Data Void: Institutional silencing and FOI audit of rural development pipelines by Remmy Nweke — WeekendSalvo@NaijaAgroNet

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Investigations by REMMY NWEKE - WeekendSalvo@NaijaAgroNet, uncovered how bureaucratic opacity and institutional silencing in rural development funding block progress, utilizing Freedom of Information audits to track stalled infrastructure pipelines that leave agrarian frontiers marooned without essential services.

When a crisis like the Mycobacterium ulcerans (Elu-Ulee) outbreak ravages an agrarian frontier like Awba-Ofemili, public outrage naturally targets immediate, visible failures: the absence of medical supplies or the lack of telecommunications towers. Yet, beneath these surface-level infrastructure deficits lies a deeper, more insidious administrative pathology.

Adult nutrition and development in Nigeria: Strategic overview for agricultural sector by Iruoma Ofortube - Commentary@NaijaAgroNet

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Adult nutrition, defined as the intake and utilization of nutrients necessary for health, disease prevention, and sustained productivity, is a cornerstone of Nigeria’s development agenda. 

A nutritionally balanced adult diet must provide adequate carbohydrates for energy, proteins for tissue repair, healthy fats for hormone production, essential vitamins and minerals, hydration, and dietary fiber for digestive health. 

Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority gets new MD/CEO @Woke - NaijaAgroNet

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President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Engr. Chukwuemeka Woke as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority (OORBDA), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Engr. Woke is a seasoned engineer and politician. He had served as Chairman of Emohua local government area of Rivers State and was Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, for many years.

Post-3rd Biennial Review: AAAN boss tasks Nigeria on infrastructure development - NaijaAgroNet

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The Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), Ms Ene Obi, has called for improved infrastructure investment to pave way for adequate and timely movement of agriculture produce nationwide, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at the National Dialogue & Dissemination on Nigeria’s Performance at the 3rd Biennial Review Exercise on the Implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development (CAADP), on Wednesday at Hawthorn Suites, Abuja in her welcome address, Ene, said, improved investment on infrastructure has become imperative especially in the agriculture sector to reduce number of wastages and increase preservations.

Why helping women is key to international aid, development

Commentary@NaijaAgroNet:

I am near the town of Ziniaré, about a two-hour drive from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. A hundred people are gathered under a huge baobab tree to welcome me before my visit to an agricultural project run by the Léger Foundation. Food insecurity affects about half of the country’s population.

After a short speech, I am taken to a small goat farm. Standing beside the fence, Iboudo Assèta tells me a story I will never forget.

Iboudo is a widow and the mother of six children. She is living with HIV and was identified by the project as a person who might have to leave her community to go to the city in order to provide for her family. Thanks to the work of our partners, she was able to access training, a business start-up kit and AIDS treatment.

Iboudo quickly decided to start up a farm with three animals provided by the project. With the support of a local training centre, she managed to expand her herd. She is now able to provide for her whole family with her new income. Her children are healthy, have enough to eat and go to school. One of her greatest sources of pride is having installed solar panels, which help them to do their homework in the evening.

Iboudo was not asking for help. On the contrary, she kept telling me how proud she is of her independence. Proud to be able to provide for her family. Proud to have escaped levirate, a custom that forces widows to marry their deceased husband’s brother.

A model of success for the women of her community, she passes on her know-how and expertise. Every day, she talks about how a person’s life can change simply by having access to the right resources.

This woman’s story affected me deeply because she shows the important role of women as agents of change in their communities. Iboudo and her story are part of a powerful evidence base that will underpin Canada’s new international assistance policy. This is a policy that will tackle gender inequalities. A policy that will address the significant obstacles faced by women and girls all around the world. A policy that will recognize the active role that women and girls can and must play in society for everyone’s benefit.

Our broad-cased consultations and the important evidence support this vision of development. According to the State of World Population 2016, a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a 10-year-old girl’s life trajectory will be the true test of whether the 2030 Agenda (the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations) is a success or a failure. And that trajectory is littered with pitfalls. 

For example, we still see serious gaps in access to sexual and reproductive health services. Every year, out of desperation, an estimated 22 million women and girls endanger their lives by undergoing unsafe abortions. The same is true for access to education. Because girls are disproportionately affected by gender-based violence or early and forced marriage, 62 million teenage girls in the world do not go to school or are frequently absent. That is double the number of boys.

To make a real difference, Canada must invest strategically. We have to consider women and girls at the beginning of every process. Are they being consulted? Are they involved in decisions? Do they play a role in implementing our programs and leading in solutions? In administrative terms, the empowerment of women is not a checkbox at the bottom of a form. It is the careful application of gender analysis to every project we fund.

Like Iboudo, the 400 participants in the Léger Foundation’s project form the “first brigade of pioneers” in the fight for food security. When they are given the resources to achieve their full potential, these strong, independent, engaged women are the most powerful agents of change, development and peace. They are the pillars on which we rely to address poverty and inequality, to adapt to climate change and to enhance peace and security in the world.

In this International Development Week, I would like to thank all Canadians and our partners who are working hard to build a fairer, more inclusive, more sustainable world.

Despite the magnitude of the challenges we are facing, let’s remember, like Iboudo, that significant change is brought about by the sum of all the little victories.

*Contributed by the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canadian Minister of International Development and La Francophonie

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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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IFAD, Mexico sign rural development support pact

NaijaAgroNet:

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations agency for rural development, and the Government of Mexico have signed a pact to promote entrepreneurship among the country’s poor rural people receiving social benefits, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The agreement to be implemented under the aegis of Rural Productive Inclusion Project (RPIP), IFAD said, will take effect in 26 municipalities in the states of Guerrero, Hidalgo and Zacatecas and expected to benefit some 12,800 families.

The total cost of the project is US$19.5 million, with IFAD financing covering $7.1 million. The rest will be funded by the Government of Mexico and by the beneficiaries themselves.

NaijaAgroNet reports that the project is designed to facilitate the access of beneficiaries of the country's largest conditional cash transfer programme (PROSPERA) to public programmes aimed at increasing rural productivity.

The IFAD’s Regional Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, Tomás Rosada, explained that basic social assistance in the form of cash transfers allows people to live in a more dignified way. This project aims to go beyond that.”

“It will help transform the lives of poor rural people who are currently dependent on the State’s transfers and make them rural entrepreneurs, capable of making a living by themselves,” he added.

To address rural poverty in a more effective way, the current Mexican administration has made “productive inclusion” a key policy objective. One way of achieving this is through the creation of synergies between conditional cash transfers and productive development programmes, which is at the heart of the Rural Productive Inclusion Project.

The Project will allow local promoters to assist beneficiaries in identifying profitable productive activities, which could vary from organic farming to small rural businesses. These promoters will then facilitate beneficiaries’ access to technical assistance and productive investments, so that they can increase their production and improve the quality of their products, making them suitable for markets.

Despite efforts made in recent decades by the Government of Mexico, large segments of the country’s rural population still live in poverty. Family farms – subsistence farms, not linked to markets and extremely low in productivity– represent 51 per cent of farms in rural areas. Increasing their capacity to produce will both improve the lives of family farmers and boost rural economies as a whole.

“By supporting rural poor people who live on government benefits to set up agricultural and non-agricultural rural enterprises, the project will not only improve their lives but also, and more importantly, will do so in a sustainable way,” explained Rosada.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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WAAP: Research, development critical for agricultural transformation

Commentary@NaijaAgroNet:

... Three observations from WAAPP initiative in Côte d'Ivoire.

Africa relies on rain fed agriculture to feed its people and millions of others around the world. Rain, however, isn’t always the most reliable partner in this endeavour. Realisation of agricultural transformation in Africa will need the continent to make some changes.

The World Bank, the International Water Management Institute and many others estimate rain fed agriculture coverage in sub Sahara Africa to be greater than 95%. This places a great deal of the continent’s food production at the mercy of temperamental rain and the effects of climate change.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to meet a farmer in Abidjan’s Azaguiè area who has broken his reliance on rain to feed his family. Albert Kangah is the proprietor of the Plantation Dougba, a plantain plantation dedicated to producing off-season plantain.

During regular plantain season, farmers can realize prices of about 100CFA per unit but off season plantain prices rise to highs of 600CFA. By planting 3 months after other farmers have planted and investing in irrigation equipment, Albert exploits the price increase to generate higher than average income from his farm. Albert’s story provides us with an example of the possible positive impact of adopting irrigation on livelihoods and signals the possibilities irrigation provides us in improving food and nutrition security on the continent. This is what agricultural transformation is all about.

Albert Kangah is a beneficiary of the West Africa Agriculture Productivity Program supported by the World Bank and running in 13 West African countries. The West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) was designed to respond to the challenges of improving agricultural productivity, an important part of any agriculture policy and central to the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). It started in 2008 under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with financial support from the World Bank (WB) and coordinated at sub-regional level by CORAF/WECARD.

WAAPP aims to generate and accelerate the adoption of improved technologies in key priority areas of the agriculture sectors in participating countries. It also aims to provide producers with technologies to enhance and improve the competitiveness of their produce. The generation of technologies and innovations, including new crop varieties, is done through participating national centers of specialization hosted by the national agriculture research centers of the member states.

In Côte d’Ivoire, WAAPP’s national center of specialization focuses on plantain with farmers like Albert benefiting from the new better yielding, pest and drought resistant varieties that become available. Thanks to the inventory of plantain on his farm, he produces at least 12 tonnes a year. He says plantain changed his life. It’s not hard to see why.

WAAPP is also investing in value chain development for the priority commodities in participating countries. One example is the adoption of technology from Senegal through which at least 15% of the flour used in baking bread and pastries is corn or cassava flour. Through an improved manufacturing process, the amount of wheat consumed would reduce while improving the value of cassava and corn for producers through increased demand and new use cases. Establishing partnerships with the Union of Bakery Owners of Cote d’Ivoire has made it possible for the project to expand from the pilot 10 bakeries using the composite flour in Abidjan to more than 50 in Abidjan and two other towns up country.

I made three observations from this visit to WAAPP project sites:

1. We need to ensure agriculture is a profitable business for Africa’s farmers if it is to become a key driver for Africa’s industrialization. Its profitability will draw young people to the farms and help lower the average age of Africa’s farmers while propelling efforts to reduce hunger, end poverty and reduce inequality on the continent.
2. Investment in research and development cannot be left to happenstance. It must be deliberate and determined by the agricultural transformation strategy in place at the national and regional level. Data from the Agriculture Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) shows Cote d’Ivoire’s spending, in 2011 PPP US dollars, has reduced by 50% between 1981 and 2011. During the same time the population more than doubled but plantain production did not resulting in lower per capita plantain production in 2011 than 30 years earlier. R&D on better varieties and increased adoption of better technologies could have been useful in avoiding this. They are now imperative to reversing the trend.
3. Increased production without investment in value chains development won’t deliver the added value to small holder farmers at the point of origin. WAAPP’s effort to invest in new use cases for cassava and corn flour could result in better prices and incentivize production whilst improving the nutritional value of pastries in Ivorian society.

The work being done by WAAPP partners provides valuable lessons for other regions in the continent especially where value chains development, R&D and regional collaboration on food and nutrition security is concerned. These are some of the elements which are important for CAADP compacts if Africa’s quest for agricultural transformation is to be realised.

*Muchiri Nyaggah, Executive Director, Local Development Research Institute (LDRI)

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Pix: Ivoiren farmer, Mr. Albert Kangah speaking to visiting journalists recently.

ASFRAD seeks to empower 500 fishery millionaires

NaijaAgroNet:

The Anambra State Fisheries Revolution and Development (ASFRAD) programme is expanding partnership to empower 500 fishery millionaires, reports NaijaAgroNet.

ASFRAD, NaijaAgroNet gathered had recently embarked on a lot of research, trainings and youth empowerment programmes to achieve this goal.

Sources to close to the government of Anambra State confirmed to NaijaAgroNet that a youth empowerment and entrepreneurial initiative being managed by the Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on Fisheries, Mr. Emeka Iloghalu, was held with the objective of making Anambra State Nigeria's number one in fish-farming.

NaijaAgroNet, equally gathered that recently, two major investors in the Fisheries sector, Chief Akai Egwuonwu of Stine Industries, Amichi and Chief Ben Egonu of Osummanu Fish Estate and Tourism Ltd, Ossomala, joined the Governor's programme of creating a minimum of 500 young millionaires from the fisheries sector in the next 1 year by sponsoring the training and empowerment of young fish farmers.

The first batch of 500 persons, NaijaAgroNet reports, are currently at the world-class Osummanu Fish Estate and Tourism Resort at Ossomala, Ogbaru Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State undergoing necessary training in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanization, Processing and Export.

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Pix by Emeka Iloghalu and Arinze Awogu

200 dead as late rains, floods threaten food security – SADC

NaijaAgroNet

Executive Secretary, Southern African development Community, (SADC) Dr. Lawrence Stergomena Tax, has at a recent SADC Council of Ministers meeting held in Harare, Zimbabwe confirmed that late last year’s floods and rains of early this year, has threatened food security in the Southern Africa region, NaijaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that the food security situation in the region is expected to be less than satisfactory during the 2015/16 marketing year as a result of poor rains in most parts of the region, dry spells in some areas, and floods in other areas.

Dr Tax, NaijaAgroNet learnt, expressed dissatisfaction over the situation, noting that SADC would continue to monitor the situation and support early warning for food security and vulnerability assessments in the member states.

In a report on food security assessment presented at the 34th SADC Summit held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in August last year, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the region had recorded a cereal surplus of more than 670 000 metric tonnes during the previous agricultural marketing season year.

This, according to the report, was mainly attributed to good rainfall, better access to inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, as well as credit facilities and extension services.

NaijaAgroNet also learnt that the floods of which affected parts of Southern Africa between late last year and early this year, left 200 people dead and 500,000 displaced in Malawi, while in Mozambique, about 27, 838 households suffered losses in cash crops.

Meanwhile SADC during the council meeting, deliberated on innovative ways of dealing with problems associated with changes in weather patterns, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Chairperson of the SADC Council of Ministers, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, said it was now time for the region to seek ways to curb increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods which adversely affects key sectors of the regional economy including agriculture.

Mumbengegwi, who is also Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister, told NaijaAgroNet that SADC to help deal with poor rains, would invest more in regional water infrastructure development such as irrigation, allowing the region to farm all year around and not only depend on climatic conditions to deal with poor rains.

As agriculture is the backbone of most economies in southern Africa, and more than 62 percent of the SADC region’s 277 million people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Council of Ministers, would canvass for an increased budget allocations to agriculture as well as targeted subsidy programmes that would result in farmers accessing agricultural inputs and farm implements at cheaper rates.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE 

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AWARD Fellows 2015: 3 Nigerians among top 10 top African women agricultural scientists

NaijaAgroNet:

 

Three Nigerian agro-scientists have been selected among top 10 fellows listed in the 70-people honoured at the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) 2015, reports NaijaAgroNet.

A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet by the Communications Assistant at AWARD, Judith Olang, hinted that Messrs Ngozi Edoh, Catherine Nwokwu and Juliana Amaka Ugwu.

NaijaAgroNet reports that the trio were among participants who had earlier relationship with AWARD as mentees, but now has grown to make the fellowship programme.

For Ngozi Edoh, a Research Scientist at the National Root Crops Research Institute Umudike in Abia State is currently focused on biosafety research and genetic improvement of root and tuber crops.

Catherine Nwokwu, NaijaAgroNet gathered is currently a post-graduate student at Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. 

Her vision for agricultural research and development is to develop at least five high yielding and drought tolerant rice varieties.

Equally, Juliana Amaka Ugwu, an entomologist, is also a former AWARD junior mentee, who is on a mission to develop ecological and environmentally friendly approaches to sustainable production of fruits and vegetables in Nigeria. Ugwu is currently a lecturer at the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria.

Also on the list of top 10 is Zambian Belinda Kaninga, who is a soil scientist  on the other hand is developing appropriate soil fertility technologies in order to improve agricultural production and income for smallscale farmers.

Kaninga is an Agricultural Research Officer at the Zambia Agriculture Research institute.A lecturer and researcher at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, Olivia Narciso Pedro was quoted in a press statement from Africa Press Organisation as saying, “Agricultural research and development in Mozambique is an important tool for increasing production, and consequently reducing household malnutrition and poverty, particularly in children and women.

According to her, “My vision for agriculture-led growth in Mozambique is to design alternatives to mitigate loss of genetic diversity, and ensure conservation of species, while improving household food security.”

This year’s laureates were selected from among an impressive cadre of 1,109 applicants from 11 African countries. These scientists and researchers will benefit from AWARD’s two-year career-development program that is focused on accelerating agricultural gains by strengthening their research and leadership skills.

AWARD Fellowships are granted on the basis of each scientist’s intellectual merit, leadership capacity, and the potential of her work to improve the livelihoods of African smallholder farmers, most of whom are women.

AWARD Fellows share a common vision: they want to translate their research and knowledge into tangible action, tangible action that will benefit smallholder farmers—especially laudable in 2015, the African Union’s Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063.

AWARD Director, Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg noted that they have a long journey ahead with women still under-represented in agricultural research and higher education in Africa.

“AWARD is at the forefront, working to increase the numbers of professional women at the decision making table in Agricultural Research and Development (ARD) across Africa.  We are committed to Africa's prosperity with this year's cohort of AWARD fellows joining our vibrant Pan- African community that is building the capacity of Africa’s women researchers to contribute to the continent’s food security,” Kamau-Rutenberg said.

Emphasising that they congratulate the 2015 winners of the AWARD Fellowship, noting that this special year, there were empowerment of women in all areas of development and these are being highlighted by the African Union.

“We are proud of the impact these women are making in their different areas, and the contribution that the fellowship will make in fast-tracking their innovation,” Dr. Kamau-Rutenberg said.

According to an AWARD benchmarking study, the majority of those who produce, process, and market Africa’s food are women, but only one in four agricultural researchers is female. Even fewer—one in seven—hold leadership positions in African agricultural research institutions.

In order for African agriculture to become an engine for prosperity and well-being, it is critical to cultivate a new generation of African leaders in food and agriculture, including technically competent, confident, and influential women.

This year’s AWARD laureates represent a wide range of agricultural disciplines and cutting-edge research—from evaluating aquatic pollution, climate smart agricultural practices, aflatoxin mitigation, capacity building and empowerment of rural women, to biotechnology.

 
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @AWARD2015, @Nigeria @FMARD
 
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