IFAD supports G20 initiatives to promote nutritious foods - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The Group of Twenty (G20) Ministers of Agriculture Meeting was recently supported by the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to increase the sustainable production of nutritious foods, reports NaijaAgroNet.

President, IFAD, Gilbert F. Houngbo, said that sustainably feeding a growing population will take collective action and IFAD stands ready to partner with the G20 to achieve this.

Also, Houngbo said “With small family farms supplying up to 80 per cent of the food produced in developing countries, it has never been more critical to invest in these farmers, providing the tools for them to better manage their land and ensure the health and productivity of their soil in the face of a changing climate.”

While the main theme of the meeting is sustainable soil management, the group will also discuss a proposal by Argentina to boost rural youth employment through access to technology and engagement with the private sector through global events.

A study by IFAD and the World Bank for the G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting last year describes how, with youth abandoning rural areas because of lack of decent employment opportunities, the future of agriculture is at stake.

"At IFAD we believe young people today – the largest population the world as ever seen – are central to our work in transforming rural communities and eradicating poverty and hunger,” said Houngbo. “If we are to foster a generation of ‘agripreneurs’ we must answer their call for better access to the resources they need to grow our rural areas into vibrant places that can feed generations to come.”

Since he took office last year, IFAD has prioritized youth-centric development across all of its programmes and projects to provide training and support to create rural employment and enterprise options that are appropriate for young people, in both the farm and the non-farm sector.

Another important focus of the Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting is the G20's contribution to reduce the estimated one third of all food that is lost or wasted.

"Food loss and waste constitute is a luxury humanity cannot afford. I salute the G20's efforts to tackle this problem," Houngbo said. "IFAD supports small-scale farmers to improve their ability to process and store their crops thereby minimizing food loss. IFAD stands ready to offer its expertise to help mitigate this phenomenon.”

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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

Adopt Forest and Land-use policies to alleviate global hunger – IUFRO

NaijaAgroNet

International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), at a United Nations Forum on Forests in New York, called on countries with big forest-dependent population to adopt national policies and land-use strategies that support the planting of multi-functional trees to provide food, timber, fuel wood, medicine and a host of environmental services that could access safe nutritious food for all, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The Union, NaijaAgroNet gathered, estimates that some 805 million people – one in nine citizens of Earth – are undernourished, primarily in Africa and Asia. At the same time, between 1.2 and 1.5 billion people worldwide depend on forests for all or most of their diet and livelihood.  

Stepha Mcmullin, social scientist and member of the Union report’s Authors, also concurred that forests and tree-based farming systems such as agroforestry can complement agricultural production to ensure greater food security and better nutrition for some of the world's most vulnerable communities.

“If you're familiar with shade-grown coffee, then you have an idea of what agroforestry is all about. By planting fruit trees and other useful species, selectively weeding and otherwise managing the forests as intensively as any farmer might tend their fields and rotate their crops; people all over the world have created gardens that resemble natural forests in many ways, including providing suitable habitat for a diverse array of flora and fauna.” He said.

McMullin who, NaijaAgroNet gathered, advocated that forests and tree-based systems also benefit people indirectly, sited an instance in the Sahel region of Africa, noting that by planting trees, poor farmers have turned millions of acres of what had become semi-desert by the 1980s into more productive land, where trees now account for 80 per cent of average household incomes in the region, largely through shea-nut production.

Coordinator of IUFRO’s Global Forest Expert Panels initiative, Christoph Wildburger, told NaijaAgroNet that tree-based farming can help prevent climate change calamities, which is also a threat, not just to the productivity of agroforests but to conventional agricultural operations, as well.

“Large-scale crop production is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, which may occur more frequently under climate change. Science shows that tree-based farming can adapt far more better to such calamities. We know that forest already play a key role in mitigating the effects of climate change. It should also be made very clear that they also play a key role in alleviating hunger and improving nutrition.” He said.

Ultimately, lack of community control over forests and, of course, deforestation could limit the abilities of forests to enhance food security. Forest management in most countries is fragmented across different governmental agencies and administrative jurisdictions.

Daniel Nsolibe /Ed, Ops.

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

Nutricima's Mega Cash promo debuts to reward consumers

NaijaAgroNet:

Beginning from Monday, January 13 through April 14, 2014, customers of Nutricima Limited, the makers of Coast, Nunu, Olympic milk and other nutritious food drinks, will be rewarded under the latest initiative, ‘Nutricima Mega Cash Promo’ reports NaijaAgroNet.

The promo, which was launched in Lagos, NaijaAgroNet confirms is aimed at rewarding new and existing consumers of Nutricima’s range of milk products.

Head of Marketing, Nutricima, Wande Oluwasegunfunmi, disclosed to NaijaAgroNet that consumers stand chances of winning millions of Naira and numerous gifts after purchasing any of Coast evaporated milk, Olympic evaporated milk and family pack of Nunu powdered milk, which has the promo label.

He explained to NaijaAgroNet that under the label, consumers could find a unique six (6) digit code and Serial Code number, which is to be sent to a dedicated phone number 08093377802. 

According to him, the sender then gets an auto response which informs the consumer about what he or she has won.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that some of the instant prizes to be won in the Mega Cash Promo include N50 airtime e-top-up for thousands of consumers, cash prizes of N500, N1,000, N5,000 and N10,000 each.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet recalls that apart from the instant prizes, consumers could also qualify for a monthly raffle draw where they have the opportunity to win between N50,000 and N1million.

Isaac Oyimah

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology