281m Africans undernourished says FAO - NaijaAgroNet

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A total of 281 million people living in Africa are undernourished, a joint study has revealed, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the latest joint report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, led by FAO, informed NaijaAgroNet that aside the undernourished 281m, nearly 60 million African children under 5 suffer from stunting and 14 million suffer from wasting.

WAOM berates Morocco over Africans travel restrictions - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The West African Observatory on Migrations (WAOM), has berated Morocco for joining the European Union (EU) against African migration, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Morocco, NaijaAgroNet gathered is a North African country bordering the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

As said by WAOM, the travel restrictions for Malians, Guineans and Congolese wishing to travel to Morocco, is disheartening.

A press statement from International conference on environmental migration in West Africa made available to NaijaAgroNet, said "Far from appearing as an experiment as presented by the Morocco kingdom, this measure is a real step backward as it removes from the citizens of these countries the possibility that they had until then to travel without a visa to Morocco. A few weeks before the international conference to adopt the Global Compact on Migration in Marrakesh, the Moroccan decision shocks deeply because it goes against the will reaffirmed by the African Union to move towards the free movement of Africans on their continent.

"The dream of an African Schengen area, where citizens can travel without any visa or travel authorization requirement, seems to be called into question by the Kingdom of Morocco, which is nevertheless presented as the ” Leader ” for migration by the African Union. After returning to Africa Union, in January 2017, Morocco was given the responsibility by its African peers to propose the broad outlines of a migration policy for the African Union. In the wake of its reconquest of the continent, the Moroccan kingdom had then manifested its candidacy to join the Economic Community of States of West Africa (ECOWAS), which advocates a free movement for the citizens of its community. The glimmers of hope thus sent by Morocco seem to be buried in the face of pressure from the European Union, which is constantly reinforcing the role of the countries of North Africa and the Sahel as gendarmes of its policy against the immigration of Africans.

"This Moroccan decision, contrary to African interests, can only be understood in its perspective of pleasing the European institutions. Indeed, the European Union has just opened a series of negotiations with some African countries to demand that they repatriate their “undocumented” citizens residing in Europe on pain of having their Schengen visa restricted for their nationals wishing to travel legally to European countries. 

Morocco seems miraculously not threatened by this blackmail from the European Union despite recent events that saw Moroccan citizens trying to illegally gain Europe. It seems more than ever necessary for African civil society, as a whole, to raise its voice against the dictates of the European Union, which under the guise of development aid, weaken African integration and prevent Africans from traveling without visa in the same way as the citizens of the European Union. The West African Observatory on Migrations is appealing to all citizens of African countries to advocate on their States not to accept measures that undermine our mobility rights on our African soil and destroy our will to live a real fraternity life as sons and daughters of the same continent.

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AfDB urges leaders to make agriculture attractive for young Africans

NaijaAgroNet:

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has urged African leaders to make agriculture attractive for the younger generation, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He was speaking on the occasion of the 2017 World Food Day, AfDB president highlighted how Africa’s food security depends on attracting young people to agriculture and agribusiness. The sector can potentially create wealth and employment for African youth, thereby stemming migration.

World Food Day, celebrated yearly on October 16, promotes worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and the need to ensure food security and nutritious diets for all, which this year’s theme focused on the need to ‘Change the future of migration; Invest in food security and rural development’.

The AfDB’s ENABLE Youth programme, which grooming a crop of young agriculturists, is on course to make this happen.

Mahmud Johnson, 26, is the Founder of J-Palm Liberia which works to improve income for Liberia’s smallholder oil palm farmers by 50-80 per cent. He is also creating additional jobs for over 1,000 young people to work as sales representatives for his products.

“Despite the tremendous odds, we (African youth) are determined to maximize our abundant agricultural resources to create wealth, jobs, and socioeconomic opportunities in our countries and across the continent. We need our stakeholders to view us as serious partners in Africa’s transformation, and to work with us to expand our enterprises,” Mahmud said.

Mahmud and some of his employees have benefited from capacity building programs under the AfDB’s Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment for Youth initiative.

Like Mahmud, many African youth are passionate about staying back on the continent to create wealth and employment, if given the tools and opportunities to put their skills to use. Under the ENABLE Youth program, the Bank is working with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to develop a new generation of young commercial farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs.

“Our goal is to develop 10,000 such young agricultural entrepreneurs per country in the next 10 years. In 2016, the Bank provided US $700 million to support this program in eight countries and we've got requests now from 33 countries,” said Adesina.

The Bank considers investment in agriculture as key to making Africa youths prosperous, thereby stemming the tide of migration.

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243m Africans are hungry people

NaijaAgroNet:

A total of 243 million Africans have been classified as hungry people among the 815 million victims globally, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The United Nations (UN) disclosed this in its latest hunger and food security key numbers made available to NaijaAgroNet, which has overall number at 815 million, while Asia continent has 520 million, over 100 per cent of African quota.

Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that in the top three continents in the hungriest people in the world included Latin America and the Caribbean with 42 million.

The global hungry population as shared in percentage, NaijaAgroNet gathered showed that Asia has 11.7 per cent; Africa has 20 per cent with eastern Africa lone scoring 33.9 per cent, while Latin America and the Caribbean got 6.6 per cent.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered this was the first time that UNICEF and WHO join FAO, IFAD and WFP in preparing The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report. This change reflects the SDG agenda's broader view on hunger and all forms of malnutrition.

The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, established by the General Assembly, is lending focus to this effort by motivating governments to set goals and invest in measures to address the multiple dimensions of malnutrition.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 has been re-geared for the SDG era and includes enhanced metrics for quantifying and assessing hunger, including two indicators on food insecurity and six indicators on nutrition.

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Over 1.2bn Africans lack access to basic sanitation

NaijaAgroNet:

Over 1.2 billion Africans are surviving without basic sanitation and 395 million people are without clean water, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as over 130 million Nigerians have been identified as not having access to adequate sanitation out of the total in Africa.

WaterAid made this disclosure as part of the commemoration of the 2017 World Earth Day which theme centred on “Environmental and Climate Literacy” saying the collaborative monitoring platform set up by WaterAid, showed that 57 million people in Nigeria don't have access to safe water.

Also, WaterAid revealed that the over 130 million people living without access to adequate sanitation accounts for the two third of the population and around 45,000 children under five years old die every year from diarrhea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that with Africa’s population projected to be 2.2 billion by 2030, only 32 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africans will have access to sanitation by 2030.

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Cassava is foodstuff, industrial raw material

NaijaAgroNet:

Cassava has been identified as crucial to food security for millions of Africans, and now the shrub’s potential for industrial purposes is being considered, says a professor at the school of molecular and cell biology,Wits University South Africa. Prof. Chrissie Rey, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking on the versatility of the crop, Prof. Rey said its used in several products including flour, paper, textiles, food additives and animal feed.

"The main thrust of cassava in South Africa is for industrial purposes and the use of biotechnology to improve the crop for agro-processing," noted Prof. Rey who has been studying the shrub since the 1980s.

According to Rey,other countries on the continent have always been interested in cassava for food security but all cassava-growing countries are getting interested in its industrial potential.

Rey says herinterest on studying the plant was because its roots are a valuable source of starch. "The need for root-based starch will rise in the next 50 years. Cassava is a potentially valuable crop and the South African government is interested in exploring that potential for small-scale and commercial farmers," she says.

The crop is also used to produce bio-ethanol, which is used in small stoves instead of paraffin. The bio-ethanol produced from cassava is cleaner for the environment, she pointed out.

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Pix: Cassava tubers