UN agencies provide seeds, tools and food to drought stricken areas

NaijaAgroNet:

Two United Nations (UN) agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have commenced provision of seeds, hand tools and food to nearly 50,000 hungry farming families in the most food-insecure areas of the Central African Republic (CAR), NaijaAgroNet reports.

This, NaijaAgroNet gathered is being done under the ‘seed protection’ initiative of the UN in which FAO uses to provide crop and vegetable seeds, while WFP provides groundnuts, maize, rice, sorghum, and beans to the same families.

The FAO country representative Jean-Alexandre Scaglia, said that “critical we make sure families don't cope with the current scarcity by eating their seeds meant for planting”, while the WFP Central African Republic Country Director, BienvenuDjossa, said that the food provided by WFP ensures that the seeds get planted and families don't go hungry at the same time, saying, "Our support now can help people escape the vicious cycle of hunger."

It was gathered by NaijaAgroNet that the exercise is being funded by governments of Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the African Development Bank, the European Union and ECHO, the FondsBêkou, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, the Common Humanitarian Fund for the Central African Republic, UN Women, and the World Bank.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that another 50,000 families will be supported during the second planting season in August/September, meaning 100,000 families in total (500,000 people) will be supported under the initiative this year, which is not enough as the WFP requires US$83 million to respond to the urgent needs of 1.4 million people until the end of September in CAR and in neighbouring countries hosting Central African Republic refugees, while the FAO is appealing for US$86 million to support 1.55 million people with inputs to produce crops and keep their livestock healthy, and strengthen the government's efforts to boost food security. However, there is a serious funding gap, to date only 8 percent of these requirements have been met.

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El Niño may have devastating impact on Southern Africa’s harvests

NaijaAgroNet:

The quadruple of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have raised an alarm that El Niño may have devastating impact on Southern Africa’s harvests, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In a joint press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet, they also noted that Southern Africa is currently in the grip of an intense drought that has expanded and strengthened since the earliest stages of the 2015-2016 agricultural season, driven by one of the strongest El Niño events of the last 50 years.

They also noted that across large swathes of Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, and Madagascar, the current rainfall season has so far been the driest in the last 35 years. Agricultural areas in northern Namibia and southern Angola have also experienced high levels of water deficit.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet gathered that much of the southern African sub-region has consequently experienced significant delays in planting and very poor conditions for early crop development and pasture re-growth. In many areas, planting has not been possible due to 30 to 50 day delays in the onset of seasonal rains resulting in widespread crop failure.

Experts noted that although there has been some relief since mid-January in certain areas, the window of opportunity for the successful planting of crops under rain-fed conditions is nearly closed.

Seasonal forecasts from a variety of sources are unanimous in predicting a continuation of below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures across most of the region for the remainder of the growing season.

The combination of a poor 2014-2015 season, an extremely dry early season (October to December) and forecasts for continuing hot and drier-than-average conditions through mid-2016 suggest a scenario of extensive, regional-scale crop failure.

In addition, South Africa has issued a preliminary forecast of maize production for the coming harvest of 7.4 million tonnes, a drop of 25 percent from the already poor production levels of last season and 36 percent below the previous five-year average.

These conditions follow a 2014-2015 agricultural season that was similarly characterized by hot, dry conditions and a 23 percent drop in regional cereal production. This drop has increased the region’s vulnerability due to the depletion of regional cereal stocks and higher-than-average food prices, and has substantially increased food insecurity.

The numbers of the food insecure population are now increasing due to the current drought and high market prices. It is expected that the population in need of emergency food assistance and livelihood recovery support will increase significantly.

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e-Agriculture, solution to world food crises

NaijaAgroNet:

 A forum co-convened by the United Nations (UN’s) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has hinted that guidelines to improve the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

This according to FAO officials have gains which could bring innovation in agricultural technology, ensure more efficient food production, mitigate food losses and attract the younger generation to become successful farmers – are close at hand,

FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Hiroyuki Konuma, told NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that the applications of validated e-Agriculture processes will be a great addition to innovative agricultural production, attract young generation in agriculture and help safeguard farmers from losses, especially small holders.

“These applications could range from a farmer using a smart phone to scan the barcode of a packet of certified seeds – something that could ensure quality and a fair price, to the installation of low-cost sensors at the village-level for hyper local weather information. The lack of available and correct information at the right time and in the right format is a major obstacle to many activities along the traditional agricultural value chain and this is something that e-Agriculture could help address efficiently,” he said.

Konuma also told NaijaAgroNet during the opening of an “e-Agriculture Stakeholders Consultation” attended by government officials and researchers, primarily from Asia, Africa and Near East to the three day event in the Thai capital, pointed out that the finalization of the e-Agriculture Strategy Guide and its applications for national context is ongoing.

“Countries have tried to implement e-Agriculture solutions in isolation,” Konuma pointed out. “This guide provides valuable guidelines and offers a template to implement sustainable e-Agriculture services.” Concerns over food losses due to natural disasters, or lack of timely information during planting or harvesting, along with increased pressure for food traceability – all offer entry points for the application of proven ICT interventions in agriculture

Konuma added the e-Agriculture Stakeholders Consultation is co-convened by FAO, ITU and CTA – the Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation

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Farmers could cut emissions while boosting production- FAO

 

NaijaAgroNet:

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said that farmers could earn more and protect the environment by using technologies and practices that reduce the global warming gases that livestock emit.

This statement was issued by the FAO in its report of five case studies which suggested that the potential for mitigation is greatest among low-productivity ruminant producers in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.

NaijaAgroNet gathered from the report of the study that raising livestock such as pigs, cattle and poultry generates climate-altering gases with an impact equivalent to 7.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, representing 14.5 per cent of all human-caused greenhouse gas (GHC) emissions.

According to the report the challenge stem from reducing emissions while meeting the soaring demand for livestock products which is a demand that is projected to rise by more than 70 per cent between 2005 and 2050.

The FAO's Assistant Director-General for Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Ren Wang said that “only 10 per cent of producers currently use technologies which could, if taken up more widely, cut the emissions from all livestock species by up to 30 per cent while boosting production. Currently, the majority of the livestock sector's emissions originate from cattle, with beef production contributing 41 per cent and cattle milk production contributing 20 per cent.

“In terms of activities, the worst culprit is feed production and processing, which accounts for 45 per cent of emissions from livestock-related practices. This is followed by manure storage and processing, which is responsible for ten per cent of these emissions. In the case of ruminants, such as cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats, using better quality feeds would lower the amount of methane they emit during digestion as well as the quantity of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide released by their decomposing manure.”

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EU, FAO partner to help six countries achieve MDG on hunger

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

Less than two years before the deadline set to achieve international development goals, the European Union (EU) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have teamed up to reduce world hunger by assisting two million people in six countries with agricultural development activities worth nearly €60 million about N15.6 billion.

The funding comes from a €1 billion, about N259.4 billion EU initiative that aims to foster speedier progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

During a special event on the Millennium Development Goals at the UN General Assembly, FAO’s Director-General José Graziano da Silva said "So close to the deadline, when there is still so much to do, this good investment in agriculture will enable FAO to increase its efforts to eradicate hunger and do even more to help countries halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015."

Commenting on the development the EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said "I find it unacceptable in the 21st century that some 870 million people are still going hungry and malnutrition is responsible for over 3 million child deaths annually. This funding underlines our commitment to stepping up our work on hunger and to meeting the MDGs.”

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the MDG-initiative promotes strong partnerships with the UN agencies, while the EU and FAO focus on agricultural development involving smallholder farmers and their families on improved nutrition in Burudi, Burkina Faso,Gambia , Haiti, Madagascar and Mozambique.

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