New SDAs to end hunger by 2030

NaijaAgroNet:

 

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director General, Graziano da Silva, has said that the Sustainable Development Agenda's goals (SDAs) approved at last month's United Nations summit will end hunger by 2030,NaijaAgronet reports.

The agenda has eradication of hunger as one of its core goals. Its approval at last month's United Nations summit "brings new momentum to our efforts," Silva told delegates at the CFS plenary.

"Now the world has a set date to end hunger, to achieve food security and to end malnutrition in all its forms. I do not doubt that we can become the Zero Hunger generation.

"Building consensus takes time, but it helps things move faster later," he added, noting that FAO, often working with the World Food Program and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, is already putting the framework's principles into practice.

The CFS opened its plenary October12, marking the first international gathering on food security and nutrition since global leaders approved the Sustainable Development Agenda's goal, NaijaAgroNet.

The CFS is aninter-governmental body that serves as a forum for the review and follow up of food security and nutrition policies.

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FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries makes sector sustainable

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The Code of Conduct for responsible Fisheries has in the last two decades played a key role in making fisheries more sustainable, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The code made it possible by setting universal standards to guide governments and private actors in conserving and managing the world’s ocean resources.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that Fisheries ministers, experts and representatives of civil society groups and the private sector will gather in Vigo, Spain, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and discuss the state and future of global fisheries.

FAO is partnering with Spain’s Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Environment, and leading Spanish trade association Conxemar on a series of events at this year’s International Fisheries Stakeholders Forum taking place on October 8 to 9, 2015 where discussions will focus on the importance of responsible ocean governance for global food security.

Among other issues billed for discussion at the forum include: expanding role of fish farms, improving seafood safety and traceability, reducing food waste and illegal fishing, and sustainably harnessing marine resources for economic growth.

A press statement by FAO said session will explore ways to develop a global integrated approach to combat illegal fishing, including the role of surveillance systems and consumer awareness, global trends and trade regimes, along with issues of growth and sustainability, including food waste. 

Overview of world production in fisheries and aquaculture, implications for food security and nutrition, the role of scientific knowledge as tool for fisheries management for the future, are all part of a rolled out programme for the Forum, NaijaAgroNet.

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Zero hunger, key for realization SDGs

ITRealms

 

The Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) José Graziano da Silva has told world leaders at United Nations headquarters that zero hunger is the only guaranty for  realization of the entire set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Information from FAO stated that fourteen of the 17 new SDGs are related to FAO's historic mission, the Director-General noted, adding that the second goal - which is "to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture" - must be urgently pursued as rapid progress on that front is the key to the other goals, he added

"We have given ourselves an enormous task,that begins with the historic commitment of not only reducing but also eradicating poverty, hunger in a sustainable way. We can only rest when we achieve zero hunger," Silva said.

NaijaAgroNet recalledthat the SDGs follow and expand on the Millennium Development Goals, established in 2001 and ending this year, which set a hunger reduction target that was met by more than half of the countries monitored by FAO. But nearly 800 million people still suffer from chronic undernourishment.

A majority of the world's poor and hungry live in rural areas, and improving their livelihoods is the core challenge.

He also reminded world leaders that in the next 15 years an additional investment of 160 dollars, about N31,848per year per person living in extreme poverty is needed to end hunger, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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FAO protects sagric-based livelihoods for peace-building, poverty alleviation

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The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is protecting agriculture-based livelihoods during conflict as a crucial strategy for peace-building, poverty alleviation and development in countries facing protracted crisis situation, NaijaAgroNet reports.

At a practical level FAO said,its prioritizing help for the most vulnerable families to improve their access to food, nutrition and income while creating the conditions for rehabilitation and long-term resilience of agriculture as a crucial strategy.

According to a press statement, the Director-General of the organization, José Graziano da Silva said that the millions of people who are being forced to flee from war, poverty and other hardships are a tragic reminder of the urgent need for peaceful solutions based on social justice and improved economic opportunities for all. Key to achieving this is the protection of and investment in rural livelihoods.

"Rural development and food security are central to the global response to the refugee crisis. War causes hunger and hunger too, kills and forces people from their homes.
"Supporting agricultural based livelihoods can contribute to both helping people stay on their land when they feel safe to do so and to create the conditions for the return of refugees, migrants and displaced people," Graziano da Silva said.

In Syria, NaijaAgroNet gathered, the conflict is having a devastating impact on agriculture, with food markets and supply chains dysfunctional, much of the irrigation and other infrastructure destroyed and farmers and livestock keepers left with no other option than to abandon their fields and animals. The ones who remain cannot access markets or afford seeds, fertilizers and other inputs. Meanwhile the influx of Syrian refugees is also impacting agriculture in neighbouring host countries

This involves seed assistance to enable Syrian farmers to harvest sufficient cereals to feed their families; cash-for-work programmes to create income opportunities while repairing critical on-farm infrastructure; veterinary support and vaccination campaigns in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to preserve livestock health and vital sources of nutrition; and distribution of backyard production kits that give displaced and host families the means to produce nutrient-rich foods, such as eggs, milk and vegetables, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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FAO injects N97,117m to fight pests, diseases in Botswana

NaijaAgroNet

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has said it has injected P281 000 million, about N97,117 million in a bio security joint project with the Ministry of Agriculture to fight pests and diseases in Botswana.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the project which was officially launched at Ramokgwebana border post by the assistant Minister of Agriculture, Fidelis Molao, is expected to clamp down on the risks of unsafe and contaminated plants and foodstuffs from being brought into Botswana, even though the awareness campaign which is targeted at cross-border travelers is expected to educate the public on the importance of bringing into the country plants and non plants which have been inspected and pest free.

According to THEVOICEBW, an FAO representative, David Tibe, said that bio security is critical if Botswana is to maintain and upscale its food security: “Increased travel is also creating more pathways to spread diseases, pests and other hazards that are moving faster and further than ever before,” Tibe said.

Tibe added that the joint project will help the ministry of agriculture and other stakeholders to improve their capacities at all levels to provide public services to plant and animal health as well as food safety, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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Animal deaths worsen food crisis in Africa

ITRealms:

The Animal Health Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Dr. Felix Njemi has said that the large number of animal deaths is worsening the food crisis in Africa, especially in countries south of the Sahara, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Njemi was among experts from across Africa who agreed that trans-border diseases kill between 10 and 20 per cent of the continent’s animals every year. The experts, who gathered in Cameroon recently to discuss the problem, suggested large vaccination and pest eradication programmes to stop the spread of the diseases.

He said, “The strategy is the large vaccination at the country level. Undertake surveillance to detect any case of the disease and strengthen collaboration between member nations and even between international institutions. Imagine somebody who has 10 animals and loses eight. The disease can have impact in food security.”

Many poor people in African countries, he said, depend on goats and sheep for their livelihoods, even as he said  FAO is urging farmers to be on guard against transboundary animal diseases warning that ticks, lice and other pests can spread quickly from one country to the next, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

According to information from, Voice of America (VOA), the Cameroon’s livestock minister, Dr. Taiga, he does not use a first name, on his part, said pests like nose bot flies and wool maggots are harming animals in some communities in his country.

He said that all animals in an area must be killed if one animal is affected because the diseases are contagious. They spread quickly from animal to animal. He said that is why the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health are working together to destroy the diseases. He says that when central African countries succeed in killing the pests, their human populations will enjoy better quality protein, NaijaAgroNet reports.

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129 million hectares lost to deforestation

NaijaAgroNet

About 129 million hectares of forest, an area almost equivalent in size to South Africa, have been lost since 1990, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The world's forests continue to shrink as populations increase and forest land is converted to agriculture and other uses, but over the past 25 years the rate of net global deforestation has slowed down by more than 50 per cent, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) comprehensive forest report-- The Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015-- published today, September7.

The FAO study covers 234 countries and territories and was presented at this week's World Forestry Congress in Durban, South Africa.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, launching the report in Durban, said, "Forests play a fundamental role in combating rural poverty, ensuring food security and providing people with livelihoods. And they deliver vital environmental services such as clean air and water, the conservation of biodiversity and combating climate change,"

"The direction of change is positive, but we need to do better. We will not succeed in reducing the impact of climate change and promoting sustainable development if we do not preserve our forests and sustainably use the many resources they offer us," he added.
Meanwhile, the net annual rate of forest loss has slowed from 0.18 per cent in the early 1990s to 0.08 per cent during the period 2010-2015, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Africa and South America had the highest net annual loss of forests in 2010-2015, with 2.8 and 2 million hectares respectively, but the report notes how the rate of loss has "substantially decreased" from the previous five year period.

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FAO, MasterCard partnership kick starts with Turkana 170,000 refugees

NaijaAgroNet:

 

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) partnership with MasterCard, the technology company in the global payments industry, will take off by caring for Kakuma refugee camp, Turkana County, Kenya, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The camp is currently housing 170,000 refugees who have fled wars and violence in neighboring countries.

According to the agreement, camp residents will be provided with prepaid cards that will permit them to buy charcoal produced locally by the host community – charcoal that has been certified as being produced in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way. The scheme, NaijaAgroNet gathered, is designed to improve incomes of Turkana residents, reduce social tensions between those residents and the refugees, and relieve pressure on the environment.

MasterCard will provide its technology expertise and a meaningful financial contribution, to kick-start the business chain by providing 1,240 host-community households with improved charcoal making kilns and 7,000 refugee households with energy efficient stoves and credit to purchase 25 per cent of their annual charcoal needs.

The FAO and MasterCard are joining forces to create this innovative alliance against hunger.  The new partnership agreement which was signed recently by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Walt Macnee, Vice Chairman of MasterCard, at FAO headquarters, NaijaAgroNet reports, will  pave the way for a collaborative effort that will develop inclusive payment systems to support small-scale farmers and poor families.

Among other activities, the collaboration will explore ways to provide credit or money to households for purchases of basic needs and farming inputs on local markets, thereby supporting local economies and putting financial tools in the hands of economically marginalized communities.

The effort will benefit from the complementary strengths of each organization: MasterCard’s expertise in payments technology and FAO's global reach and track record in combating hunger and malnutrition, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

FAO's three main goals, NaijaAgroNet discovers, include the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition; the elimination of poverty and the driving forward of economic and social progress for all; and, the sustainable management and utilization of natural resources, including land, water, air, climate and genetic resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

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Liberia to analyze food, nutrition security using Cadre Harmonise ‘e’

NaijaAgroNet

The Executive Director, food security and nutrition unit, Ministry of Agriculture, Liberia, Deroe A. Weeks, said Cadre Harmonise ‘e’ is meant to analyze food and nutrition security, NaijaAgroNet reports.

She said this recently at a week-long workshop in Monrovia, adding that the national workshop was intended to analyze food and nutrition security using the Cadre Harmonise ‘e’ as a regional tool even as Liberia has joined 14 other countries in the Sahel and West Africa to work towards the adoption of the tool to tackle food and nutrition insecurity.

According to Weeks, the tool will help Liberia in terms of data collection and the documentation of the country's food and nutrition security and insecurity situations.
She explained that Liberia does not have hands-on data in terms of reporting food and nutrition insecurity and that the application of the regional tool will only enable the country be on track and collect data that will not be unique to other regional countries that are already using the Cadre Harmonise ‘e’ tool.

ALL AFRICA.COM reports that the Cadre Harmonise implementation process in the Sahel and West Africa has been fully underway and creates the country's ownership and occupies a strategic position among the various regional tools and will be used in the CILSS-ECOWAS-UEMOA region as a trigger tool of regional food reserve.

Dr. Charles McClain who represented the Agriculture Minister,  ITRealms gathered, thanked the participants and said as lead institution, the MoA is interested in getting more analytical data as the process moves on.

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 Pix: Deroe A. Weeks,

Agriculture, food security, prudent management vital in SADC region

NaijaAgroNet

The Director of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the Southern African Development Community ( SADC), Ms Margaret Nyirenda, said agriculture, food security and prudent management of natural resources are vital in SADC region, NaijaAgroNet reports.

She said that food production in most parts of the region was hampered by unfavourable climatic conditions, increase in population, poor health and sanitation, adding that SADC is facing a cereal deficit of over six million tonnes emanating from the poor rainfall and floods that befell the region in the 2014/2015 season.

Nyirenda was addressing the 35th Ordinary Summit of Heads of States and Government in Gaborone. She said the 2014/2015 rainfall season was poor in most parts of the region with prolonged dry spells in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, southern Angola and Zimbabwe,  gathered NaijaAgroNet.

She added that Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique experienced both floods and prolonged dry spells and that the poor rainfall led to an unsatisfactory regional food security situation for the 2015/2016 year.

Ms Nyirenda, NaijaAgroNet learnt,  said the deficit of 6.33 million tonnes of cereal include the five most consumed cereals in the region such as maize, wheat, rice, millet and sorghum compared to a surplus of 1.21 million tonnes in the 2014/15 year .

She said the regional cereal availability for the 2015/16 was estimated at 40.23 million tonnes representing a drop of 22 per cent from 45.62 million tonnes last year. Ms Nyirenda added that the requirement for the region this year was estimated at 32.93 million tonnes, reflecting an overall maize deficit of 1.20 million tonnes.

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Pix: Ms Margaret Nyirenda,

Experts urge Africa to embrace climate-smart agriculture

NaijaAgroNet

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Deputy Country Representative, Mr. Massimo Castiello said the climate-smart agriculture concept which tackles climate change in an integrated manner should be embraced by Africa.

NaijaAgroNet reports that climate smart agriculture is an approach to developing the technical policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under climate change.

The CSA platform was launched in Kampala at a two-day workshop hosted by FAO Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa and the Uganda Climate-Smart Agriculture Task Force with support from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in Kampala.

The Ugandan Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Hon. Tress Bucyanayandi while addressing climate change expert at the occasion, stated that there is need for far-reaching and inventive measures to help the East African countries and Uganda at large to adapt climate change smart Agriculture, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

"Climate change is already affecting food production systems and therefore the livelihoods and food security of millions of people, especially women who depend on agriculture for a living are to suffer the consequences associated with climate change if no Innovation has been developed," he said.

NaijaAgroNet learnt also that the platform will support East African countries to address sub-regional issues related to Climate-smart agriculture scale up and will contribute to continental initiatives such as the Africa Climate-Smart Agriculture Alliance and the AU/NEPAD goal of having 25 million farming households in Africa practicing climate-smart agriculture by 2025.

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