guarantee the continent's young people an alternative to migration.

"In Africa, we need to invest in rural development aimed at creating jobs and opportunities for young people to remain in rural areas" he said, stressing "We need youth for modern agriculture."

Speaking at the high level  EU-African Alliance in Agriculture event which is part of this week's Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in Berlin.

He noted that almost half of Africa's population remains extremely poor and food insecure.

Also, Graziano da Silva said that it is critical to channel public and private investments towards the agricultural sector.

Such interventions are particularly important in the Sahel area which is hit by the impacts of conflicts and climate change is very strong. 

Isaac Oyimah/Editor

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Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Agriculture alone can't revive Nigeria's economy, but innovation - NaijaAgroNet

President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Olusola Teniola, has said that mere agricultural revolution cannot revive Nigeria's economy, but innovation reports NaijaAgroNet.

He, therefore called for use of an economy build on innovative technologies which he said, will thrive much better than the old concept of mere agriculture, reports 

Contributing to the discussion at the 2018 WorldStage Economic Summit on the theme “New Sources of Economic Strength to Make the future Happen,” at the Event Centre of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Mr. Teniola maintained that the development of the economy through the old concept of agriculture will not take the country far.

As said by him, for a culture of technology as demonstrated in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, it has become obvious for the promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in the schools.

This, he stressed will aid Nigeria to compete favourably in any area, “it must be up to date in innovation and technology.”

Equally speaking at the event, Mr Soji Adeleye, Chief Executive of Alfe City Institution, underlined the absence of leadership in the country which had resulted to the lack of progress.

For meaningful progress to be achieved, he said the leadership has to be aware of their responsibility to the society, not to just occupy space.

In her contribution, Mrs Oluyinka Omojolaibi, Senior Research Economist, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) was also underlined the importance of government to formulate and implement policies that can move the economy forward.

She said government needed to do more in the area of the provision of infrastructure, machineries, cheap loans for the economy to be productive and competitive.

She said that would be crucial so that made in Nigeria products can be competitive in the local and international market.

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Pix: ATCON president, Teniola

Monday, October 15, 2018

2018 State of Food, Agriculture report for launch - NaijaAgroNet

As part of the World Food Week starting today, Monday, 15 October, the report on State of Food and Agriculture is set for launch, reports NaijaAgroNet.

A series of events, NaijaAgroNet gathered, have been lined up including World Food Day on 16 October to explore the actions needed to put achieving Zero Hunger back on track.  

NaijaAgroNet recalled that World Food Day is marked each year on 16 October to commemorate the founding of FAO in 1945.

A package of multimedia feature stories depicting real people’s actions towards Zero Hunger is available for media use, including accompanying photos and video, and a brochure about the day is available.

The launch of the State of Food and Agriculture report 2018, slated for Sheikh Zayed Centre, FAO.

This year’s edition explores how migration is linked to food security, agriculture and rural development. 

The report will be presented at a press conference with FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Assistant Director-General for Economic and Social Development Kostas Stamoulis.  

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Thursday, May 31, 2018

Greening agriculture vital for environmental protection

The policies governing the agricultural sectors, the use of natural resources, protection and conservation of endangered species, habitats and biodiversity have been identified as needing some alignment for the better protection of the environment and reduce the ecological footprint of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at the farm level, production practices can be implement that not only safeguard biodiversity but also ensure that food producers will be able to sustainably make use of it.

This week's event at FAO,  NaijaAgroNet gathered, will examine real-world examples of how agriculture, fisheries and forestry have been successfully managed to safeguard biodiversity.


A series of working groups involving a wide range of stakeholder will focus on different avenues for advancing biodiversity mainstreaming in agriculture, including global governance; national policies and legislation; financial incentives and investments; and supply chain measures.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Making agriculture work for biodiversity

By incorporating biodiversity as a priority in agriculture chain could yield multiple benefits, says experts at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva made this call for transformative changes on how to produce food, grounded in sustainable agricultural systems capable of producing healthy and nutritious food while simultaneously safeguarding the planet's biodiversity.

"Biodiversity is essential for safeguarding global food security and nutrition, improving rural livelihoods, and enhancing the resilience of people and communities," he said in keynote remarks made at the start of a three day international dialogue (on mainstreaming biodiversity into agricultural policies and practices.

Healthy ecosystems provide a number of key services upon which humankind relies, such as water quality maintenance, nutrient cycling, soil formation and erosion control, and carbon sequestration. And healthy agricultural ecosystems provide the ecological foundations for food production, and the biodiversity of crops and livestock plays a critical role in humankind.

But today planetary biodiversity — genetic diversity at the level of organisms; diversity at the species level; and diversity ecosystem level — faces a number of threats, the FAO Director-General noted.

"The way we are producing our food is a big part of the problem", he said.

"Today, the world still produces food mainly based on the principles of the Green Revolution that started more than 50 years ago, and implies the use of high chemical inputs at a high cost for the environment," according to Graziano da Silva.

Yet he also noted that massive swaths of the Earth's surface are being used to grow food, raise animals, capture and farm fish, or produce forest products. This means that if managed sustainably — with biodiversity as a priority — the agricultural sector can make significant contributions to protecting biodiversity.


This renders promoting and facilitating the mainstreaming of biodiversity across all agricultural sectors "fundamental," FAO's Director-General argued.

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Thursday, April 26, 2018

Agriculture, lifeline for millions of Syrians war victims

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has urged countries attending an international pledging conference for Syria to invest in agriculture as an engine of stabilization and recovery, reports NaijaAgroNet.


FAO Deputy Director-General for Programmes, Daniel Gustafson told NaijaAgroNet in a statement that despite significant setbacks, agriculture continues to sustain almost half of the food supply in Syria, serving as a lifeline for millions vulnerable Syrians.

"This is a powerful testimony of the resilience of the people of Syria and of the agriculture sector,"  "Without additional assistance to the agriculture sector and to resilience programmes in rural areas, food insecurity will continue to rise as well as migration, and stability will remain elusive," he said.   


"We must address the root causes of the vulnerabilities that have contributed to exacerbating the crisis and their impacts. These include in particular the urban-rural gap in poverty and access to social services, escalating water scarcity and climate change which are drivers of massive rural unemployment and migration," Gustafson added. "While everyone recognizes the relevance of the resilience approach in responding to the Syria crisis and the imperative of bridging humanitarian and development interventions, we continue to face major funding shortfalls".

FAO is appealing for $120 million under the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria and has received just one quarter of the total.

The European Union and the United Nations are co-chairing the pledging conference in Brussels (24-25 April) to mobilise humanitarian aid and to garner political support for the UN-led peace process. 

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Wednesday, October 18, 2017

AfDB urges leaders to make agriculture attractive for young Africans

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has urged African leaders to make agriculture attractive for the younger generation, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He was speaking on the occasion of the 2017 World Food Day, AfDB president highlighted how Africa’s food security depends on attracting young people to agriculture and agribusiness. The sector can potentially create wealth and employment for African youth, thereby stemming migration.

World Food Day, celebrated yearly on October 16, promotes worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and the need to ensure food security and nutritious diets for all, which this year’s theme focused on the need to ‘Change the future of migration; Invest in food security and rural development’.

The AfDB’s ENABLE Youth programme, which grooming a crop of young agriculturists, is on course to make this happen.

Mahmud Johnson, 26, is the Founder of J-Palm Liberia which works to improve income for Liberia’s smallholder oil palm farmers by 50-80 per cent. He is also creating additional jobs for over 1,000 young people to work as sales representatives for his products.

“Despite the tremendous odds, we (African youth) are determined to maximize our abundant agricultural resources to create wealth, jobs, and socioeconomic opportunities in our countries and across the continent. We need our stakeholders to view us as serious partners in Africa’s transformation, and to work with us to expand our enterprises,” Mahmud said.

Mahmud and some of his employees have benefited from capacity building programs under the AfDB’s Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment for Youth initiative.

Like Mahmud, many African youth are passionate about staying back on the continent to create wealth and employment, if given the tools and opportunities to put their skills to use. Under the ENABLE Youth program, the Bank is working with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to develop a new generation of young commercial farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs.

“Our goal is to develop 10,000 such young agricultural entrepreneurs per country in the next 10 years. In 2016, the Bank provided US $700 million to support this program in eight countries and we've got requests now from 33 countries,” said Adesina.


The Bank considers investment in agriculture as key to making Africa youths prosperous, thereby stemming the tide of migration.

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Friday, March 17, 2017

Nigeria’s steady progress in agriculture, a potential history

Viewed from the historian’s perspective, a significant advance in a nation’s fortunes can seem to occur almost overnight and be driven by destiny. The reality of course is quite different.  Meaningful change is most often the long-term product of a series of small, connected, deliberate actions whose importance may not be immediately apparent.

One of those low-key events that one day could be endowed with historical significance took place in Nigeria last month, when senior officials from the national government and the African Union Commission, joined by agriculture experts from across the continent, gathered in Abuja to consolidate Nigeria’s National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP). Similar blueprints are being drawn-up across sub-Saharan Africa to ensure countries stay focused on the African Union’s Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and their commitments, re-enforced in the 2014 Malabo Declaration, to place African farmers and agriculture businesses at the center of the continent’s economic development. 

If there is anywhere in Africa where a surge of agriculture investments could change the fortunes of an entire country, it is here. Moreover, success in Nigeria would send a strong signal to the rest of the continent that agriculture offers our most promising path to sustainable and equitable economic growth.

Agriculture’s emergence as Nigeria’s number one economic opportunity comes as falling oil prices are taking their toll on this oil-rich country. Nigeria urgently needs a more stable foundation for providing income and employment for a fast growing population that, by 2050, is likely to be larger than that of the United States.

Agriculture already accounts for 70 per cent of employment in Nigeria, but only 40 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an indicator that the sector is underperforming. Every year, Nigerians still spend billions of dollars on food imports, a huge economic opportunity forfeited to farmers and food companies outside of the country.

Part of the reason for the shortfall is that Nigeria has 84 million hectares of land suitable for farming, but less than half of this  area is planted with crops and most of the farming is accomplished with inefficient, outdated methods and without basic inputs. Irrigation, which is becoming more important as climate change disrupts rainfall patterns across the country, is available on only 220,000 hectares, when there are enough water resources in the country to supply three million.

But if the recent meeting is any indication, agriculture may finally be getting the attention it deserves in Nigeria. Under the leadership of Chief Audu Ogbeh and his predecessor, Dr.  Akinwumi Adesina, who went on to become president of the African Development Bank, over the last few years, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has pushed through several ambitious initiatives.

For example, Nigeria is the world’s largest cassava producer. And there are now a number of new income opportunities for poor smallholder farmers and local agriculture entrepreneurs around producing and processing this hardy root crop. Cassava is now being processed into high quality flour that can be used as a substitute for expensive wheat imports. It’s providing a source of fish feed for Nigeria’s rapidly growing aquaculture industry. Cassava can also provide an industrial starch with surprising usefulness in areas like paperboard and plywood manufacturing.

Similar efforts are underway to bring jobs to rural areas by attracting investments in maize, rice, sorghum and livestock production. For example, the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has generated US$273 million in loans for some 454 projects. They include a new rail-shipping venture that is connecting struggling livestock producers in the north to consumer markets in the south.

Despite the promising progress, agriculture in Nigeria still needs far more investment. For example, a lack of storage and processing options causes many poor farmers to lose nearly half of their harvest to rot or pests.  Also, while fertilizer usage is up and local seed production is rising, many farmers in Nigeria still lack access to improved crop varieties and basic inputs. 

That’s why it’s so critical to develop a new agriculture investment plan that shows Nigeria is committed to ensuring agriculture can flourish as a business. Numerous studies have shown that, along with increasing food security, economic growth driven by the agriculture sector is far more effective at pulling people out of poverty than growth in any other sector.

If Nigeria ultimately realizes its ambitions for agriculture, historians of the future may point to an investment meeting that occurred in Abuja in February of 2017 as the juncture when farming and food production became an engine of opportunity for Nigeria and helped rally similar efforts across the continent. And those falling oil prices that capture the headlines of today? Maybe they will be relegated to a footnote.

*Contributed by Kehinde Makinde is the country lead for Nigeria at the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).


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Pix: Dr. Agnes Kalibata, AGRA president

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

ICT incubation provides sexy part to agriculture

The co-founder and executive partner at LoftyInc Allied Partners, Mr. Michael Oluwagbemi, has identified Information and Communication Technology (ICT) start-up incubation and acceleration in agriculture, as the sexy part needed by the youths in farming, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Oluwagbemi made this known in a recent edition of ICTUpdate Newsletter, saying that ICT start-up incubation and acceleration in agriculture provides a unique opportunity to re-engage African youths across the agriculture value chain.

This, he also said affords the youth to be empowered with technology.

“So, Africa can develop its own technologies fit for purpose and feed her citizens freed from the external dependency,” he said.

Oluwagbemi equally said, this part provides the sexy back in agriculture for the youths which makes the farms potentially the office of the future.

As said by him, the surest path for revenue generation or profitability for any start-up in Africa is to create value.

“Start-ups that add real value to their customers; the farmers and the consumers, become the winners in the market,” he declared.


To do so, he prescribed having a required degree of collaboration with existing players, and leveraging the market channels that traditional players had built but have exploited sub-optimally.

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Pix: Michael Oluwagbemi

Friday, November 18, 2016

Agriculture contributes 20% greenhouse gas emissions

Agriculture has been identified to contribute to close to 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Disclosing this, FAO said, it has become a fundamental part of the solution to boost resilience and combat climate change impacts, especially in developing countries where agriculture is often the backbone of the economy.

Boosting agriculture, FAO said, could reduce malnutrition and poverty, create economic opportunities, and generate faster, fairer growth especially for young people.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva pointed out that sustainable agriculture also improves the management of natural resources such as water; conserves biodiversity and ecosystem services; and increases carbon sequestration while easing the pressures that drive deforestation.

"We have to transform agriculture to make it more productive and more resilient at the same time. This transformation will help to address, at the same time, the triple threat of hunger, poverty and climate change," he said. 


Countries, NaijaAgroNet gathered, are recognizing this potential with unprecedented commitments, hence, FAO harped on scaling up international flows of climate finance and unlocking additional investment in adaptation in agricultural sectors is needed to give traction to the action.

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Friday, October 21, 2016

Agriculture on high agenda @22nd COP in Morocco


Agriculture will be high on the agenda at the forthcoming 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) slated for Morocco starting November 7, 2016, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Revealing this position, the Director-General, FAO, José Graziano da Silva, said in Rome that the year 2016 seems to be a year of commitment, therefore deserves to have more action than ever before.

"2016 should be about putting commitments into action," he said, noting the international community last year agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement, about to come into force.

“Agriculture will be high on the agenda at the 22nd Conference of the Parties in Morocco starting  November 7,” he declared.

The FAO report underscores that success in transforming food and agriculture systems will largely depend on urgently supporting smallholders in adapting to climate change.

Developing countries are home to around half a billion smallholder farm families who produce food and other agricultural products in greatly varying agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. Solutions have to be tailored to those conditions; there is no one-size-fits-all fix.


The FAO report describes alternative, economically viable ways of helping smallholders to adapt and making the livelihoods of rural populations — often the most exposed to the downside risks of climate change - more resilient.

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Thursday, October 20, 2016

Don’t under-rate contribution of agriculture to greenhouse

The role of agriculture cannot be over-emphasised in efforts to curb the greenhouse gas emissions, says the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Director-General, FAO, José Graziano da Silva while presenting the report of the State of Food and Agriculture 2016, said that agriculture, including forestry, fisheries and livestock production, generate around a fifth of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture, he said, must both contribute more to combating climate change while bracing to overcome its impacts.

"There is no doubt climate change affects food security. What climate change does is to bring back uncertainties from the time we were all hunter gatherers. We cannot assure any more that we will have the harvest we have planted," he said.

As said by him, the uncertainty also translates into volatile food prices, noting "Everybody is paying for that, not only those suffering from droughts," warning that "business as usual" approach could put millions more people at risk of hunger compared to a future without climate change.

Most affected, he said, would be populations in poor areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, especially those who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Future food security in many countries will worsen if no action is taken today.

He pointed out that overhauling farming and food systems will be complex due to the vast number of stakeholders involved, the multiplicity of farming and food processing systems, and differences in ecosystems. Yet, efforts must begin in earnest now as the adverse impacts of climate change will only worsen with time, the report emphasizes.


"The benefits of adaptation outweigh the costs of inaction by very wide margins," Graziano da Silva said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 
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Pix: Graziano da Silva