NEPAD warns of food shortage

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has warned of food shortage on the continent, saying Africa is the most prone to food insecurity.

NEPAD revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that Africa needs energy security in order to get out of poverty and achieve food security.

Speaking at a workshop on linking bioenergy and food security in Africa recently, the chief executive officer, NEPAD, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki said transformation in energy generation and services is necessary to achieve food security in Africa.

Also, experts at the workshop agreed that African countries have to progressively move away from the use of fossil fuels and increase the share of renewable energy sources in their total energy mix.

Other energy highlighted by the experts include solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal; that bioenergy would play a major role in the coming decades on the continent.

Prof. Emile Van Zyl of the University of Stellenbosch said Africa has the potential to be a major player alongside Brazil in the biofuels trade if it applies modern technology as Africa produces 606 million litres of biofuels equivalent of 2 per cent of the global trade with South Africa alone accounting for more than half of the total output.

 NaijaAgroNet further gathered that the technical arm of the African Union (AU) Commission, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency has a vision to give 35 per cent of African population access to energy in the next 20 years.

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Africa most prone to food shortage - NEPAD

Chief Executive Officer, NEPAD, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki

Available statistics from the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) show that Africa is the most prone to food insecurity as it affects a larger percentage of the continent's population.

NEPAD revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that Africa needs energy security in order to get out of poverty and achieve food security.

Speaking at a workshop on linking bioenergy and food security in Africa recently, the chief executive officer, NEPAD, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki said transformation in energy generation and services is necessary to achieve food security in Africa.

Also, experts at the workshop agreed that African countries have to progressively move away from the use of fossil fuels and increase the share of renewable energy sources in their total energy mix.

Other energy highlighted by the experts include solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal; that bioenergy would play a major role in the coming decades on the continent.

Prof. Emile Van Zyl of the University of Stellenbosch said Africa has the potential to be a major player alongside Brazil in the biofuels trade if it applies modern technology as Africa produces 606 million litres of biofuels equivalent of 2 per cent of the global trade with South Africa alone accounting for more than half of the total output.

 NaijaAgroNet further gathered that the technical arm of the African Union (AU) Commission, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency has a vision to give 35 per cent of African population access to energy in the next 20 years.

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Nigeria: Expert attributes food price hike to Boko Haram insurgence

Market women selling farm produce

The Technical Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Dr. Tony Egba said the activities of the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria are responsible for the rise in food price in the northern part of the country.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that Dr. Egba said, fears arising from the activities of the sect have resulted in transporters avoiding some areas in the north.

He also said that Nigerians’ involvement in subsistence farming was also responsible for the low food productivity and that the minister planned to change this.

The change, he said would come through the encouragement of mecahnised farming to boost food production.

Source: NigerianObserver

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With hunger, sustainable development is not feasible - FAO

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has affirmed that sustainable development is unfeasible if hunger and malnutrition are not eradicated.

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director General said there cannot be anything called sustainable development when nearly one of every seven men, women and children are victims of undernourishment.

FAO in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet revealed that millions of people are still hungry despite the significant progress in development and food production as there are no means to purchase the food needed for a healthy and productive life.

FAO made the pronouncement in preparation for the Rio+20 summit coming up this month in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that a sustainable future is being put to a limit as a result of the challenges of food security.

"At the Rio summit we have the golden opportunity to explore the convergence between the agendas of food security and sustainability to ensure that happens," FAO boss said forecasting the summit as an opportunity to discuss food security issues.

Hunger reduction and sustainable development, FAO revealed are irrevocably connected, hence a better governance of the agricultural and food systems are key to achieving both targets.

Further, NaijaAgroNet gathered that three quarters of the world's poor and hungry live in rural areas and most of them depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods. 

The UN agency also made known that about forty per cent of the world's degraded lands are in areas with high poverty rates, making hunger to put in motion a vicious cycle of reduced productivity.

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AATF enters deal with Japan Tobacco on rice varieties

In order to develop varieties of rice in sub-Saharan Africa, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has signed a license agreement with Japan Tobacco (JT), a leading international tobacco product company.

The license, as revealed in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet, would enable smallholder farmers in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Uganda to use JT's transformation technology to develop new rice varieties.

The project which seeks to address major constraints facing rice production in Sub-Sahara Africa region is tagged 'Nitrogen Use Efficient, Water Use Efficient and Salt Tolerant (NEWEST) Rice Project.' Japan Tobacco would also offer free technology in support of humanitarian aid projects.

Commenting on the agreement, AATF Executive Director, Dr. Denis Kyetere affirmed that slow growth in domestic rice production has contributed to the low output achieved by farmers in the region.

“Several factors are responsible for the low rice production. However, nitrogen deficiency and drought have been cited as leading constraints to upland rice production, while high salinity is increasingly becoming a major problem in many rice growing areas of Africa,” he noted.

NaijaAgroNet recollects that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) once revealed that rice production in the region has stagnated at about 14.5 million tonnes per year, which is against the annual consumption of 21 million tonnes, hence the need to boost production.

The license, JT’s Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Masamichi Terabatake said would also enable the use of JT's plant transformation technology for monocot species, PureIntro; developing and deploying the nitrogen efficient, water efficient, and salt tolerant rice products, free of royalties.

PureIntro is an agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation technology that is recognized worldwide as de facto standard for monocot transformation, which reduces development costs and time.

Additionally, PureIntro has been licensed by JT to more than 50 private and public entities worldwide for numerous monocots including maize, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, sugarcane, switchgrass, miscanthus, forage and turf.

JT’s plant biotechnology is independently managed from its core businesses including its tobacco business and food business, thus not applied to its product development conducted within those businesses.

AATF launched the NEWEST Rice for Africa Project in 2008 with the objective to transform some varieties of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) to improve their productivity in nitrogen-poor soils.

Experts say, provision of smallholder rice famers with higher yielding varieties are well adapted to the upland and lowland rice-growing areas in Africa, which also is another goal for establishing NEWEST.

Other partners in this private public partnership include Arcadia Biosciences who are providing access to traits that confer nitrogen use efficiency, water use efficiency and salt tolerance. The University of California is donating required plant transformation technologies. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the national agricultural research institutes of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda will conduct the necessary field trials to test the performance of the new varieties.

The project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and will initially be implemented over a 10-year period.

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Football star calls for funding to prevent food crisis in Sahel

FAO Goodwill Ambassador, Raúl González

Goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Raúl González has called for support towards prevention of nutrition crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa.

The Spanish football star, González visited Chad recently where more than 17 million people are at risk of hunger with over 1 million children under five, facing acute hunger.

FAO revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that the European Commission had increased their support to FAO in Chad by $1.3 million, about N208.3 million bringing its total support for the region to be $355 million, about N56.88 billion in 2012.

Identifying the fact that supporting local farmers and herders as priorities before and during the next planting season, Raúl said "If we want to help people grow their own food, funds are needed now."

The total amount needed by FAO in order to assist Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal is estimated at $97 million.

Director General, FOA, José Graziano da Silva said the funds would be used for seed distribution, small-scale irrigations schemes, fodder production and vaccination campaigns.

Director General, FOA, José Graziano da Silva

The major causes of the drought in the region, NaijaAgroNet recalls, have been as a result of chronic poverty, high food prices, conflict and the last year's drop in cereal production.

"We are losing the opportunity to give local communities the means to stop jumping from crisis to crisis," FAO boss, José Graziano warns, urging coordinated action that builds up their resilience and links relief with development.

Raúl's visitation to Chad, FAO noted, is part of "Professional Football Against Hunger," a campaign launched in 2008 by the European Football League which represents 30 largest professional football leagues and almost 800 clubs across Europe, stressing that the campaign is also FAO's leading international efforts to defeat hunger.

Sir David Richards, Chairman of the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), said they are partnering with European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and FAO on this project.

"We are proud to use the power and popularity of football," he said, pointing out that European professional football is providing a megaphone to raise awareness for their work, so that the right help could get to the people in need as soon as possible.

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FG inaugurates agric transformation for food security

President Goodluck Jonathan

Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan recently launched the Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council (ATIC) so as to achieve food security.

The minister, Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, is to co-ordinate the council with the president, Goodluck Jonathan and the vice president, Namadi Sambo as Chairman and alternate chairman respectively.

The agenda of the council is to increase efficiency and profitability along the value-added chains of 12 selected agricultural commodities, namely cotton, cocoa, cassava, oil-palm, maize, soya bean, onion, rice, livestock, fisheries, tomato and sorghum.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Council would also provide an oversight functions for the entire Agricultural Transformation Agenda and the creation of 3.5 million new jobs from rice, cassava, sorghum, cocoa and cotton value chains.

Over N60 billion will also be injected into the economy from the substitution of 20 per cent of bread wheat flour with cassava flour, which was successfully launched recently by President Jonathan. 

Source: Vanguard

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