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Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts

Monday, May 16, 2016

Feud over dog meat festival

For the city of Yulin in China reputed for its dog meat festival, some dogs are stolen from their owners and beaten or bled to death, reports NaijaAgroNet.

It was also gathered that these dogs are hung upside down from hooks, a slit cut from their anus and skin ripped off their bodies, and sold to be eaten. 
NaijaAgroNet reports that the suffering must be unbearable following a new research which shows that in terms of emotion, dogs' brains are much like ours, something dog owners and lovers understand well.

A petition to the Chinese government by Rewan Al-Haddad made available to NaijaAgroNet at Avaaz, the petitioners said that when “we see dogs for what they are living beings with thoughts and feelings the torture they endure at this ‘festival' becomes inexcusable.”

Already thousands of Chinese citizens have spoken out against the festival, but authorities won’t act until they see how badly it’s hurting China’s global image, which they’ve been working hard to improve.


“That’s where we come in. Let’s show the Chinese government that the world cares about this puppy slaughter and wants them to stop it immediately!” part of the petition read.

According to Avaaz, “When our numbers are great enough, we will take out ads, work with influential celebrities, run the first independent national poll on dog-eating in China, and put this issue on front pages everywhere until Chinese authorities act.

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Wednesday, August 12, 2015

China seeks cooperation for sustainable agriculture in Africa




NaijaAgroNet
China said it is charting grounds of cooperation with African countries in order to ensure sustainable agricultural development, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

This was made known recently when the Chinese Embassy in Sudan hosted a workshop on China's experiences in agricultural development and its role in achieving food security in Africa.

“China is a traditional agricultural country, with only six per cent of fresh water and nine per cent of arable land of the world, yet it has managed to provide food for 20 per cent of the world population," the Chinese Sudan Ambassador, Li Lianhe.

He reiterated that the experience exchange and mutual cooperation in agriculture and food security area between China and Africa would make essential contribution to the stability and development of the world, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The two-day workshop was attended by Sudan's State Minister for Agriculture Yaqoub Mohamed Al-Tayeb, the Chinese Ambassador and researchers from China and nine African countries.

"Sudan is keen to achieve food security and it has initiatives in this respect," said Al-Tayeb when addressing the workshop.

Sudan government, he said, is committed in fully adopting the outcome of the workshop and transforming its recommendations into work programmes to promote food security in Africa, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ED,OPs
 
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 Pix: Li Lianhe

Thursday, August 6, 2015

China, others cause food price crash in July---FAO




NaijaAgroNet
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has revealed that in July, the dairy price index dropped 7.2 per cent from the previous month, mainly due to lower import demand from China.

Other regions which contributed to the crash in prices, NaijaAgroNet gathered, include Middle East and North Africa along with abundant European Union (EU) milk production which has resulted in good availability of dairy products for export.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 164.6 points in July, down 1.0 per cent from June, and 19.4 per cent from a year earlier. The trade-weighted index tracks prices on international markets of five major food commodity groups: cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar.

The July, NaijaAgroNet reports, vegetable oil price index was some 5.5 per cent below its June level, reaching its lowest value since July 2009. The recent slide was primarily caused by a fall in international palm oil prices due to increased production in Southeast Asia combined with slower exports especially from Malaysia, and a further weakening of soy oil prices on ample supplies for export in South America and a favourable outlook for global supply in 2015/16.

The cereal price index, NaijaAgroNet reports, rose by 2.0 per cent from June, but was still 10.1 per cent below July last year's level. For the second consecutive month, higher wheat and maize prices, in part due to unfavourable weather in North America and Europe, kept the cereal index rising, but rice prices continued to fall.

In July the meat price index remained nearly unchanged from the previous month. An increase in international prices of bovine meat offset a decline for pig meat and ovine meat, while prices for poultry remained stable. The sugar price index rose by 2.5 per cent from June 2015, largely due to less than ideal harvesting conditions in the main producing region of Brazil, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Tuesday, June 9, 2015

China lifts 138m citizens out of chronic hunger



The Republic of China has said the country effectively lifted 138 million citizens out of chronic hunger since 1990 and have reached the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the prevalence of hunger ahead of the 2015 deadline, NaijaAgroNet reports.

This revelation, NaijaAgroNet reports, was made during the signing of a $50 million, about N9.94 billion agreement between China and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to support developing countries in building sustainable food systems including agricultural value chains, recognizing the growing importance of collaboration between Southern countries in the fight against extreme hunger and poverty. 

Mr. Wang Yang, Vice Premier, China, NaijaAgroNet learnt, said, "China is the leading agricultural producer among the developing countries; FAO is the world's top agricultural organization. We are ready to enhance our cooperation with FAO, which will not only benefit agricultural development and progress toward hunger reduction targets, but also the poor and hungry people of the world."

NaijaAgroNet reports that China's new contribution to the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Trust Fund will support the exchange of Chinese agricultural experts with countries in the global South, particularly in low-income food-deficit areas of Central Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa and Latin America, over a period of five years.

The Trust Fund has supported knowledge exchanges through 11 country projects and two global initiatives in areas such as irrigation, horticulture, livestock protection, and food processing and marketing. 

During the first phase, Chinese experts deployed to host countries will stay for two-to-three years, train local farmers in using adaptable and affordable technologies for crop, animal and water management, while the second phase will expand on the lessons learned so far, sharing best practices and supporting host countries in developing sound policies, building institutional capacities, facilitating the transfer of new technologies, working with research centres and other partners. 

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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Tuesday, May 19, 2015

E-commerce to attract more entrepreneurial talents

  NaijaAgroNet


The China’s Agriculture Ministry has invested hugely on e-commerce with the hope of boosting more entrepreneurial talents to the local communities, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The new e-commerce scheme which NaijaAgroNet learnt, is having a major beneficial impact on the countryside is designed to help farmers collectively sell their products to larger markets.

"Before, it wasn't really worth me coming here to cultivate the Tea Oil. We'd maybe come five or six times a year. Now we're replanting all the time, and we come every month," said Zhu Qianhuang, a local farmer. Mr Zhu stated that he could not keep up with the demand for the Tea Oil.

 Qianhuang, NaijaAgroNet gathered, explained the benefits of the scheme further to reporters,  “this Camellia wood in Southeast China was once overgrown and unused. The tree produces Tea-Oil. Since 2011, the wood has been brought back to life, by local farmers. The revival is mainly because of rural e-commerce schemes, introduced by the local government.
 
Under the scheme, farmers in the area sell their products collectively, through larger agents. Wholesale orders are placed online from across the country.

"Rural poverty is caused by three factors - lack of skills, lack of information, and lack of incentive. If people group together, skills and resources can be shared. Right now, we have over 120 companies within our E-Commerce zone. That,
NaijaAgroNet learnt, includes over eighty families, either employed or running their own businesses," said Ning Weisheng, Ningdu County Commerce Bureau.

Cyriacus Nnaji, GEE


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Monday, March 16, 2015

SON, NAFDAC warn Nigerians of killer tomato paste

NaijaAgroNet

The Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has alerted the country on the spread of cancerous tomato pastes which contain colouring starch and other dangerous materials that are able to cause severe health challenges, reports NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet also learnt that this was contained in a recent report from a NAF­DAC survey which revealed that such colouring are carcino­genic and therefore unhealthy for human consumption, adding that aside from the cancer causing colouring, the starch contained in those products are harmful to unsuspecting diabetic patients.


NaijaAgroNetfurther reports that health officials said the products imported from China and contains fewer than the required tomato concentrate as they contain other substances capable of causing cancer, organ failure and further related ailments.


It was said that 90 per cent of the killer tomato brands fall short of the standards of NAFDAC and SON, although both organs were making efforts to remove the sub-standard products from Nigerian market

This has shown that the Nigerian system, particularly that of the Customs, NAFDAC, SON and other relevant agencies who should have as their duty to checkmate imported products intothe Nigerian market are not effective.


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Monday, December 24, 2012

The way back to the forest


Data from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has shown that Asia-Pacific region, especially China, takes the leading position in the global forest products industry.
The forest industry also grew by 1 to 4 per cent in 2011 as against 2010 which signifies that countries globally are coming out of the recession slowly.
Whereas the new data shows that production of wood-based panels and paper in 2011 was above the pre-crisis levels of 2007 and appears to be growing relatively strong in some regions.
Nigeria records highest deforestation rate
Investigations by NaijaAgroNet revealed that Nigeria is one of the countries on the continent that has the highest rate of deforestation, recording about 2.6 per cent annually. And as at 2004, Nigeria has 693,000 hectares of forest plantations.
Within the time under review for Nigeria had as at 2004, contributed about 1.3 - 3 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for a larger part of domestic energy, food and medicinal supply, which were not fully represented in the formal national statistics.
The increase in deforestation in the country has over the years worsen by livestock grazing, soil erosion, drought, desertification and growing demand for cropland, thus, greatly putting the state of forest of the nation’s under threat.
China leads global forestry business
However, leading the forestry industry is the Asia-Pacific region with China as the world's second largest producer of samnwood after United State of America, thereby overtaking Canada.
Notable is that in 2011 alone, China contributed 11 per cent of the world's sawnwood, 38 per cent of its panels and 26 per cent of its paper, hence it played a key role in the international forest products market, even as the Asian country also claimed the fifth largest importer of paper and paperboard after recording a huge increase in domestic production since 2007.
Also in 2011, China imported forest products worth $43 billion, about N6.79 trillion, accounting for 16 per cent of the global total imports.
The forest product statistics database by the United Nations' agency contains 1.2 million entries and cover production and trade of 52 products, 21 product groups of 245 countries and territories.
Meanwhile the Russian Federation that have the largest forest in the world has experienced decline in industrial round wood export in the last five years. The decline, NaijaAgroNet further gathered stood at about 60 per cent with an increase in sawnwood production by 8 per cent over the same period.
Calls on investors to look into forestry
Meanwhile the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in the last quarter of 2012, said that the investment guideline that was originated from The Forests Dialogue (TFD) on behalf of Growing Forest Partnerships and with the support of IIED, for forest business would give a high return on investment if followed.
In the same vein the IIED forest team head, Duncan Macqueen called on investors to venture into locally controlled forest that it offers triple investment returns and that people depending on forest for survival would have a secured income streams, making it a win-win situation for the investors as well as the forest managers and owners.
A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the third quarter of 2012 revealed that if about 0.034 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which amount to about N6.24 trillion is being spent on forest on a yearly basis would give an estimation of 5 million jobs globally and a high return on investment.
UNEP in the report advised that finance can be sourced from both public and private sectors using approach that pay landowners for maintaining the ecosystems.

Yinka Awosanya/LS

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