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Showing posts with label FAO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAO. Show all posts

Monday, April 3, 2017

Rice institute, FAO join forces to sustain global rice production


The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have agreed to cooperate more closely to support sustainable rice production in developing countries to improve food security and livelihoods while safeguarding natural resources, reports NaijaAgroNet.

An agreement signed recently in Rome, NaijaAgroNet gathered, seeks to better pool the scientific knowledge and technical know-how of the two organizations so that they can expand and intensify their work globally.

The partnership primarily aims to enhance sustainable rice-based farming systems through capacity building activities - including assisting governments draw up and implement national and regional policies and strategies - to the benefit of small-scale farmers, especially women.

"The world faces very significant changes over the next few decades to produce the volume and quality of nutritious food to feed a global population heading for 10 billion people," said IRRI Director-General Matthew K. Morell. 

"Addressing these issues relies on global partnerships, and today, IRRI is delighted to be reaffirming through this Memorandum of Agreement our commitment to work with FAO to enhance sustainable rice-based production and food systems through awareness raising, capacity development, knowledge exchange, and evidence-based analyses for policy support."

For the FAO Deputy Director-General, Climate and Natural Resources, Maria Helena Semedo, with over three billion people across the globe eating rice every day, rice is critical to global food security.


"Ensuring sustainable rice production is a key contribution to the global goal of ending hunger. By teaming up with IRRI, already a long-standing partner, we will be able to scale up, complement and amplify our work towards reaching this goal," Semedo said.

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Thursday, March 23, 2017

Amid Chinese outbreak: FAO, WHO say surveillance, laboratory testing, clean markets to contain changing H7N9 virus

International organisations are rallying round China in reinforcing control amid outbreak of avian influenza, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Experts also said that a resurgent outbreak of a new strain of avian influenza that could be lethal 
for humans underscores the need for robust and rapid detection and response systems at animal source.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that this could reduce the risk associated with virus spread and impacts on public health, according to Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet reports that human cases of the H7N9 virus, first detected in China four years ago, have suddenly increased since December 2016 and it is estimated, that as of early March 2017, there have been more reported human cases of influenza A (H7N9) than those caused by other types of avian influenza viruses (H5N1, H5N6, etc.) combined.

As during previous waves, most of the patients infected reported a history of visiting live bird markets or coming into contact with infected birds. Since 2013, China has invested heavily in surveillance of live bird markets and poultry farms. However the surveillance of this virus has proven particularly challenging as until recently it has shown no or few signs of disease in chickens.

"Considering the potential for mutation of avian influenza virus, constant surveillance by national Veterinary Services of the different strains circulating in animals in their country is essential to protect both animal and human health", explains  Matthew Stone, Deputy Director General of the OIE.

"To protect human health and people's livelihoods, it is essential to tackle the disease at its source in poultry: efforts need to target eliminating H7N9 from affected farms and markets," said Vincent Martin, FAO's Representative in China.


"Targeted surveillance to detect the disease and clean infected farms and live bird markets, intervening at critical points along the poultry value chain - from farm to table - is required. There should be incentives for everybody involved in poultry production and marketing to enforce disease control."

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Wednesday, February 22, 2017

FAO, UNICEF, WFP deploy massive relief operation

The trio of the United Nations Agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP), with other partners, have conducted massive relief operations since the conflict began, and intensified those efforts throughout 2016 to mitigate the worst effects of the humanitarian crisis, reports NaijaAgroNet.

For example, the said that in Northern Bahr El Ghazal state, among others, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment team found that humanitarian relief had lessened the risk of famine there.

Also, FAO has provided emergency livelihood kits to more than 2.3 million people to help them fish or plant vegetables. FAO has also vaccinated more than 6 million livestock such as goats and sheep to prevent further loss.

While WFP continued to scale up its support in South Sudan as humanitarian needs increase, and plans to provide food and nutrition assistance to 4.1 million people through the hunger season in South Sudan this year.

This, NaijaAgroNet gathered, includes lifesaving emergency food, cash and nutrition assistance for people displaced and affected by conflict, as well as community-based recovery or resilience programs and school meals. 

In 2016, WFP reached a record 4 million people in South Sudan with food assistance - including cash assistance amounting to US$13.8 million, and more than 265,000 metric tons of food and nutrition supplies. It is the largest number of people assisted by WFP in South Sudan since independence, despite problems resulting from the challenging context.

UNICEF aims to treat 207,000 children for severe acute malnutrition in 2017. Working with over 40 partners and in close collaboration with WFP, UNICEF is supporting 620 outpatient therapeutic programme sites and about 50 inpatient therapeutic sites across the country to provide children with urgently needed treatment.


Through a rapid response mechanism carried out jointly with WFP, UNICEF continues to reach communities in the most remote locations. These rapid response missions treat thousands of children for malnutrition as well as provide them with immunization services, safe water and sanitation which also prevent recurring malnutrition.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

FAO urges support for small farmers’ adaption to climate change

Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has urged more support for small farmers to enable them adapt to climate change, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Failure to act now, FOA said will affect food systems being more resilient to climate change, thus "seriously compromise" food production in many regions and could doom to failure international efforts to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2030.

Director-General, FAO, Mr. José Graziano da Silva gave this caution on Monday, at a roundtable on climate change during the World Government Summit in Dubai, saying that agriculture holds the key to solving two of the greatest problems now facing humanity: eradicating poverty and hunger, and contributing to maintaining the stable climatic conditions in which civilization can thrive.

He stressed in particular the need to support smallholder farmers in the developing world adapt to climate change.

"The vast majority of the extremely poor and hungry depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. They are the most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming and an unstable climate," he said.

Innovative approaches, he said, exist that could help them improve yields and build their resilience, he said, such as green manuring, greater use of nitrogen-fixing cover crops, improving sustainable soil management, agroforestry techniques, and integrating animal production into cropping systems.


"But farmers face major barriers, such as the lack of access to credit and markets, lack of knowledge and information, insecurity about land tenure, and high transaction costs of moving away from existing practices," the Director-General noted.

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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

FAO, Japan strategise on how to bolster stronger partnership

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Japan have concluded a high-level meeting meant on bolstering stronger partnership, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The talks, NaijaAgroNet gathered centred on Sustainable Development Goals and improving outreach to Japanese public.

The meeting hosted by FAO saw a delegation from Japan attending in a bid for both sides to commit to a strong relationship between the UN agency responsible for fighting hunger and its second-largest contributor to the core budget.

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sent a number of senior officials to the meeting, one of a series aimed at crafting a strategic plan for further advancing the key partnership. The broader Japanese delegation underscored the increasingly geopolitical nature of assuring food security and putting agriculture on a sustainable and responsible footing in an era of globalization and border-hopping challenges such as climate change.

Japan is a major advocate of the Sustainable Development Agenda, which targets the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger everywhere by 2030.

Along with being the No. 2 donor to FAO's regular budget after the United States of America, Japan has been a major funder of emergency relief projects, notably in Afghanistan and in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. It also by choice boosts FAO's resources for work on the Codex Alimentarius - the world's food safety guidelines - as well as capacity-building efforts to help developing countries assess their vulnerability to climate stress, South-South cooperation initiatives sharing Japanese rice-growing and aquaculture techniques with African nations.

Japan is also a robust sponsor of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems conservation effort and is home to eight of those designated sites.

The meeting aimed at advancing coordinated approaches to key goals, including concrete actions and longer-term plans that can further strengthen the partnership and make progress towards the SDGs.
In addition, NaijaAgroNet reports that Japanese officials including those in charge of economic security, international organizations and agriculture, were briefed on FAO's resilience-boosting programmes for emergency efforts, the ongoing effort to combat desertification in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, nutrition initiatives in Africa, various developments in the fisheries and forestry sectors, as well as on FAO's work in linking smallholder farmers to commercial markets, its partnership strategy with the private sector, and on the guidelines for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems.

The visitors also discussed FAO's Strategic Framework and 2018-21 Medium Term Plan and the results-based management of the Organization's current activities.


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Friday, January 20, 2017

FAO tasks stakeholders to act on water scarcity

The Director-General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, has called for a better water management and improved access for small farmers, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He underscored the growing water scarcity, saying its now one of the leading challenges for sustainable development, and that challenge is poised to intensify as the world's population continues to swell and climate change intensifies.

Competition for water will intensify as humanity's numbers exceed 9 billion people around 2050 — already, millions of family farmers in developing countries suffer from lack of access to freshwater, while conflicts over water resources already surpass those tied to land disputes in some regions, he noted in remarks made at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (19-21 January) in Berlin.

Additionally, climate change is already altering hydrological regimes everywhere, Graziano da Silva said, citing estimates that around one billion people in dry regions may face increasing water scarcity in the near future. These are regions with a high concentration of extreme poverty and hunger.

Agriculture is both a major cause and casualty of water scarcity. Farming accounts for around 70 percent of fresh water withdrawals in the world today, and also contributes to water pollution due to pesticides and chemicals. 


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Sunday, January 1, 2017

FAO projects new jobs, food to vulnerable Iraqis

An estimated 200,000 people from Mosul and across Iraq will be able to earn an income for the first time since the Islamic State of the Levant (ISIL) took parts of the area in 2014, thanks to a new FAO project that is restoring irrigation to 250 000 hectares of farmland, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Water will soon be flowing again through the canals that used to feed the once-fertile land some 30 km west of Mosul - Iraq's third largest city. Through the cash-for-work component of the project, FAO supports vulnerable families who need money for daily needs, including food and clothes, heating and transport. Many of them have not had paid employment for at least two years.

Participants are clearing the main canal of the northern Al Jazeera irrigation scheme of dirt, stones and debris, which will allow it to again feed small canals throughout the farming landscape.

FAO has also repaired the pumping station that feeds the canal system from Mosul Dam. And, for the first time, the agency is collaborating with a demining company to clear valuable farmland around the canals of undetonated ordinances, so farmers can plant crops and graze their livestock safely.

The project is already benefiting more than 3 000 people and is essential in getting farming activities in the area back underway.

"Farmers here haven't been able to grow vegetables for two years, since the irrigation canals were destroyed by armed groups who also contaminated the area with explosive devices," said Fadel El-Zubi, FAO Representative in Iraq. "Restoring people's ability to farm and trade in this area is not only important for food security but also for building prosperity and lasting peace in the country," he added.

Farmers in the region used to export vegetables and crops, including wheat and barley, to Syria and other countries, as well as supplying millions of people in Iraq. Now the country relies on fruit and vegetable imports.

"We collect debris in piles, and then merge every four piles into one big one for the excavator to pick up and remove from the canal," said 23-year-old Ahmed Mohammed, a father of three. "My brother has agricultural land and he'll benefit from the project as well. He used to grow wheat and barley in the winter and vegetables at other times. Now he can only grow vegetables when the rain falls."

The Al Jazeera irrigation scheme used to be an essential source of water for agriculture, livestock and domestic use. Some 100 smaller canals in the system were damaged, bridges were also blown up and the damaged pumping station was working under capacity, resulting in extreme water shortages.


As the Government of Iraq retakes control of more areas, a major effort is needed to rehabilitate critical infrastructure so that agricultural production can resume and livelihoods can be restored. FAO is seeking urgent funding of $89 million to strengthen its emergency response, including rehabilitating damaged agricultural infrastructure, supporting farmers to vaccinate and feed their livestock, and expanding cash-for-work and other income-generating activities.

FAO's work, in coordination with the Iraqi government, supports families returning to reclaimed areas, internally displaced families, host communities and refugees from Syria. The current project on the Al Jazeera irrigation scheme is funded through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

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Pix: Da Silva, Director-General, FAO

Friday, December 30, 2016

Drought: Somalia, Kenya benefits from FAO's Early Warning fund

The two countries of Somalia and Kenya are among the first countries to benefit from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO's) new Early Warning Early Action Fund (EWEA), reports NaijaAgroNet.

The fund, NaijaAgroNet gathered, ensures quick activation of emergency plans when there is a high likelihood of a disaster that would affect agriculture and people's food and nutrition security.

Also, NaijaAgroNet reports that the fund will be part of a larger Early Warning Early Action System that tracks climate data and earth imaging to determine what areas are at risk of an imminent shock and will benefit from early intervention.

Although at the time of filing this report, FAO has not disclosed how much the benefits to the two countries are worth.


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Monday, November 21, 2016

FAO, WFP lament Syria food production at all-time low

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) have raised alarm over the all-time low of food production in the war-torn Syria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The duo in a joint press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet at the weekend, both FAO and WFP, said the food production in Syria has hit a record low as widespread insecurity and unfavourable weather conditions in parts of the country continued to hamper access to land, farming supplies and markets.

These, NaijaAgroNet gathered, have made it ever more difficult for farmers to maintain their livelihoods and feed the war-torn country.

According to the latest Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) showed that after five years of conflict, many farmers have lost the ability to cope.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that rising prices and scarcity of essential inputs such as fertilizers and seeds mean they will have no other option than to abandon food production if they do not receive immediate support.

In addition, this, they said, will likely have grave consequences not only for the food security of farming households but also on food availability in the country, and may ultimately lead to further displacements.

Further, NaijaAgroNet reports that cereals top the list at an all-time low production in Syria, even as the area planted with cereals in the 2015-16 cropping season is the smallest ever, according to the report, based on field visits and surveys across the country.

Part of the reports read “Farmers planted an estimated 900,000 hectares of wheat in the last year, compared to 1.5 million hectares planted before the crisis. Production, meanwhile, shows an even more drastic decline, from an average 3.4 million tonnes of wheat harvested before the war to 1.5 million tonnes this year - a decrease of 55 percent.”

The FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, because the ongoing crisis and associated sanctions have disrupted trade and markets, access to quality seeds, fertilizers, machinery and fuel needed to operate pumps and tractors is limited.

“Those inputs that are available on local markets are frequently overpriced and of dubious quality,” he observed.

Stressing that poor rainfall and the destruction of valuable irrigation infrastructure has made matters worse for growers trying to continue to produce food under adverse circumstances. In some instances, this has led farmers to switch from cultivating valuable and nutritious crops to hardier but less nutritious ones.

He pointed out that at the same time, the assessment showed vast differences among the governorates in terms of access to land and agricultural inputs − a sign of possible opportunities to intensify support to producers in areas that are relatively accessible.

"Today, we see almost 80 per cent of households across Syria struggling with a lack of food or money to buy food - and the situation is only going to become worse if we fail to support farmers so they can maintain their lands and livelihoods. Agriculture was the main source of livelihood for rural households before the crisis and it is still producing to a certain extent, but it is stretched to the maximum and farmers have largely exhausted their capacity to cope," he declared.

For Muhannad Hadi, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and East Europe, the food security situation of millions of people inside Syria continues to deteriorate with more than seven million people classified as food insecure across the country having exhausted their life savings and no longer able to put food on the table for their families.


"WFP and FAO are working together to invest in more livelihood projects in agriculture as the most effective way to address food insecurity in the long term," he said.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

FAO wants UN member states to take concrete action on malnutrition


The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has called on the government across the world to take concrete action on malnutrition in all its forms, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva also said that the United Nations (UN) Decade of Nutrition offers a critical window for advances.

He also pointed out that the 10 years running until 2025, will be a critical time for action to build healthy and sustainable food systems and end malnutrition in all its forms, stressed at the just ended United Nations General Assembly celebrating the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition.

"The purpose of the Decade of Action on Nutrition is to continue to draw the world`s attention to the importance of combatting malnutrition," he said, reminding governments of their commitments made at the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in 2014 and called on them to transform those commitments into action through national policies and programmes.

Better governance on nutrition globally, he said, "starts at country level" emphasizing that nowadays, one in three people worldwide, pointing out that nearly 2.5 billion people suffer from at least one form of malnutrition, ranging from hunger to obesity to a lack of critical nutrients.


"FAO has maintained a great synergy with WHO in leading the efforts in the fight against all forms of malnutrition. WHO is the lead in nutrition and FAO is here to complement that work. FAO has developed a work plan focused on the promotion of healthy food and healthy diets through nutritional education and the transformation of food systems," said Graziano da Silva.

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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

$5m vote to combat rogue fishery says FAO

The sum of $5 million, about N157,6247,836.60 to combat rogue fishery according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Graziano da Silva disclosed this at the Our Ocean Conference in the United States capital, said, FAO has secured $5 million for this global programme, including funding from the organization's own resources.

FAO is also collaborating with Google to develop new platforms and research methodologies to support countries in improving their monitoring, control and surveillance of fishing activities.

Each year, illegal, he said, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is responsible for annual catches of up to 26 million tonnes, with a value of up to USD 23 billion.

This, he also said, undermines efforts to ensure sustainable fisheries and responsible fish stock management around the world.

In order to boost small-scale fisheries, Graziano da Silva highlighted to participants the need to increase support for small-scale fisheries on which 110 million people - 97 per cent of them in developing countries - depend for their livelihoods.

"They are among the poorest communities in the world and they risk to be further marginalized," the FAO Director-General warned.


He invited donors to support an ongoing FAO initiative that is aimed at providing policy support, promoting the sharing of experiences and empowering small-scale fisheries communities in the context of poverty eradication. Some $2.5 million have already been secured for this work, but more support is needed.

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Friday, September 9, 2016

FAO, USAID deal to enthrone new age in agricultural data collection

NaijaAgroNet:
A new age of data collection in the agriculture sector may have taken root with the recent agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to the tune of $15 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the FAO Chief Statistician, Pietro Gennari, from the two organisations, the need for better, cost-effective and timely statistical data for agricultural and rural areas is widely recognized. 


Critical gaps in data production and dissemination persist in several countries - a consequence of long-standing issues such as shortages of financial and human resources, and the resulting limitations in technical capacities. 

FAO, Gennari noted has already been addressing such issues through the" Global Strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics" (GSARS) programme, an umbrella effort working to enhance  the capacity of developing countries to produce and use agricultural and rural statistics and to strengthen statistical governance mechanisms. AGRIS is a spin-off of the Global Strategy's research programme. 


"With efforts like our Global Strategy and ‘next generation' tools like AGRIS, we're engaging with partners to spark what we hope will be a new era in agricultural data collection," Gennari said.


AGRIS, 
NaijaAgroNet, is being implemented by FAO within the context of the multi-agency Global Rural and Agricultural Integrated Surveys (GRAInS) Partnership, which is currently establishing in Rome as a Global Survey Hub.


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Monday, August 29, 2016

‘Role of food security to conflict prevention’

The role of food security and agriculture have an essential role to play in preventing conflicts and crises on the African continent, blunting their impacts and acting as engines for post-crisis recovery, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Mr. José Graziano da Silva gave this highlight in address to African leaders and international development actors in Nairobi, Kenya, at the foremost summits on African development.

"Ending hunger and malnutrition, addressing humanitarian and protracted crises, preventing and resolving conflicts, and building peace are not separate tasks, but simply different facets of the same challenge," Graziano da Silva said at a side-event on ‘Peace and Food Security', hosted by FAO, at the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI).

Graziano da Silva was among the high-level delegations who attended in the opening ceremony of TICAD VI, led by the President of the Republic of Kenya and the Prime Minister of Japan.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that the conference which brings together policy makers, UN agencies and financial institutions, among others aimed at promoting high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and their partners and mobilize support for African-owned development initiatives.

The link between conflict prevention and development is of particular importance in the region, which is host to nearly 60 percent of active UN Peacekeeping Missions. And whilst armed conflicts across Africa as a whole have decreased in recent years, this trend has been uneven across the continent.

"Much of FAO's work aims at promoting sustainable development and building the resilience of rural populations," Graziano da Silva said, giving concrete examples of countries where agricultural support helped secure the transition from wars to sustainable peace, including Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"By supporting agriculture and rural development, we help create jobs, provide income and boost youth employment. This can help prevent distress migration and radicalization, as well as mitigate disputes over depleted resources," he said.


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Pix; FAO D-G, Mr. José Graziano da Silva

Monday, August 22, 2016

FAO warns of likely outbreak of crop, livestock diseases in Ethiopia

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Representative to Ethiopia, Amadou Allahoury, has warned that if the current floods in the country continues, it could lead to crop and livestock diseases, reports NaijaAgroNet.

"If floods worsen later this year, there could be outbreaks of crop and livestock diseases, further reducing agricultural productivity and complicating recovery,” Allahoury declared.

The situation, Allahoury said, is critical now and urged the world make sure that farmers will be able to plant between now and September and grow enough food to feed themselves and their families thus avoiding millions of people having to rely on food assistance for another year.

“Ethiopia needs urgent global support to respond to its humanitarian needs, we have no time to procrastinate," Allahoury said.

The FAO official described the meher season as Ethiopia's main agricultural season and produces up to 85 per cent of the nation's food supplies.

Also, Allahoury warned that if the farmers do not plant enough now, Ethiopia may face significant food shortages, which may further exacerbate food and nutrition insecurity in the country.

“To ensure the last remaining planting window of the year is met, an estimated $8.8 million is needed to provide root crop planting materials, legumes, vegetable and cereal seed to 530 000 households,” the representative said.


NaijaAgroNet reports that FAO estimated that households who lost small ruminants such as sheep may need at least two years to return to pre-drought levels, while cattle-owning households may need up to four years to recover. While animals that survived the recent drought are still weak and susceptible to diseases during the rainy periods; $36.2 million is required to undertake the necessary interventions to support 2.4 million livestock-dependent households or 12 million people.

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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

UN, Japan, Belgium, EU, CERF raise $4.9m for Northeast farmers return to land

The United Nations agency known as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has drummed fiscal support worth $4.9m, about N1,569,225,000 billion for its programme in northeast Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as FAO informed NaijaAgroNet that the fund so far was contributed from its internal special emergency fund alongside the Japan, Belgium, the European Commission (ECHO) and the United Nations Central Emergency Fund (CERF).

The agency also said its currently targeting an additional 85,000 people with horticulture packages to prepare for the upcoming irrigated season.

FAO's Emergency and Response Manager in Nigeria, Mr. Tim Vaessen, lamented that by growing their own healthy and nutritious food would reduce need for future external food assistance.

“Families who have access to land and are ready to farm can harvest in six to eight weeks," Vaessen said.

FAO's activities in Nigeria, he said, remained constrained by a serious lack of funding, but pointed out that till-date, FAO has received just $ 4.9 million, of which almost 20 per cent came from FAO's own Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities.

Whereas, FAO's programme in northeast Nigeria is also funded by Japan, Belgium, the European Commission (ECHO) and the United Nations Central Emergency Fund (CERF).

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Monday, August 15, 2016

Northeast: FAO seeks $10m funding to assist 385,000 Nigerians with farming support

The Food and Agriculture Organisaiton (FAO) has said its seeking funding to the tune of $10 million to provide emergency agricultural support to internally displaced people and host families, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO told NaijaAgroNet that urgent action is needed to provide farming and livelihood support to 385,000 people in parts of Nigeria's northeast where food insecurity is rampant.

As said by FAO in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet, the resumption of agricultural activities in these areas is of utmost priority to ensure that people can produce enough food for themselves.

FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, Bukar Tijani, said “This includes those who have been internally displaced by the conflict as well as communities who have been hosting them.”

These populations, Tijani noted, need urgent assistance to recover their livelihoods, which are mostly based on crop farming, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture and livestock production, stressing that for the last three to four years this has not been possible due to the conflict.

As at press time, over 3 million people are affected by acute food insecurity in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.

The FAO's Emergency and Response Manager in Nigeria, Tim Vaessen, revealed that FAO has launched a full-scale corporate response to the ongoing crisis and urgently requires $10 million to supply seeds, fertilizers and irrigation equipment for the upcoming irrigated dry season.

Meanwhile, he said, FAO is preparing its response for the main agricultural season for which even more resources are required.

"This year, significant territory previously controlled by Boko Haram has been rendered accessible to humanitarian assistance so we have a critical opportunity to tackle the alarming levels of food insecurity in northeast Nigeria," Vaessen said.

He explained that with funds received to-date, FAO has reached over 123,000 people to improve their food security by enabling them to grow their own food during the ongoing rain-fed season.


While this assistance is crucial, FAO said it reached just a fraction of those in need of support and now is seeking funds to support irrigated crop production, livestock restocking and animal health treatment, including disease control and supplementary feed, in the newly liberated areas. ##

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Pix: FAO/Sonia Nguyen … A displaced farmer preparing land for planting in Kukarata, northeastern Nigeria.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

FAO says ‘When protecting forests, don't forget the trees’

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that forests have an acclaimed role as a carbon sink needed to tackle climate change and called to mind that when protecting forests, people should not forget the trees, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO, in its latest study said that less known is how their contribution could be scaled up even after a tree has been logged.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the new publication, Forestry for a low-carbon future: Integrating forests and wood products in climate change strategies, offered insights in how to catalyse a "virtuous cycle" that exploits the life cycle of wood products - ranging from home furniture to wood pellets burned for fuel - to enhance and even multiply the well-known ability of forests to remove and store carbon from the atmosphere.

The Assistant Director-General for Forestry, René Castro-Salazar, said that forests are at the heart of the transition to low-carbon economies, stressing "not only because of their double role as sink and source of emissions, but also through the wider use of wood products to displace more fossil fuel intense products."

Forests, Castro-Salazar pointed out, do herculean work in locking carbon dioxide into leaves, branches and soils, while deforestation and forest degradation account for up to 12 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. The relative speed and cost-effectiveness with which forests make their presence - or absence - felt is one key reason they figure prominently in the plans countries are crafting to meet commitments made in the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Designed primarily for policy makers and experts but of interest to architects and the energy industry, the report - the fruit of innovative collaboration involving more than 100 experts - looks at how forests can be harnessed to the global climate change challenge.


FAO further said that its guiding message is that optimal engineering of the carbon lifecycle of trees and wood products allows, over the long term, for sustainably harvested forests to complement and even enhance the climate mitigation benefits provided by conserved forests.

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Wednesday, July 20, 2016

2bn people live in drylands globally says FAO

A total of 2 billion people live in drylands globally says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports NaijaAgroNet.

The new study from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) helps to fill a significant knowledge gap on the presence and extent of forests and trees in the world's drylands, where the food security and livelihoods of millions of people, already precarious, are increasingly being threatened by climate change.

The study's preliminary findings made available to NaijaAgroNet Tuesday showed the full report will be launched later this year, showed that trees are present with hugely varying densities on almost one-third of the world's 6.1 billion hectares of drylands, which cover an area more than twice the size of Africa. Almost 18 percent of this area contains forests.

In addition to an estimated 2 billion people, FAO said, 90 percent of whom are in developing countries, live in drylands. Recent studies have indicated the need to restore these areas to cope with the effects of drought, desertification and land degradation.

In particular, water availability in drylands is expected to decline further due to changes in climate and land use.  Poor people living in remote rural areas will be most vulnerable to food shortages, which combined with violence and social upheaval, are already leading to forced migration in dryland regions in Africa and western Asia.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that until now, there has been little statistically based knowledge on dryland trees - particularly those growing outside forests - despite their vital importance to humans and the environment.


FAO further said that the leaves and fruit of trees are sources of food for people and fodder for animals; their wood provides fuel for cooking and heating and can be a source of income for poor households; trees protect soils, crops and animals from the sun and winds, while forests are often rich in biodiversity.

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