COP28 targets triple renewables by 2030 - NaijaAgroNet

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Communiqué from G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Energy, Climate and Environment calls on IRENA to track the group’s collective contribution to COP28’s global target to triple renewables by 2030

The G7 leaders tasked the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to track and monitor the group’s collective contribution toward the global renewable tripling target by 2030. The target was established by the UAE Consensus last November at COP28, aligning global climate ambitions with IRENA’s 1.5°C pathway, mapped out by the Agency’s World Energy Transitions Outlook.

Zero hunger by 2030 is still possible

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food andAgriculture Organisation (FAO) has reiterated determination that the zero hunger by 2030 is still very possible, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Although the prevalence of hunger has increased in some parts of the region, the 2030 goal is still within reach. But more investment will be needed to improve food systems across the region, a call also repeated at the opening of the regional symposium.

"Good nutrition depends on raising awareness about healthy foods and choices, as well as efficient, affordable and sustainable systems to deliver that food," said Kundhavi Kadiresan, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. "If we are to reach the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger in this region, we must invest to improve our food systems and pool our knowledge and resources to meet our current food and nutrition challenges head on."

The symposium is an integral component of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025, which seeks to increase investments and actions to improve people's diets and nutrition. Recent innovations and the latest research in nutrition and food systems from this region, as well as the rest of the world, are being examined over two days.

The aim is to discuss concrete actions that result in higher quality and more efficient production, processing and distribution of food, in addition to healthy and sustainable diets. In order to achieve those goals, participants will work toward activating regional and global partnerships and networks that promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

The Asia-Pacific forum is one of five regional symposia that are taking forward the outcomes of the International Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems and Healthy Diets held last December in Rome.

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UN cautions on why hunger may not end by 2030

NaijaAgroNet:

The latest study by the United Nations (UN) agency, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has cautioned on why hunger may not end by 2030 after all, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The study entitled “The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges” the UN agency noted that mankind's future ability to feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate.

Pointed out though that very real and significant progress in reducing global hunger has been achieved over the past 30 years, "expanding food production and economic growth have often come at a heavy cost to the natural environment."

Emphasising that "Almost one half of the forests that once covered the Earth are now gone. Groundwater sources are being depleted rapidly. Biodiversity has been deeply eroded," it notes.

Sounding the cautions, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in his introduction to the report, noted that as a result, "planetary boundaries may well be surpassed, if current trends continue."

By 2050, NaijaAgroNet gathered, humanity ranking is expected to likely have grown to nearly 10 billion people.

FAO further said that in a scenario with moderate economic growth, this population increase will push up global demand for agricultural products by 50 per cent over present levels projects, noting that  ‘The Future of Food and Agriculture,’ intensifying pressures on already-strained natural resources.

At the same time, greater numbers of people will be eating fewer cereals and larger amounts of meat, fruits, vegetables and processed food — a result of an ongoing global dietary transition that will further add to those pressures, driving more deforestation, land degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Alongside these trends, the planet's changing climate will throw up additional hurdles. "Climate change will affect every aspect of food production," the report says. These include greater variability of precipitation and increases in the frequency of droughts and floods.

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CFS side-event: Da Silva, Le Foll call for paradigm shift, curb global warming

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisaion (FAO) Director-General, Graziano da Silva, has called for a paradigm shift towards agriculture and food systems that are more adapted to climate change, if the Sustainable Development Agenda (SDA) by 2030 will be achieved, NaijaAgroNet reports.

"We can end extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. We know what works and we have the tools for it, but we know climate change threatens to derail our efforts. It is already impacting on food security and making hunger eradication even more difficult.

"We believe that agriculture in the broad sense - including forestry, fisheries and aquaculture - can and must play a central role in addressing climate change, particularly in adapting its impacts, such as water scarcity, soil salinity or increasing pests and diseases of plants and animals," he added.

  

On his part, the French Minister for Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, said that every man and woman on the planet would bear the consequences "if the world's leaders cannot find agreement on tangible and concrete objectives" to curb global warming, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Noting that agriculture is often viewed as a problem due to its role in greenhouse-gas emissions, Le Foll called for the need to make progress with techniques that "allow us to be more economical and consume less energy."

"But anyone who looks at agriculture cannot just sit back and sort out the problem with scientific measures...because the technology must be combined with the social aspect," Le Foll said, adding: "We need to revise our agriculture model to adapt to each ecosystem, we need a revolution that is going to use natural mechanisms to benefit production."

Graziano da Silva and Le Foll made their appeals at a side event of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) which is meeting in Rome this week. They both urged countries to find an agreement on how to combat climate change ahead of the 7-8 December United Nations climate change conference, COP21, in Paris.

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New SDAs to end hunger by 2030

NaijaAgroNet:

 

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director General, Graziano da Silva, has said that the Sustainable Development Agenda's goals (SDAs) approved at last month's United Nations summit will end hunger by 2030,NaijaAgronet reports.

The agenda has eradication of hunger as one of its core goals. Its approval at last month's United Nations summit "brings new momentum to our efforts," Silva told delegates at the CFS plenary.

"Now the world has a set date to end hunger, to achieve food security and to end malnutrition in all its forms. I do not doubt that we can become the Zero Hunger generation.

"Building consensus takes time, but it helps things move faster later," he added, noting that FAO, often working with the World Food Program and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, is already putting the framework's principles into practice.

The CFS opened its plenary October12, marking the first international gathering on food security and nutrition since global leaders approved the Sustainable Development Agenda's goal, NaijaAgroNet.

The CFS is aninter-governmental body that serves as a forum for the review and follow up of food security and nutrition policies.

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African agriculture, food industry to hit N199.2 trnby 2030

NaijaAgroNet

 

The President and Chief Executive Officer, Earth Alive, David Gilmour, has said that African agriculture and food industry is currently worth US$310 billion, about N61.76trillion and has the opportunity to grow substantially to US $1 trillion about N199.2 trillion by 2030, NaijaAgroNet reports.

He said, African agriculture represents nearly half of the continent's economic activity and the industry is pro-actively looking for safer, healthier and better fertilizer technologies to meet the accelerating demand for organic growing.

“The African agriculture and food industry is currently worth US$310 billion and has the opportunity to grow substantially to US $1 trillion by 2030, offering the prospect of a three-fold increase: bringing more jobs, greater prosperity, less hunger, and significantly more opportunities which will enable farmers in Africa to better compete globally,” he said.

Mr. Gilmour also said his office is receiving accreditation for its innovative microbial biofertilizer - which helps produce larger and healthier crops - will be beneficial to organic and traditional farmers in Africa, and is a critical step for Earth Alive to unlock this enormous market opportunity as we continue to expand registration in new markets globally," Gilmour stated.

Earth Alive Clean Technologies Inc. which aims to be a key player in world markets of environmentally sustainable industrial solutions,  recentlyannounced that it is in the process of completing product registration for its patent-pending microbial biofertilizer in West Africa and Southern  Africa. This arduous and lengthy registration process is necessary for the commercialization of fertilizers and agricultural inputs in most countries worldwide, and the Company anticipates having product registration approval by early 2016.

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Africa middle class to create N198trn market by 2030 - World Bank

NaijaAgroNet:

The World Bank has said that by 2030, serving the food demands of Africa’s growing middle class alone will create a market worth $1 trillion about N198 trillion, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The president of the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa and until last year, Rwandan Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Agnes Kalibata who quoted the World Bank, said, “Agri-preneurs can own that market if we tap the two assets that should be an unbeatable combination: the world’s largest population of young people, and the world’s largest holdings of uncultivated arable land. In fact, our study found access to land could dramatically increase youth participation in agriculture, particularly for young women farmers”. 

Kalibata, NaijaAgroNet gathered, added that in many ways Africa is in an enviable situation. Two of Africa’s biggest challenges – its fight to achieve food security and its urgent need to find employment for its young people – can be transformed into its biggest assets.

“Our youth can become the labour force and brain trust that harvests the wealth of that $1 trillion food market. Only then can we watch the narrative of African agriculture transform, from farming as drudgery and a struggle to survive to farming as opportunity and a business that thrives,” he said. 

This week hundreds of agriculture experts from the public and private sector will converge on Lusaka, Zambia, for the 2015 African Green Revolution Forum. A key priority of the meeting is to move aggressively to incorporate Africa’s soaring youth population – the 226 million people between 15 and 24 who have made Africa the world’s youngest continent – into efforts already underway to embrace our family farmers as the focal point for Africa’s economic transformation, NaijaAgroNet learnt. 

Information monitored on THE STAR site said, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, found that lack of land, extension services, credit, quality farm inputs, machinery, markets and other impediments are preventing agriculture from providing jobs on and off the farm for a youth population that accounts for 65 per cent of the total population in Africa. More than 10 million youth enter the labour market annually. 

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Zero hunger, key for realization SDGs

ITRealms

 

The Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) José Graziano da Silva has told world leaders at United Nations headquarters that zero hunger is the only guaranty for  realization of the entire set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Information from FAO stated that fourteen of the 17 new SDGs are related to FAO's historic mission, the Director-General noted, adding that the second goal - which is "to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" - must be urgently pursued as rapid progress on that front is the key to the other goals, he added

"We have given ourselves an enormous task,that begins with the historic commitment of not only reducing but also eradicating poverty, hunger in a sustainable way. We can only rest when we achieve zero hunger," Silva said.

NaijaAgroNet recalledthat the SDGs follow and expand on the Millennium Development Goals, established in 2001 and ending this year, which set a hunger reduction target that was met by more than half of the countries monitored by FAO. But nearly 800 million people still suffer from chronic undernourishment.

A majority of the world's poor and hungry live in rural areas, and improving their livelihoods is the core challenge.

He also reminded world leaders that in the next 15 years an additional investment of 160 dollars, about N31,848per year per person living in extreme poverty is needed to end hunger, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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Africa agriculture potential reaches N159trn by 2030

NaijaAgroNet

 

The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has said that the value of Africa's agriculture output is estimated at $280 billion, about N55.79trillion yet it has the potential to reach $800 billion, about N159.4 trillion by 2030, reports NaijaAgroNet.

"It (agriculture) could address a major problem in Africa by providing economic opportunities for the 200 million people between 14 and 24 years old that make Africa home of the youngest population in the world."

NaijaAgroNet gathered that a global accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has, in its own assessment of the continent’s agriculture, said that Africa "represents the 'last frontier' in global food and agricultural markets".

"The continent houses almost 60 per cent of the world's uncultivated land and an abundance of natural resources." It also said due to the large percentage of uncultivated fertile land and the presence of water, sub-Saharan Africa was specifically attractive.

A report by the international accounting firm KPMG said agricultural growth in Africa has failed to reach its potential and there was need for a concerted effort at improving techniques, markets and access to credit for small farmers.

This avalanche of positive reports about Africa’s agricultural profile, Business Standard informed, is reasonthe third India-Africa Summit coming up in New Delhi next month will, afford an opportunity to deepen India's involvement in improving Africa's agriculture NaijaAgroNet learnt.

The Nigeria’s permanent secretary, ministry of agriculture, Sonny Echono said the Chinese agricultural development model suited Nigeria's Agricultural Transformation Agenda and the country was working to improve its milling capacity in rice and cassava.

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SDGs take effect September

NaijaAgroNet

The United Nations (UN's) new Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) that details the investments needed to eradicate world hunger by 2030 is expected to take effect from September,2015, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Director-General José Graziano Da Silva at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said additional investments in social protection and rural development is necessary.

"Through the SDGs and the Accord, the world has declared: ‘Our goal is to end poverty and hunger,'" da Silva said while addressing world leaders, civil society and private sector groups gathered for the conference plenary, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Significant boosts, according to him, is therefore required in investment in both social protection and rural development to ensure that every person has adequate access to food all year long, and improve the productivity, incomes and livelihoods of the poor, he stated.

Graziano da Silva's remarks, NaijaAgroNet gathered, follow the release of a report by FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) that details the investments needed to eradicate world hunger by 2030 - a key aim of the SDGs to be adopted in September.

To make hunger history by 2030, the UN food agencies estimate that an additional $267 billion, about N53.1trillion per year on average needs to be invested in rural and urban areas, as well as in social protection measures that give poor people access to food and the means to improve their own livelihoods.

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Aquaculture to produce 2/3 global food fish supply – Report

NaijaAgroNet:

A joint research by the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPI) have shown that fish farms sub-sector is to produce two-third of the global food fish supply by 2030, reports NaijaAgroNet.

With this, NaijaAgroNet also reports that there are prospects for fisheries and aquaculture globally.

Fish farming, the tripod report equally showed has potential to provide close to two thirds of global food fish consumption by 2030 as catches from wild capture fisheries level off and demand from an emerging global middle class, especially in China, substantially increases. 

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the collaboration between the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), highlighted the extent of global trade in seafood which tends to flow heavily from developing to developed countries. 

According to FAO, at present 38 per cent of all fish produced in the world is exported and in value terms, over two thirds of fishery exports by developing countries are directed to developed countries.

The "Fish to 2030" report finds that a major and growing market for fish is coming from China which is projected to account for 38 percent of global consumption of food fish by 2030. 

China and many other nations are increasing their investments in aquaculture to help meet this growing demand. 

The Asia including South Asia, South-East Asia, China and Japan is projected to make up 70 per cent of global fish consumption by 2030.

Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, is expected to see a per capita fish consumption decline of 1 per cent per year from 2010 to 2030 but, due to rapid population growth of 2.3 per cent in the same period, the region's total fish consumption will grow by 30 percent overall.   

The report further predicted that 62 per cent of food fish will come from aquaculture by 2030 with the fastest supply growth likely to come from tilapia, carp, and catfish. global tilapia production is expected to almost double from 4.3 million tonnes to 7.3 million tons a year between 2010 and 2030. 

One of the report's authors Siwa Msangi of IFPRI, revealed to NaijaAgroNet that the fast-moving nature of aquaculture made this a particularly challenging sector to model and at the same time, embodies the most exciting aspect of it in terms of future prospects for transformation and technological change.

"Comparing this study to a similar study we did in 2003, we can see that growth in aquaculture production has been stronger than what we thought," Msangi said. 

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