Good nutrition, key to breaking cycle of poverty in Nigeria - SBNN

NaijaAgroNet:

Eradicating malnutrition could increase wages by between 5 and 50 per cent and is a sure way of breaking an inter-generational cycle of poverty in Nigeria, according to Scale Up Nutrition Business Network Nigeria (SBNN), a civil society group, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking in Lagos at a one day symposium organised by Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Ms Ify Ibiso of SUN Business Network added that good nutrition can prevent "child deaths by more than one third per year, improve school attainment by at least one year, reduce poverty as well-nourished children are 33% more likely to escape poverty as adults and empower women to be 10% more likely to run their own business."

She noted that at least 33% of Nigerian children under 5y are stunted, 18% wasted, 2% overweight, while only a paltry 17% of the under-fives are exclusively breastfed.

Ms Ibiso called for improved media awareness and reporting of nutrition,  adding that her organisation is always ready to partner with journalists to not only give proper perspective to the topic but also ensure that nutrition is given adequate attention by all relevant stakeholders. 

She added: "The media is an important ally in any public health situation and in this case focusing on nutrition. It serves the role of Influencers and Investigators and is a source of correct information as well as an advocate for correct health behaviours; but before the media can take on their roles, they need to understand nutrition, the issues surrounding it, and policy and practices, in order to convey the right information.

"The SUN Business Network is willing and ready to partner with the media to improve the nutrition of the Nigerian populace especially for children."

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UN study says digitizing Kenyan farmers' payment helps tackle poverty

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The United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance has concluded a study which showed how agriculture nonprofit organization One Acre Fund in partnership with Citi Inclusive Finance, successfully digitized loan repayments for farmers in Kenya, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This move significantly boosted transparency and efficiency, driving economic opportunity and financial inclusion for thousands of smallholder farmers and their families.

Head, Communication at Better Than Cash Alliance, Angela Corbalan, said the study by One Acre Fund was supported by Citi, and enabled farmers to easily make loan repayments via mobile money instead of cash, reducing the uncertainty, inefficiency, insecurity and high costs previously caused by cash transactions.

NaijaAgroNet reports that with this digitization, One Acre Fund could now reach more farmers with greater reliability, and staff can spend almost half as much time collecting payments in cash, using that extra time to help farmers increase their incomes through training and educational programs.

“With One Acre Fund’s package of services, including training and inputs like seed and fertilizer, the average farmer participating in the program earned nearly 50 per cent more than peer farmers who do not participate,” she said.

In addition, she listed some of the findings to include that there has been increased participant satisfaction due to transparency and convenience; 85 per cent decrease in instances of repayment fraud as well as reduction in processing time for each repayment from 12-16 days to 2-4 days.

“… Farmers now know immediately when their payment is received, eliminating the worry about whether it arrived,” she said.

Further, NaijaAgroNet reports that study found out that Eighty per cent decrease in repayment processing costs, while 46 per cent of time reduced for staff working on collections, allowing for more time helping farmers to improve agricultural practices.

Just as women farmers benefited especially, because they now feel safer about payment deliveries.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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UN stresses need to eradicate poverty

NaijaAgroNet:

In marking the 24th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP), the United Nations has underscored the need to recognize and address the humiliation and exclusion endured by many people living in poverty, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, noted that as the world work together to honour the pledge to build a life of peace, prosperity and dignity for all, the world must recognize that prejudice and discrimination seriously impede efforts.

“To end poverty, we must commit to respect and defend the human rights of all people and end the humiliation and social exclusion that the poor face every day,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that this year marks the first commemoration of IDEP since the launch of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals in January 2016. Recent estimates show that despite significant gains since 2002 – the number of people living below the poverty line dropped by half – 1 in 8 people still live in extreme poverty, including 800 million people who do not have enough to eat.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet gathered that an estimated 2.4 billion people have no access to improved sanitation, 1.1 billion people have no access to electricity and 880 million people live in urban slums. Opportunities continue to remain scarce for the world’s most vulnerable people – 59 million children of primary school age are out of school and the youth unemployment rate is 15 per cent, more than three times the rate of adults.

“With its central pledge to leave no one behind, the historic and ambitious new 2030 Agenda recognises that development will only be sustainable if it is inclusive,” said the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Wu Hongbo.

“We need to change the course of human development from one characterized by exclusion, inequalities, conflict, and unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, to one that is more inclusive, equitable and sustainable,” Hongbo said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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LDRI supports AU efforts to end hunger, poverty, reduce inequality – Nyaggah

NaijaAgroNet:

The Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) has asserted support for the African Union (AU) member states in their efforts to end hunger, poverty and reduce inequality, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Executive Director, LDRI, Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah made this known in Abidjan, Cote D’Iviore in a chat with NaijaAgroNet during a three-day workshop hosted by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in collaboration with World Bank.

He said that LDRI, which commenced operation in 2015, is an action-oriented think-tank whose work contributes to the efforts of African governments to end extreme poverty, end hunger and reduce inequalities.  

According to him, with 65 per cent of Africa’s labour force employed in the agriculture sector with estimation of contributing approximately 30 per cent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), coupled with the increasing need to achieve food sufficiency for some 1.5 billion people by 2020, it is certain that agriculture will be pivotal to achieving these objectives.

LDRI, he said, focuses on the role of agricultural transformation in ending hunger, poverty and inequality especially the capability of states to have and use data/statistics in decision-making on the continent.

The strategic objectives of LDRI for the next four years, Nyaggah said, strengthening the Africa data ecosystem for planning, monitoring and review of interventions to drive agriculture transformation in Africa.

Also, he said, LDRI supports inclusive processes for evidence-driven policy on agriculture transformation in Africa and tend to build capacity of stakeholders to make their data openly accessible to others.

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Cote d’Ivoire reduces poverty rate by 7% - Minister Sangafowa

NaijaAgroNet:

The Honourable Minister in charge of Agriculture in Cote d’Ivoire, Mr. Mamadou Coulibaly Sangafowa has revealed that the country reduced poverty rate by seven per cent in recent times, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Experts at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined poverty rate as the ratio of the number of people in a given age group whose income falls below the poverty line; taken as half the median household income of the total population.

Speaking to group of African journalists drawn from over 20 countries, participating in the on-going weeklong workshop organized by the African Media Initiative (AMI) in collaboration with the World Bank in Abidjan, the Minister made this disclosure.

He also said that women are the bedrock of the successful farming output of the country lately.

According to him, in Cote d’Ivoire, the government has a programme that encourages less government involvement in business and investment, thereby spurring private sector to come in so that businesses and investment, especially in the country could thrive.

Sangafowa, maintained that his country, Cote d’Ivoire has reduced poverty rate from 62 per cent a few years ago to about 55 per cent, even as efforts are geared towards improving on this achievement.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that Cote d'Ivoire is a developing nation in the Sub-Saharan Africa with the income level as ‘Lower middle income’ with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at 2014 stood at $34.25 billion whereas, current population, according to the World Bank is about  22.70 million 2015.

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pix: L-r World Bank Country Director for Cote d'Ivioire, Mr. Pierre Laporte, Agric Minister, Mamadou Sangafowa, CEO, AMI, Eric Chinje and Mr. Sarwat Hussain of WorldBank.

War against hunger: Africa inaugurates Centre for Agric Innovation

NaijaAgroNet:

Hunger and poverty may soon be a thing of history in Africa, courtesy the Green Innovation Center, which was inaugurated at AfricaRice in Benin early this month; NaijaAgroNet reports.

The centre aims to boost agricultural productivity, increase the incomes of smallholder farmers and create job opportunities, particularly for youth and women in African countries namely: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia and Zambia.

The Green Innovation Center is supported by the Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in partnership with other institutions such as Benin Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, and AfricaRice.

BMZ has given 2.7 million euros (almost US$3 million) to AfricaRice to implement the centre’s activities in 2016 and 2017, according to Bernard Marc Winfried, a knowledge management specialist at AfricaRice.

He also said that in Benin the initiative would facilitate the exchange of knowledge and interaction between researchers and development experts in 17 communities, stressing that the centre will strengthen the agricultural innovation system by promoting partnerships and developing an operational framework for innovation.

Minister for BMZ Gerd Müller, said during the inauguration that agriculture does not only need water and fertiliser but also needs knowledge and innovation. 

Banji Boye/ED ops

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pix; center plague

NEPAD warns of food shortage

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has warned of food shortage on the continent, saying Africa is the most prone to food insecurity.

NEPAD revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that Africa needs energy security in order to get out of poverty and achieve food security.

Speaking at a workshop on linking bioenergy and food security in Africa recently, the chief executive officer, NEPAD, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki said transformation in energy generation and services is necessary to achieve food security in Africa.

Also, experts at the workshop agreed that African countries have to progressively move away from the use of fossil fuels and increase the share of renewable energy sources in their total energy mix.

Other energy highlighted by the experts include solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal; that bioenergy would play a major role in the coming decades on the continent.

Prof. Emile Van Zyl of the University of Stellenbosch said Africa has the potential to be a major player alongside Brazil in the biofuels trade if it applies modern technology as Africa produces 606 million litres of biofuels equivalent of 2 per cent of the global trade with South Africa alone accounting for more than half of the total output.

 NaijaAgroNet further gathered that the technical arm of the African Union (AU) Commission, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency has a vision to give 35 per cent of African population access to energy in the next 20 years.

Yinka Awosanya/LS

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