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Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

What you should know about Italian Olive groves - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:


The hillsides between the Italian towns of Assisi and Spoleto (including Assisi, Spello, Foligno, Trevi, Campello sull Clitunno and Spoleto), where olives have been grown since the time of the Etruscans, are now one of the main olive production areas in Umbria and Italy, eports NaijaAgroNet.

The area has been recognized for the ingenuity through which natural resources and human needs have been combined to create livelihoods and mutually sustainable ecosystems. 

Even today, olive groves are cultivated with traditional knowledge and practices including the use of different types of terraces, growing technologies and genetic varieties which have been supported by local communities for many centuries. This area also demonstrates remarkable landscape of olive trees which have been formed by farmers' long term interaction with nature. 

The GIAHS register highlights unique ways that rural communities have over generations farmed in harmony with nature to create mutually sustainable livelihoods and ecosystems, and often produced remarkable landscapes in the process. 

FAO's selection criteria includes that sites be of global importance, have value as a public good in terms of supporting food and livelihood security, agro-biodiversity, knowledge systems, adapted technologies, and culture, and have outstanding landscapes. 

Evidence suggests that GIAHS designation can help conserve valuable elements of the sites while boosting demand and prices for the agricultural products, as well as encouraging tourism and jobs growth. 

The two new additions bring the total number of sites on the list to 52 in 21 countries. 

Other remarkable landscapes already recognized include Hani rice terraces in China, the Massai pastoral system in Kenya and Tanzania, the Ghout oasis system in Algeria, wasabi production in Japan, Spain's salt production in Salinas de Añana, Portugal's agro-sylvo-pastoral system in Barroso, and farmland in Mexico's Chinampas that relies on oral transmission of traditional farming techniques dating back to the Aztec civilization. 


Isaac Oyimah/GEE


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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Hackers invade FAO headquarters

Last Friday, a group of Italian and international hackers literally invaded headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome for a United States (US)- government-sponsored ‘Fishackathon’ reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Fishackathon, NaijaAgroNet reports, was aimed at cooking up high-tech solutions to problems that have long plagued fishing communities around the globe.

The Assistant Director-General of FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Árni M. Mathiesen, said that working in teams in a marathon hacking session, the group of around 30 coders, technology students, developers and designers will be asked to harness FAO data to develop creative mobile applications, systems, and tools to help tackle key challenges facing sustainable fisheries.

Mathiesen also said that these range from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, to overfishing and degradation of fishing grounds, to post harvest losses of catches.

Teams of 2-8 people joined forces to brainstorm solutions that responses to one of nine fisheries-related problem statements to be provided.

On Sunday, FAO experts would judge the submissions and one team will be chosen as the winner.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the exercise now in its third year, the Fishackathon was first launched in 2014 by US Secretary of State John Kerry at the Our Oceans conference is an event taking place in 40 cities around the globe.

The winners of each, including this weekend's Italian edition, will move forward into a global contest whose final outcome will be announced by the US government on June 8 at World Oceans Day 2016.

Last year's Fishackathon winners included a game to teach children about sustainable fishing, an app to help consumers find and eat sustainable seafood, and a reporting tool for marine mammal protection.


Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Italy, FAO to boost food production with 10,000 scientists


NaijaAgroNet:


Three Italian main research institutions are partnering the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help developing countries build stronger agricultural sectors through better research and information, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The institutions, National Research Council (CNR), Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CRA) and National Agency for new technologies, renewable energy and sustainable economic development (ENEA), NaijaAgroNet gathered, would employ over 10,000 scientists in more than 100 research institutes across Italy to tackle global food and agricultural sector challenges, including climate change, degradation of natural resources, and plant and animal pests and diseases - as well as changes in dietary patterns that affect food systems.

Confirming the collaboration, Italian Ambassador to FAO Pierfrancesco Sacco said the agreement marks a turning point in Italy-FAO relations. "In particular, the partnership will help address the growing challenge of bringing sustainability into the food and agricultural systems of developing countries; also in view of future implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals," he said.

As part of Italian’s Ministry of Agriculture, CRA's 1,700 researchers and staff performing advanced research on agriculture, food, fishery, forestry and economics, toppled with more than 100 research institutes and 8,000 CNR’s research staff on areas of research and technological development in Agriculture and Food Sciences, Bio-Medicine, Engineering, Environmental and Social Sciences achieving the set goal is reassured.
FAO Deputy-Director General and Natural Resources Coordinator, Maria Helena Semedo, during the signing event, stated that research plays a crucial role in agricultural and rural development and can unleash tremendous agricultural potential in the developing world.

"Being able to harness the wide ranging expertise of three of Italy's top research bodies will not only help countries better manage their natural resources and food systems but also support FAO's larger mission of eradicating hunger and malnutrition worldwide," she said

NaijaAgroNet learnt that ENEA operates in the fields of energy, environment and new technologies and also employs over 2,600 staff across its 11 research centers.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE
 

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