USAID supports Asia, Africa, Middle East with N17.33b

NaijaAgroNet:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced further $87 million, about N17.33 billion to  combat pandemic animal disease threats in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, reports NaijaAgroNet.

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The funding which backs the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) efforts to combat global animal disease, covers the 2015-19 period and is expected be channeled into monitoring and surveillance, epidemiological studies, prevention and control activities as well as improving veterinary capacities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and promoting links between animal health specialists and the public health sector.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, NaijaAgroNet gathered, thanked the U.S. for its support and longstanding partnership.

"This shows how important transboundary diseases are for FAO and the UN system, and how much more important they will be in the future if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Millions of people rely on livestock for survival, income and nutrition, and their livelihoods must be protected," he said.

The Director, Global Health Security and Development with USAID's Bureau for Global Health, Dennis Carroll, said: "We are pleased by what our partnership with FAO for emerging pandemic threats has so far achieved, and the important contribution FAO's work is making to the U.S. Global Health Security Agenda programme to address threats posed by the natural emergence of new diseases and the intentional and/or accidental release of dangerous pathogens.

The latest USAID contribution of $87 million to FAO, NaijaAgroNet learnt, will further strengthen the programme and partnership between our two organizations, and build upon the good work already underway in the second phase of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats program (EPT-2). 

 Nearly $50 million of this contribution will support the global fight against the Ebola virus by building global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to future outbreaks and prevent them from becoming epidemics."

Cyriacus Nnaji/ED,OPs

 
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FAO warns on Asia, Pacific food insecurity

NaijaAgroNet:

Governments in Asia and the Pacific have been warned to take some major, fundamental decisions and very soon too on ways to increase their food production and address undernourishment, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The warning came as nearly 40 FAO member countries gathered in the Mongolian capital for the 32nd FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific to examine the state of food and agriculture in the region and a number of other important agriculture-related issues.

NaijaAgroNet reports that while the Asia-Pacific region is making good progress in reducing under-nutrition, it still has more hungry people than all the other regions of the world combined – more than 550 million. 

The Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger by half by 2015 is on course to be met, and in Southeastern Asia has already been achieved. Timor-Leste has launched a national campaign to take forward the fight against hunger beyond 2015, inspired by the UN’s global Zero Hunger Challenge (with a goal of 2025).

However, the region as a whole needs to improve food production systems and delivery to consumers or face significant food security problems within the next generation. Indeed some developing countries in Asia and the Pacific will need to increase their food production by up to 77 percent to feed their people by 2050, when the world’s population is expected to top nine billion.

Asia and the Pacific accounts for more than 90 percent of world rice production and consumption. The region’s food security and people’s livelihoods are very much dependent on rice. As a response to a request by FAO member countries, FAO has produced a Regional Rice Strategy which is being discussed at the regional level for finalization.

Farming, fishing and forestry practices need to be modernized and made more profitable, while countries in the region must take serious, coordinated steps to reduce food losses and food waste, which is as high as 30-50 percent regarding grains, fruits and vegetables.

Accordingly, FAO launched the regional Save Food Asia-Pacific campaign in August 2013 with an aim to promote public awareness of the need to minimize food losses and food waste.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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‘Africa produces 50% of global cassava’

Of all the total cassava produced globally, Africa accounted for 50 per cent followed by Asia with 30 per cent and Latin America 20 per cent.

Despite the fact that African farmers recorded the lowest output per hectare, it still took the lead as every countries in the Western, Central, Eastern as well as North-South regions of the continent produced cassava on a land mass of 12.5 million hectares to beat Asia using 3.5million hectares and Latin America with 3million hectares.

Africa land mass contributed to the volume of Cassava produced as productivity is still very low with 10tones per hectare compared to Asia and Latin America with 19 tonnes per hectare and 12 tonnes per hectare respectively.

A Cassava fact sheet by the Global Cassava Partnership of the 21st Century (GCP21) made available to NaijaAgroNet revealed that more than 250 million Sub-Saharan Africans rely on cassava as their major source of calories while over 700 million people globally rely on cassava as a staple crop.

Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that Asia recorded the highest growth in cassava production from about 15 tonnes per hectare in 2002 to about 18 tonnes per hectare in 2008, while Africa recorded 11 tonnes per hectare in 2008, showing a growth of 3 tonnes per hectare over 8 tonnes per hectare recorded in 2004.

Thailand on the other hand recorded a sharp drop from 25 tonnes per hectare in 2004 to about 22 tonnes per hectare in 2008.

Yinka Awosanya

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