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Showing posts with label Sub-Sahara Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sub-Sahara Africa. Show all posts

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Save Africa from hunger -IITA boss

Sanginga, IITA Director General

The Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga, has urged world leaders not to relent their efforts towards the fight against food insecurity in Africa.
Sanginga expressed the institution’s gratitude over the improvements recorded in agricultural productivity in the past affirming that there are still more to be done as regards food security in the continent.
He noted that efforts should be doubled due to the spiraling growth rate of the continent’s population and the degrading soil which does not work towards improving agricultural productivity.
IITA revealed to NaijaAgroNet that the Sub-Saharan Africa’s population growth rate is 2.4 per cent, a rate which is high compared to 1.3 per cent of non-African countries.
“Clearly there is much work to be done in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Dr. Sanginga emphasised that food security attainment is huge with increasing challenge and increase in total production which is at the expense of natural resource base.
According to the IITA boss, there is the need to adopt sustainable intensification of agricultural production practices to conserve and recycle soil nutrient which will in turn reduce the need to clear new land for agricultural use.
Approaches to concentrate on towards addressing the issue of food insecurity, Dr. Sanginga said should include increase in agricultural productivity, food availability and its safety.
He stressed that the agriculture sector’s overall performance must all be increased against the growing urban population, uncertain effects of climate change, increased in demand for energy as well as disease pandemics.
He also commended the renewed attention to agriculture by leaders in the continent which is producing positive results, and urged for more commitment of resources to the sector, and that IITA is always ready to partner with any organisation towards improving lives of Africans.
IITA, one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty has several awards for using research for development (R4D) in addressing the developmental needs of tropical countries, and had since inception worked with partners to improve crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture.


Yinka Awosanya
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Friday, August 10, 2012

Solar empowerment for Nigerian women

Women @ the Training Workshop

          The need to empower Nigerian women, especially in the area of technical know-how for solar lanterns and mobile phone chargers as shown by Solar Jooce and partners, is an encouraging initiative that deserves commendation and support, writes REMMY NWEKE.
When you educate a woman, you educate a nation,” those were probably the words of the elders, which have continued to be relevant now and in the future.

The above quote has become a mantra of sort for women advocacy groups and even some men right activists, women in many countries have been often than not classified as bulk of every population, yet women comprise the largest marginalized group in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank’s statistical analysis on African gender programmes.
In spite of the fact that the economic empowerment for women has formed topics of discussion at various women economic programmes and also as a Millennium Development Goal (MDG), remain unresolved to a large extent.
DigitalSENSE News recalls that recently during this year’s Women and Girls in ICT Day, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun I. TourĂ© emphasized on ITU Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 of 2010, which instituted fourth Thursday of April annually to be Women and Girls ICT Day.
He noted that women are the bedrock of the societies and pillars of strength in every family as well as the community. Yet, gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched. Pointing out that women and girls are denied access to basic health care and education and equal opportunities at work. 
 
Additionally, Dr. Toure said, women face segregation in economic, political and social decision-making and often suffer violence and discrimination, declaring that this situation is unacceptable and must be addressed with all the means available to ITU, including technologies.
Thus experts at renewableenergyworld.com, classified renewable energy technologies to include solar, wind power, geothermal, bio-energy, hydro-power, ocean, hydrogen and fuel cells alongside other supportive energy systems.
Obviously in line with such a call by ITU boss, the management of Solar Jooce Nigeria, recently entered into a deal with the British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) to empower women with practical training on solar devices.
In an interview with the project coordinator for Solar Jooce, Anne Agbakoba, said in Lagos that Solar Jooce is a social enterprise dedicated to improving the quality of life of rural communities in Nigeria that have little or no access to electricity.

She also said that the recently concluded first phase of training of some rural Oyo women, who received training on how to repair basic solar lanterns and phone charging units.

She pointed out that this follows the sealing of the deal to train these rural women in Oyo State between the Executive Director, BATN Foundation, Mr. Gbenga Ibikunle and the chief executive officer, Solar Jooce, Mr. David Agbakoba.

The Solar Jooce boss, Mr. Agbakoba was quoted as saying that of the world’s 1.6 billion people living without electricity, 80 per cent live in Sub Saharan Africa.
Women @ the Training Workshop

Agbakoba, revealed to DigitalSENSE News that the main objective of the agreement in its pilot stage was to train an initial 20 rural ladies to become solar technicians and to help them set up solar micro-business.

This, she said, has kicked-off with the training which covers four local governments in Oyo State, namely Itesiwaju, Kajola, Oyo West, and Iseyin. The exercise, she said, is meant to empower the ladies to light up their communities and spread the use of solar as an alternative to dangerous and expensive fossil fuelled lighting such as the kerosene lamps.

She also confirmed to DigitalSENSE News that the initiative would be moved to other states across the federation with the collaboration of British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, an independent charitable organization incorporated in Nigeria with the vision to improve the quality of life of citizens in rural and urban in Nigeria.

Equally, she explained that the initiative entails a marketing and financial management training entitled ‘Growing your new solar Micro-business’ which was conducted in Yoruba by Mrs. Yemi Owolabi, executive director, Finance of Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria.

Head Trainer at the session and a Kenyan, Mr. Momanyi Oreri said he was delighted to have come to Nigeria under an Africa-Africa co-operation. He was amazed by how fast the rural women - illiterate, semi literate and literate; grasped the concept of diodes, resistors among others and were able to produce lanterns in four weeks.

One of the lady trainees, Mrs. Musiliu Olaitan, fondly called ‘Alhaja-Jesu’ because she recently converted from Islam to Christianity, said she was an illiterate but the training had given her the confidence to feel like a literate, that is to say, she could now do the impossible, and an opportunity to start a lucrative solar micro-business.

The Solar Jooce women’s empowerment initiative, DigitalSENSE News gathered, is a small step in the frightening task of providing a clean, alternative source of electricity, alleviating poverty, and providing opportunities for rural families in Nigeria.

Also, DigitalSENSE News recalls that the training workshop supported by the Hertz Corporation, C & I Leasing (transport & logistics), Sesema PR and the Bishop of Ajayi Crowther Diocese, Bishop O. O. Oduntan, is the first phase of the initiative, which consist of massive awareness creation about the use and benefits of solar applications through the donation of combined solar lantern and phone charging unit to a community in the 36 states of the country.

Ms Agbakoba further revealed that the second phase has been structured to be a long-term capacity building scheme to train women in the assembling and troubleshooting solar applications in order for them to be able to start their own small solar trade with its first pilot in June 2012.

As we look forward to the second, which is likely to produce another round of at least, 20 rural women participant at the end, it’s important that the organization gets support to deliver on its promise of taking the project across all the six geo-zones in the country.

If nothing else, these women should be encouraged by at least patronage from their communities of the lanterns assembled by them and given the opportunity to fix them when at fault. That way, they may not only be improving on their technical expertise of the solar tools, but have the courage to employ other women in their communities with adequate empowerment.


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Thursday, May 31, 2012

FAO develops online portal to unlock food potentials


Thermal zones (baseline period: 1961-1990)

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) with the partnership of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) recently developed an online data portal in order to help unlock the planet's potential on food.
The data portal, NaijaAgroNet learnt is named Global Agro-ecological Zones (GAEZ) Portal and developed in order to assist in unlocking the planet's potential to feed the rapidly growing population.
The United Nations' agency affirmed that there is need to increase the global food production to 60 per cent by 2050 as the world population is expected to rise above 9 billion.
FAO revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that the portal is a planning tool designed specially to help identify areas of increased global food production while maintaining natural resource base and facing the challenge of climate change.
FAO identified water scarcity as one of the limiting factor for area expansion that intensification of food production occurs within a changing climate, thereby requiring adaptation and mitigation.
Director of FAO's Land and Water Division, Parviz Koohafkan said GAEZ would help identify where there are ‘bridgeable yield gaps' and what causes them, allowing for the formulation of appropriate investment policies with the provision of appropriate support for farmers to help boost food production.
FAO recent study revealed that crop production by small farmers can run as low as 30 to 40 per cent of potential in some areas in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The study also made known that the Sub-Sahara Africa is the region with the highest yielding gap in cereal. Africa as a whole also recorded about 1.2 tones of cereal per hectare compared to an average yield of some 3 tons per hectare in the developing world as a whole.
The online data seeks to enhance planners' and decision makers' capacity to estimate agricultural production potentials and variability under different environmental and management scenarios, including climatic conditions, management regimes, water availability and levels of inputs.
Yinka Awosanya/LS
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology