Countries collaborate against rogue fishing

NaijaAgroNet

 

Many countries have indicated interest to join in the fight against rogue fishing which is estimated to have shed about $23billion (N4.58trillion) from the global economy, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The growing number of countries ratifying the international agreement to combat unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is fueling interest on how best to implement the instrument.

The agreement, NaijaAgroNet gathered, will begin operational once 25 countries deposit their instrument of ratification, known as acceptance of accession. As of now, 12 countries have done so, the latest being Iceland in June while two more states will soon join them.

According to the terms of the agreement, NaijaAgroNet learnt, fishermen, port authorities, coast guards and navies will be able to collaborate to strengthen inspections and control procedures at ports and on vessels. It also allows states to prevent the landings of catches derived from IUU fishing by vessels regardless of the flag they fly.

The Chief of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO's) Development Law Service, Blaise Kuemlangan said, "The Agreement aims to harmonize port controls in order to prevent illegally caught fish from ever entering international markets through ports. The ability to turn away vessels taking part in IUU fishing will greatly reduce opportunities for selling their catch, decreasing IUU fishing worldwide."

FAO Representative in Cabo Verde, Remi Nono Womdim, on his part said, "Fighting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a key priority along the Atlantic coast of Africa, where IUU fishing contributes to overfishing, creating negative effects for the economies of these countries,"

"Many countries in the region have the will to address IUU fishing, but require the most cost-effective tools and an understanding about how these can be implemented at the legal, policy and institutional level," said Womdim.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
 
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Prep-eez Tech partners World Bank on 24/7 free call e-extension

The Chief Executive Office, Prep-eez Tech Limited, Mr Kow Sam, has said the company is partnering the World Bank and the West Africa Agricultural Production Programme on piloting the e-Agriculture and extension programme, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He also revealed to NaijaAgroNet that they are up-scaling services to cover the entire Ghana in the next couple of months, covering over 11 languages and also executing similar projects in Nigeria, La Cote D'Ivoire and other West African countries.

The programme, he told NaijaAgroNet is to expand a free multi-lingual interactive voice response system and audio conferencing and free messaging services across the region.

As said by him, the service has currently attracted over 40,000 active subscribers and an average daily usage of 2,000 accessing each day on their standard mobile phone with languages, including Twi, Ga, Ewe, Nzema, Dagbani and Frafra.

"The company is also building a multi-lingual call-centre that is toll-free at the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agricultural (MoFA) resource centre," he said, stressing that this would allow direct access to information in real time from subject matter specialist as well as experts to farmers through standard phones at zero cost to the farmer.

In addition, Sam said three e-resource centres are being established in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale to help build ICT agricultural resource, where MoFA staff, extension officers, women and youth in agriculture would learn to build business plans, research and experimentation, cash flow and productivity and performance analysis for effective output.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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