FAO D-G extols agency founding fathers

ITRealms:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director General, Graziano da Silva, has praised the vision of the agency's founders, ITRealms reports.

Silva was speaking at the Chateau de Frontenac on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River where heads of states gathered in 1945 for the first FAO Conference and pledged to unshackle humanity from hunger.

“Their vision has allowed for agriculture to be considered as the key to human development and for the world to realize that the international community is able to address the problem of hunger and malnutrition globally,” Silva said.

Ensuring better nutrition for all and transforming the world’s food systems to ensure their future sustainability represent the two greatest challenges facing FAO as it renews its mission to free the world from hunger and malnutrition, the UN agency's José Graziano da Silva said at the ceremony commemorating the 70^th anniversary of FAO's founding in Quebec City, organized by the Quebec government, ITRealms gathered.

“Our responsibility is growing day by day, and today our mission and mandate remain more relevant than ever,” referring to the new global goal of ending hunger by 2030 adopted by the international community in September.

“And FAO has proven its ability to adapt to a changing world and respond to new challenges,” he added.

The FAO Director-General, ITRealms informs, began his speech by expressing sadness and shock at the recent terrorist attacks that clouded the ceremony on Saturday: “They took place in Paris and Beirut, but they hit all of us around the world, regardless of where we are and of whom we are. My solidarity goes to the victims and their families,” he added.

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Legumes important crops for food security - FAO boss

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, has said that legumes are important crops for food security of a good part of world population, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Silva made this statement while announcing 2016 as International Year of Legumes, with beans in the leading role. Under the slogan Nutritional Seeds for a Sustainable Future, it will deal with an international campaign to raise awareness of its benefits and promote its production and trade, besides encouraging new and more intelligent uses in all the food chain for their protein content and its health benefits.

According to FAO there are hundreds of varieties of legumes all over the world and says the most popular of its dry bean varieties like the haricot beans, Lima beans and little beans, besides chick peas and coupes.

Graziano da Silva underlined the fixing nitrogen properties of legumes that can improve soil fertility, increasing at the same time the productivity of arable lands, which also raises productivity of the lands and eliminates dependency on synthetic fertilizers, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

Such conditions lead to a lesser trail of carbon and, indirectly, to less emission of greenhouse gases, he assured.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, in a communique read in his name during the ceremony of presentation, NaijaAgroNet learnt, expressed the view that legumes may contribute significantly to treat hunger, food security, malnutrition, environmental challenges and human health.

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FAO’s trade-weighted index rose by 3.9%

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO’s) trade-weighted index which tracks prices on global markets of five major food commodity groups, rose by 3.9 per cent over the previous month of September, NaijaAgroNet reports.

According to FAO information portal, the agency cut its forecast for world production of grains, including rice, this year by 4.7m tonnes to 2.53bn tonnes, reflecting in the main “less buoyant expectations” for corn output in Asia and Ukraine thanks to dry weather.

The FAO, NaijaAgroNet gathered, said the forecast reduction reflects “dimmer expectations” about maize crops in India and Ukraine due to recent adverse weather.

Intensifying concerns that El Niño may hamper next year’s palm oil supply in Indonesia, coupled with slow progress in soybean plantings in Brazil, due also to unfavourable weather, spurred a 6.2 increase in the FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index,

Global cereal stocks are expected to stay at a reasonable level since wheat inventories worldwide are continuing to rise, now standing at their highest level seen in 15 years.
The FAO’s sugar price index rose 17.2 per cent from September because of fears of heavy rains in the main sugar-growing regions of Brazil and concerns of drought in India and Thailand.

On the other hand, NaijaAgroNet  learnt, the agency said prices of rice remained low although the cereals sub-index increased modestly by 1.7 per cent month-on-month, adding that meat is an extension of overall price stability that has been evident since March of this year.

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South Sudan 3.9m citizens face severe hunger– UN

NaijaAgroNet:

Three United Nations agencies haveraised alarm thatestimated3.9 million South Sudanese now face severe hunger, NaijaAgroNetreports.

These agencies include Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

This was revealed in a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis made available to NaijaAgroNet, which although noted that the number of food insecure households has decreased - as expected - during the harvest season, it is almost 80 per cent higher than in the same period last year, as even people living in states not directly affected by conflict with its long-term effects, erratic rainfall, depleted livelihood options, high food prices, fuel costs and inflation, equally experience the downturn in a generally degraded economic environment.

They called on the parties to the conflict to grant urgent and unrestricted access to Unity State, where a newly released Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis shows that at least 30 000 people are living in extreme conditions and are facing starvation and death.  

Since the war in South Sudan began nearly two years ago, NaijaAgroNet learnt,it is the first time that an IPC analysis has found any parts of the population in phase five (catastrophe) on the five-point IPC scale.

 “This is the start of the harvest and we should be seeing a significant improvement in the food security situation across the country, but unfortunately this is not the case in places like southern Unity State, where people are on the edge of a catastrophe that can be prevented,” said WFP Country Director, ,Joyce Luma. “The people of South Sudan need peace, nutritious food and other humanitarian assistance and livelihood support to survive and rebuild their lives," she stated.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that unless unrestricted humanitarian access is urgently granted, the food insecurity could deteriorate to famine in parts of Unity State, where humanitarian assistance has been hampered by the dreadful violence and lack of access in recent months. Some displaced families say they survive on just one meal a day consisting of only fish and water lilies.

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CFS side-event: Da Silva, Le Foll call for paradigm shift, curb global warming

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisaion (FAO) Director-General, Graziano da Silva, has called for a paradigm shift towards agriculture and food systems that are more adapted to climate change, if the Sustainable Development Agenda (SDA) by 2030 will be achieved, NaijaAgroNet reports.

"We can end extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. We know what works and we have the tools for it, but we know climate change threatens to derail our efforts. It is already impacting on food security and making hunger eradication even more difficult.

"We believe that agriculture in the broad sense - including forestry, fisheries and aquaculture - can and must play a central role in addressing climate change, particularly in adapting its impacts, such as water scarcity, soil salinity or increasing pests and diseases of plants and animals," he added.

  

On his part, the French Minister for Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll, said that every man and woman on the planet would bear the consequences "if the world's leaders cannot find agreement on tangible and concrete objectives" to curb global warming, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Noting that agriculture is often viewed as a problem due to its role in greenhouse-gas emissions, Le Foll called for the need to make progress with techniques that "allow us to be more economical and consume less energy."

"But anyone who looks at agriculture cannot just sit back and sort out the problem with scientific measures...because the technology must be combined with the social aspect," Le Foll said, adding: "We need to revise our agriculture model to adapt to each ecosystem, we need a revolution that is going to use natural mechanisms to benefit production."

Graziano da Silva and Le Foll made their appeals at a side event of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) which is meeting in Rome this week. They both urged countries to find an agreement on how to combat climate change ahead of the 7-8 December United Nations climate change conference, COP21, in Paris.

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