African govts, banks, IDPs pledge $30bn on agric development

NaijaAgroNet:

The week-long 2016 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) ended at the weekend, with some $30 billion, about N9,467,550,000,000 trillion investment pledged by the governments, financial institutions and International Development Partners (IDPs), reports NaijaAgroNet.

These pledges, NaijaAgroNet gathered came on the wheels of the theme "Seize the moment: Securing Africa's Rise Through Agricultural Transformation" and will spur commitments to African farmers and agriculture sector on the continent for new and more broad opportunities for economic growth.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that AGRF 2016 which attracted over 1,500 delegates from 40 countries, included some African Heads of State, global business leaders, government ministers, farmers, agribusiness firms, financial institutions, civil society groups, scientists, and International Development and Technical Partners (IDTPs).

According to NaijaAgroNet, most of them pledged in excess of US $30 billion dollars in investments over the next 10 years to increase production, income and employment for smallholder farmers and local African agriculture businesses.

As said by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) which acts as the secretariat of AGRF and led by its president, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, the pledges are the largest single package of financial commitments ever delivered to African agriculture.

“It is backed by the broadest coalition ever assembled to support a transition from subsistence to income-earning agriculture in Africa,” she said.

The AGRF partners, Kalibata noted afforded the meeting to embrace a detailed action plan that commits to achieving specific milestones over the next 16 months as part of the “Seize the Moment” campaign that served as the theme for AGRF 2016.

NaijaAgroNet recalled that “Seize the Moment” was first launched in April at the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Plan (CAADP) Partnership Platform in Accra, Ghana. It has quickly become a rallying point for accelerating work around the African Union’s 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Speaking at the auditorium of the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenyan President, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, said the transformation of Africa will only work if Africans transform agriculture.

“This meeting has been not only important, but also very urgent, because we are coming together at a time when our continent is filled with incredible opportunity, but at the same time it also is faced with profound threats in almost equal measure,” he said.

Kenyatta championed the pledges by declaring that his government will invest US $200 million, so that at least 150,000 young farmers and young agriculture entrepreneurs could gain access to markets, finance and insurance.

The Rwandan President, Mr. Paul Kagame who accompanied Kenyatta on stage, challenge African leaders and around the world to harness the potential of agriculture to fight hunger and poverty on the continent.

Rwanda, he disclosed emerged as a strong example of what investments in agriculture can achieve, stressing that according to the World Bank, Rwanda under his leadership achieved dramatic reductions in poverty, “owing largely to increased productivity and commercialization in the agriculture sector.”

“We should not only seize the moment but continue the momentum for the transformation of agriculture and economies on our continent,” President Kagame, emphasising “Agriculture is not just one sector of the economy amongst others – it’s the backbone of the economy.”

Equally speaking at the closing ceremony, Kenyan Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Willy Bett, commended President Kagame and President Kenyatta for their commitment to the forum, and urged delegates to “do our part and drive this agenda forward.”

Remmy Nweke in Nairobi/ED, Ops

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To avoid bag of rice @N40k, emulate Anambra agriculture agenda

NaijaAgroNet:

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri has warned Nigerians to prioritize agriculture and start rice production by emulating Anambra State, if a bag of rice will not cost upto N40,000 by December 2016, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Saturday, the Minister said that Nigeria spends about $22bn a year on importation of food into the country.

“For your information, we spend about $22bn a year importing food into Nigeria. We know how many more dollars they bought and that is why you see the price of rice going up. Price of rice was may be N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we don’t start producing, by December it could be N40,000. 

Rice, he said, matures in three months, so, this is a wake-up call for Bayelsa people to take the four farms we have seriously. The federal government has four farms in the state in our records. 

"The average land you see in Bayelsa can grow rice, so the colonial masters were not wrong in their assessment when they said Niger Delta could feed not only Nigerian but also the entire West Africa sub-region,” he said.

The minister lamented that unfortunately, agriculture till today, is not a priority of the Niger Delta as far as the state governments are concerned because of oil.

Lokpobiri also said the states in the Niger Delta were yet to give priority to agriculture the way the North-West states such as Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano as well as other states like Lagos, Ebonyi, Anambra, prioritised it.

He said Anambra State, for instance, was not owing salaries despite the fact that it does not have oil but raking in money by merely exporting vegetables.

Culled from The Vanguard:

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Pix: Senator Heineken Lokpobiri

Opinion: Finding sweet spot of Africa’s agriculture

Opinion@NaijaAgroNet:

Africa is a continent where, at least outwardly, we like to celebrate our diversity—the rich variety that can be found in our many cultures, languages, fashions, flora and fauna. That’s why it’s perplexing to see such a large segment of the African population depending on a very small number of food crops, like maize, rice and wheat. And it’s more than just boring to the palate. It’s severely diminishing the quality of our diets and making our farming systems more vulnerable, especially during severe droughts like the one that hit Southern Africa this year.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of talk lately about how Africa’s agriculture sector is primed to become a new economic engine for a continent that has become too dependent on commodities like oil. Next week, Heads of State and top officials from across Africa and around the world are coming to Nairobi for the African Green Revolution Forum 2016, where there could be millions of dollars in new commitments for Africa’s smallholder farmers.

But Africa is unlikely to achieve its agriculture potential, or be prepared to deal with challenges like drought that climate change will make more frequent, unless we change our thinking about crop diversity.

For the last two decades, my work has revolved around developing and promoting nutritionally enhanced sweet-potato. It has convinced me that, with the right approach, farmers will cultivate a wider variety of crops and consumers will embrace the new additions to their dinner table.

Africa is actually blessed with a wealth of crop diversity. Much of these include sorghum, yam and cowpea, which are native to the continent. But many other crop types have arrived via trade, like banana, pigeon pea and wheat from Asia, and beans, cassava and maize from the Americas. But rather than capitalize on this full basket of food options, we have bet too heavily on just a few crops.

Take the case of maize in Eastern and Southern Africa for instance. Yes, it can grow in different farming environments and supply large amounts of calories. But the crop has weaknesses. It’s susceptible to drought and pests and its nutritional quality is mediocre.

And while recent research has delivered more resilient and nutritious maize varieties, these are not sufficient. The fact remains that in many regions, rising temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall will cause maize yields to fall by up to 22 per cent in many areas and up to 60 per cent in South Africa and Zimbabwe, according to a 2015 report from the Montpellier Panel.

There is a strong body of research showing that farmers are much less likely to suffer catastrophic losses from pests, disease or drought if they plant a broader array of crops. Today, the devastation caused by outbreaks of lethal necrosis in maize and stem rust in wheat is greatly intensified by the lack of alternative crops. In Malawi, while drought ruined maize and bean crops this year, farmers growing naturally hardy, nutritional crops like chickpea and sweet-potato fared much better.

If the benefits are so clear, then why don´t farmers just spontaneously diversify? The answer is that they may want to diversify, but often don’t due to policy and institutional barriers. When crops like maize started to dominate, governments and the private sector accelerated their take-over by providing subsidies, research and other support. Meanwhile, other potentially useful crops like cassava and sorghum were neglected, sometimes acquiring derogatory labels like the “poor man´s crop” or “crop for marginal lands.”

It doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve learned from my work with sweet-potatoes that we can turn Africa´s “Cinderella crops” into the belle of the ball.

First, we need research that is focused on adding value to these crops and further enhancing their already natural resilience. In the case of sweet-potato, we bred for higher levels of beta-carotene (the chemical precursor of vitamin A), better drought tolerance and virus resistance.

A second critical task: farmers need a reliable source of healthy seed. This is not easy for crops typically ignored by local and multinational seed companies, especially if they are propagated with bulky and perishable plant parts like sweet-potatoes. For sweet-potato, we worked through local farmer networks and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to achieve large-scale multiplication and dissemination of improved planting material.

Finally, marketing and branding, not something that comes naturally to researchers like myself, have to be part of the picture. We employed a variety of marketing and communications tools to make consumers aware of the many benefits of the sweet-potato – as a staple food, animal fodder, snack and ingredient in processed foods.

The theme for the upcoming African Green Revolution Forum is “Seize the Moment” and I can’t think of a better time for influential leaders attending this meeting to make crop diversity a central part of their plans for African agriculture. Just as many will admire the colorful dress of West African attendees, they should also be embracing a larger mosaic of food crops for our farmers. I’ve already seen the good things that happen when a big colorful splash of orange-fleshed sweet-potato is added to African farms and African diets.

*Contributed by Dr. Maria Andrade, an award-winning plant breeder at the International Potato Centre. She is also among the four winners of the 2016 World Food Prize and currently serving board member of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

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Improving agriculture with open data journalism - NaijaAgroNet

Features@NaijaAgroNet:

A weeklong open data workshop for a section of Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network, recently ended in Nairobi, Kenya, with a call for embrace and more training in media sphere. REMMY NWEKE who was there for NaijaAgroNet reports.

Open data concept, application for agriculture according to Steve Nyumba

 NaijaAgroNet:

The co-founding director at the Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), Mr. Stephen Nyumba has offered some insights on how open data concept could be leveraged through application for the agriculture sector by African media, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Nyumba, in a presentation at the recently concluded week-long training for CAADP Journalists Network in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, dwelt on “Open Data for Agriculture” said that in being open connotes a lot for different people and media practitioners must ensure whatever definition they are using is seemingly holistic.

According to him, for a data to be open means that the “Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose.”

On the concept and application overview to agriculture, Mr. Nyumba pointed out that open data and content is very often provided by the publisher with “explicit permission allowing for it’s use, re-use, re-distribution or re-purposing with little or no restriction.”

He canvassed that before reuse, it is important for the user which in this case could be a media outlet or practitioner, who wants to tell his or her story differently with infographics to check if the potential content is open or restricted.

This, Nyumba said, could be achieved by way of looking critically at the license of the publication, which very often comes as Creative Commons, otherwise, he advised that the publisher be asked for permission or clarification, so as to eschew any kind of legal bottleneck afterwards.

As said by him, taking most of these precautions would afford the user and precisely media practitioners the opportunity to make informed assumptions, citing for instance, the Gro Intelligence produces which was provided under an open license.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

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Pix: Mr. Stephen Nyumba

Agriculture: Nigeria must act differently – Adeniji

NaijaAgroNet:

The Managing Director of Niji Group Limited, Mr. Kolawole Adeniji has advised the Federal Government to deliberately act differently by focusing on some 10 targeted crops for foreign exchanged on the nation’s comparative advantage, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He also canvassed for improved funding of research institutions across the country.

Speaking at the 2016 All Nigerian Editors Conference (ANEC) organized in the garden city of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Adeniji said that Nigeria must learn to do some things differently if the nation must be competitive at this time.

Adeniji who was dwelt on the Economic Diversification: Agriculture as Option for a Prosperous Nigeria, said that its now time for the country to act in a different way , for instance by lowering cost of accessing credit facility, enthrone mechanization of farming operations, improve rural infrastructures such as rural roads and other amenities to encourage citizens to stop urban migration by themselves.

He also said that there is need to deliberately fund research institutions in the country in a manner that could add value, improve extension services, and earn public sector investments.

The government of Nigeria, he said, has to set up commodity boards cum commodity aggregation scheme.

The Niji Group boss advocated the daily working hour constraint should be reviewed into hourly, stressing that it will afford public sector workforce to use their energy and hours  effectively.

Further, he underscored the fact that some of the products Nigeria should take comparative advantages on include Cassava, Cocoa, Groundnuts, Oil Palm, Sorghum, Cotton, Tomato, Onions, Bee keeping cum honey production and other hives products, as well as fish and livestock.

Remmy Nweke in Port Harcourt/ED,Ops

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Anambra still savouring $5m export of vegetables

NaijaAgroNet:

The Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano has said that his four pillars of economic blueprint including Agriculture, Industrialization, Trade and Commerce and Oil and Gas, has started yielding dividends, even as the state still savouring the exportation of vegetables (Ugu) punkin leaves and (Onugbu) bitter leaf,  valued at $5 million to Europe, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Experts also defined Ugu as Telfairia occidentalis, a tropical vine grown in West Africa as a leaf vegetable and for its edible seeds. Common names for the plant include fluted gourd, fluted pumpkin, and ugu.

While Onugbu - Bitter leaf also known as Vernonia amygdalina, is a vegetable used for preparing the popular Bitter leaf soup. Also known as Onugbu, Shiwaka and Ewuro by the Igbos,

Speaking in Abuja in an interactive session which attracted Ndi Anambra residing in the North central part of the country at Transcorp Hilton recently, Gov. Obiano said that the state is now a socially stable, business-friendly environment attracting both indigenes and foreigners to seek wealth-creating opportunities.

He also told the profile audience which comprised the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, Dr.  Oby Ezekwesili both PDP and APC members of the National Assembly, former Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju and leadership of the Anambra State Investment Agency (ANSIPPA), charged with the mandate of attracting and fast-tracking investments in the state has so far attracted over $4.2 billion deals to the state.

The latest investment he confirmed was sealed on Tuesday last week with Zolt Energy Limited to build a 40 megawatts Embedded Power Generating Plant in Ogbaru. When completed in the next 18 months as scheduled, all the power generated from it will be distributed mainly in Anambra State.

On the state of agriculture, Obiano who was giving a score card of his two and half years stay in office disclosed that “in January this year, Anambra made headlines when it became the first state in Nigeria to export vegetables (Ugu and Onugbu) valued at $5million to Europe. 

Further, Obiano said "Our locally produced brand of rice known as Anambra Rice recently emerged the Best Rice in Africa at an African Products Forum in Lagos. Anambra Rice was adjudged better and more wholesome than other competing brands from South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Namibia and Cameroon.”

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ANEC 2016 goes to Rivers State with agriculture, investment topping agenda

NaijaAgroNet:

The 12^th edition of the All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) is headed to oil-rich Rivers State with top on the agenda being agriculture and investment, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The five-day conference slated for August 3 through 7 in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State comes with the theme: Economic Diversification: Agriculture as Option for a Prosperous Nigeria.

The Acting President of the Guild of Editors, Funke Egbemode, said no fewer than 300 Nigerian editors, a collection of mainstream farmers, agriculture financiers, policy-makers and captains of industry would be expected to grace the event.

“The sole emphasis on agriculture for this year’s conference was in response to the falling price of crude oil at the international market which has automatically reduced government’s earnings and revenue base. This is the first the conference is focusing on agriculture in the most pragmatic sense and it is meant to draw the nation’s attention to the limitless opportunities that abound in agriculture” Egbemode said.

She also quoted the host Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, as saying in a press statement available to NaijaAgroNet that the conference would afford the state the opportunity to showcase its investment potentials.

According to the Special Assistant to the Governor on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, Wike noted that the conference would be a fitting platform to partner with editors and the media to consolidate development in both the state and the nation at large.

Wike pointed out that the state is hosting several national and international events as a demonstration of the fact that Rivers State is an investors’ destination, stressing that the state is peaceful and the people hospitable.

“Hosting this year’s conference will also make the editors witness first-hand the development projects and programmes of my administration which has improved the living standard of the people,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the All Nigeria Editors’ Conference is the largest gathering of Nigerian editors and has become a watering hole of ideas that shaped government policies and programmes over the years, with the maiden edition held in 2004 at Ada, in Osun State.

Also, ANEC had previously attracted both local and foreign speakers as well as editors from organizations such as the West African Editors Forum (WAEF), the African Editors Forum (TAEF), the World Editors Forum (WEF) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).

This year’s edition has been tailored primarily to focus on agriculture as a counterfoil to the dwindling receipts from crude oil.  Speakers include a rich mix of practicing farmers, agriculture financiers and policy-makers.

The Founder of HoneySuckle PTL Ventures, Mosunmola Cynthia Umoru, would speak on Agriculture as Panacea for Unemployment while Mr. Kola Adeniji of Niji Farms would talk on Agriculture as a Foreign Exchange Earner.

The Chief Executive of Bank of Agriculture, Professor Danbala Danju would be explaining the 'Role of Banks in Agriculture Financing while Kano-based farmer, Muhammad Abubakar, the Managing Director of L&Z Integrated Farms would experientially explore the topic: Making the Most of Agriculture Value Chain.

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LDRI launches comprehensive source for agriculture data on Africa

NaijaAgroNet:

The Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) has launched a knowledge and data portal encompassing research, reports, policy briefs and news on agriculture in Africa, known as TransformAgriculture.org, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The Executive Assistant and Communications Officer, Wangui Muriu, in a press statement sighted by NaijaAgroNet, quoted the LDRI’s Executive Director, Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah as saying that the portal makes it possible to find, for the first time, data, research and news on Africa’s agriculture from multiple sources in one place.

“The portal is also the online home of a multi-stakeholder collective known as the Network for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (NATA),” he said.

Data and research on Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda, Nyaggah said, currently resides in numerous locations spread out across the Internet. This makes discovery of insights, content and data for decision-making fairly difficult for the continent’s growing number of public, private sector and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) experts.

He explained that TransformAgriculture.org has been designed to solve this problem for members of the network and any expert looking for data, research or news on Africa’s agricultural transformation journey.

Organized along the categories used by the results framework for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), Nyaggah said, the portal will make it possible for those supporting or reporting on the CAADP Biennial Review to find the information they need.

“During the last quarter of 2016, additional functionality to accommodate the Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals have been provided to further improve discoverability of content within those frameworks,” he said.

Nyaggah emphasised that numerous organizations at the multi-lateral or NGO level are producing data and research as part of efforts to end extreme poverty, hunger and reduce inequality in Africa.

“The data and research are vital for implementation of CAADP as well as the SDGs and Agenda 2063; making it easier to find and share is therefore very important in empowering our continent’s experts to get their job done,” he enthused.

Equally speaking, the Co-founder and Director for Technology at LDRI, Mr. Steve Nyumba, said that TransformAgriculture.org will help to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio for those seeking data, research and news related to implementation of Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda.

“It is part of our commitment to support African Union member states in implementing programmes such as CAADP that have transformative impact on the continent’s growing population” Nyumba said.

Reassuring that LDRI and partners will continue to add content to the portal on an almost daily basis and welcome data and content publishers wishing to use it as one of their dissemination tools. Even as LDRI collaborates with the African Media Initiative in data journalism training across Africa.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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House summons agric minister, Ogbeh over GMO food import

NaijaAgroNet:

The lower chambers of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives have summoned the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, over concerns allegedly arising from the importation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) foods into Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), GMOs are organisms including plants, animals or microorganisms in which the genetic material (DNA) have been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and or natural recombination.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that recently over 100 groups representing some 5 million Nigerians, comprising of farmers, faith-based organisations, civil society groups, students and local community groups, passionately opposed Monsanto’s attempts to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton and maize into Nigeria’s food and farming systems.

In written objections submitted to the biosafety regulators, the groups cited numerous serious health and environmental concerns and the failure of these crops especially GM cotton in Africa, alleging that the former President, Goodluck Jonathan hurriedly signed the bill on National Biosafety Management into law at the exit point.

They rejected the plans for the regulator to licence Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria Limited which applied to the National Biosafety Management Agency (NABMA) for the environmental release and placing in the market in Zaria and surrounding towns of GM cotton (Bt cotton, event MON 15985). A further application they said was made for the confined field trial (CFT) of two GM maize varieties (NK603 and stacked event MON 89034 x NK603) in multiple locations in Nigeria.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that NBMA, the regulatory body for biotechnology in Nigeria, had since May 1, a public holiday in Nigeria, issued two permits signed by the DG, NBMA, Mr. Rufus Ebegba, to Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited for the commercial release and market placement of these GMO cotton and the confined field trial of GMO maize.

However, the summon monitored on Channels TV, followed a motion raised by a member of the House of Representatives from Imo State, Hon. Austin Ikechukwu, on Thursday at the National Assembly in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which was promptly carried.

Also, the House in agreeing to the summon, asked the Minister to appear before them over the issuance of permits to a company, Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited, to introduce some of the foods into the Nigerian market.

The House Committees on Healthcare Services and Agriculture Products have been mandated to also meet with the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on the impact of GMO.

The committees are to get a list of food supplements and genetically modified foods that have been granted NAFDAC registration numbers and have 12 weeks to report back to the House.

Isaac Oyimah/Channels TV/GEE.

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Pix Audu Ogbeh.