Farmers, backbone for food, nutrition security – Gornass

NaijaAgroNet:

The Chairperson of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), Ambassador Amira Gornass has described farmers as the backbone of any efforts for food and nutrition security, report NaijaAgroNet.

Ambassador Gornass gave this description in her video message to the opening ceremony of the 2016 General Assembly of the World Farmers Organisation (WFO) holding in Livingstone, Zambia on the theme, Partnership for Growth.

“Farmers are the backbone of any efforts for food and nutrition security” she declared.

Gornass who also is the Permanent Representative of the Sudan to FAO noted that the role of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of food security and nutrition (VGGT) cannot be over-emphasised.

She pointed out that the guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security in 2012 serves as a reference to improve the governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests with the overarching goal of achieving food security for all and supporting the progressive realization of the right to adequate food.

“An effective implementation of this instrument will be achieved only if also farmers will advocate for the application of the guidelines at the country level,” she said.

WFC, Gornass said, should never forget that according the recently released figures, in the middle of the 21st century, 793 million is still going to bed hungry.

“The challenges to ensure their rights to adequate food are huge,” she said, maintaining that farmers are the most powerful solution to global hunger and malnutrition.

“Farmers are responsible for providing the food we all need,” she said, encourage adequate management of farm lands.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix: Ambassador Amira Gornass

Agriculture most vulnerable to climate change----Expert

 NaijaAgroNet

 

The Senior Programme Specialist, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Edith Ofwona said agriculture which is the backbone of African continent is the sector mostly affected by climate change, NaijaAgroNet reports.

“The biggest challenge,” she disclosed “is how to work with communities not only to cope with short-term impacts but actually to be able to adapt and be resilient over time. We should come up with practical solutions that are affordable and built on the knowledge that communities have.”

Ofwonaro, NaijaAgroNet gathered, took this position at the international scientific conference on ‘Our Common Future under Climate Change’ which was held recently in Paris, which marks commencement of programmes to usher in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), also to be held in Paris in six months’ time, to pave the way for a global agreement to keep the rise in the earth’s temperature under 2°C.

Experts said temperature rise on the continent will likely exceed 2°C by 2100 with land temperatures rising faster than the global land average. Scientific assessments, NaijaAgroNet learnt, agree that Africa will also face more climate changes in the future, with extreme weather events increasing in terms of frequency, intensity and duration.

“Most sub-Saharan countries have high levels of climate vulnerability,” said an independent specialist and one of the lead authors of the 5^th Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), South Africa, Penny Urquhart, “Over the years, people became good at adapting to those changes but what we are seeing is increasing risks associated with climate change as this becomes more and more pressing.

He said data monitoring systems are still poor and sparse over the region, “we do know there is an increase in temperature,” she stated adding  that if the global average temperature increases by 2°C by the end of the century, this will be experienced as if it had increased by 4°C in Southern Africa, stated Urquhart.

According to the South African expert, vulnerability to climate variation is very context-specific and depends on people’s exposure to the impacts, so it is hard to estimate the number of people affected by global warming on the continent.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

 
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Family farming, organizational model to overcome food crisis - WFO

NaijaAgroNet:

The family farm represents the backbone of agriculture all over the world according to the World Farmers' Organisation (OMA-WFO) during an intervention at the conference tagged "Family farming: A dialogue towards more sustainable and resilient farming in Europe and the world," reports NaijaAgroNet.

The forum was sponsored by the European Commission which was held in Brussels within the context of the "International Year of Family Farming."

Luis Miguel Etchevehere, WFO Board Member, Marco Marzano de Marinis, WFO Executive Director and Cinzia Pagni, represented WFO jointly reaffirmed to NaijaAgroNet the active role of the organization in the framework of the global initiative of the United Nations scheduled for the year 2014.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that with FAO and other organizations such as the World Rural Forum, WFO actively participation in the International Steering Committee for the International Year of Family Farming, the aim of achieving the goals set by the UN. 

Family farming, NaijaAgroNet reports, plays an important role among the nearly 60 members of the WFO coming from 44 different countries.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that in some countries, such as Belgium, Ghana, Norway and Sweden, family farming represents the quasi entirety of the agricultural sector, while in others, such as Switzerland, United Kingdom (UK), Finland, Ireland, Uganda, Australia constitutes 95 per cent of the agricultural production.

Globally, WFO says, family farming represents the principal organizational model in agriculture.

Family farming, therefore, represents an important opportunity for the economy; some countries already implemented policies to support family farming, while in other countries more work needs to be done. 

In addition, NaijaAgroNet learnt that among WFO members, the UK, Finland and Switzerland have highlighted the need for measures to enhance competitiveness and reduce the dependency from the European funds of the CAP for example. On the other hand, some countries are asking for more funds directed to specific countries, such as Albania, South Africa and Ghana, or better access to credit, such as Uganda.

According to WFO’s Cinzia Pagni, they are aware of the difficulties faced by family farmers, namely the limited access to credit, marginal position in the value chain, lack of infrastructure, limited access to information, and a marginalized role in international fora and development agendas, hence “WFO considers the 2014 International Year of Family Farming as an excellent opportunity to reposition family farming on the top of national, regional, and international development agendas.”

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology