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Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

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).

Ugo Nwocha/GEE

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Wednesday, July 13, 2016

El Nino impact at Dry Land corridor, leaves 3.5m people food insecure

The El Niño climate event is having a devastating impact on agriculture in Central America’s Dry Corridor where one of the worst droughts in decades has left 3.5 million people food insecure, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In the most affected countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras some, NaijaAgroNet gathered that some 2.8 million people are dependent on food aid.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) at the end of June organized a high-level meeting in Rome, to focus on the urgent need for long-term action to address the impact of El Niño, including building resilience for food security and nutrition for the most vulnerable populations in the affected countries.

El Niño and its counterpart La Niña occur cyclically, but in recent years, mainly due to the effects of global climate change, extreme weather events associated with these phenomena, such as droughts and floods, have increased in frequency and severity.

This situation, NaijaAgroNet report, is also putting at risk the livelihoods of millions of small-scale family farmers in the Dry Corridor, many of whom are heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture.

The aim of the high-level meeting is to increase awareness of, and the response to, this protracted and recurrent crisis, and to mobilize the international community to support the efforts of governments, UN agencies and other partners.

This includes strengthening of early warning systems, disaster risk management, and improving preparedness and coordination for emergency responses at national and regional levels.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Experts list key dominant food trade in sub-Saharan

Experts at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Food and Agriculture Orgaanisation (FAO) have projected some key dominant food trade to be expected in the next nine years, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This was contained in the latest Agricultural Outlook by the two organistion, saying that the bulk of all commodity exports will continue to originate in just a few countries, noting that imports, however, will be far less concentrated among countries, although China is projected to remain a critical market for some commodities, in particular soybeans. 

The duo of OECD and FAO emphasised the importance of well-functioning markets in enabling food to flow from surplus to deficit regions and improving food security.

At the Outlook's launch in Rome, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría said: "Although we are now witnessing a period of lower agricultural prices, we need to remain alert as changes in markets can take place rapidly.”

He also said that the key priority for governments in the current context is to implement policies that will increase agricultural productivity in a coherent and sustainable way. Getting our agricultural policies right is critical to end hunger and undernourishment in the decades to come.


"Significant production growth is needed to meet the expanding demand for food, feed and raw products for industrial uses, and all of these have to be done in a sustainable way," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. 

"We are optimistic that most of that future demand for agricultural commodities will be mainly met through productivity gains rather than expansion of crop area or livestock herds," Gurria said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Saturday, June 25, 2016

House summons agric minister, Ogbeh over GMO food import

NaijaAgroNet:
The lower chambers of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives have summoned the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, over concerns allegedly arising from the importation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) foods into Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), GMOs are organisms including plants, animals or microorganisms in which the genetic material (DNA) have been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and or natural recombination.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that recently over 100 groups representing some 5 million Nigerians, comprising of farmers, faith-based organisations, civil society groups, students and local community groups, passionately opposed Monsanto’s attempts to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton and maize into Nigeria’s food and farming systems.

In written objections submitted to the biosafety regulators, the groups cited numerous serious health and environmental concerns and the failure of these crops especially GM cotton in Africa, alleging that the former President, Goodluck Jonathan hurriedly signed the bill on National Biosafety Management into law at the exit point.

They rejected the plans for the regulator to licence Monsanto Agricultural Nigeria Limited which applied to the National Biosafety Management Agency (NABMA) for the environmental release and placing in the market in Zaria and surrounding towns of GM cotton (Bt cotton, event MON 15985). A further application they said was made for the confined field trial (CFT) of two GM maize varieties (NK603 and stacked event MON 89034 x NK603) in multiple locations in Nigeria.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that NBMA, the regulatory body for biotechnology in Nigeria, had since May 1, a public holiday in Nigeria, issued two permits signed by the DG, NBMA, Mr. Rufus Ebegba, to Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited for the commercial release and market placement of these GMO cotton and the confined field trial of GMO maize.

However, the summon monitored on Channels TV, followed a motion raised by a member of the House of Representatives from Imo State, Hon. Austin Ikechukwu, on Thursday at the National Assembly in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which was promptly carried.

Also, the House in agreeing to the summon, asked the Minister to appear before them over the issuance of permits to a company, Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited, to introduce some of the foods into the Nigerian market.

The House Committees on Healthcare Services and Agriculture Products have been mandated to also meet with the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on the impact of GMO.

The committees are to get a list of food supplements and genetically modified foods that have been granted NAFDAC registration numbers and have 12 weeks to report back to the House.

Isaac Oyimah/Channels TV/GEE.


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Pix Audu Ogbeh.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

N8 Research debuts @ Manchester for food study programme



A group of leading eight northern Universities in the United Kindgom (UK) has launched a groundbreaking international food research programme in Manchester, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The N8 Research Partnership comprising Manchester, Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and York Universities, NaijaAgroNet gather would enable academics and researchers to collaborate closely with industry, farmers and the government, and aims at solving the global challenge of ensuring sustainable, resilient and healthy food supplies for everyone.

NaijaAgroNet reports that over 50 speakers from the likes of Sainsbury’s, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Co-Operative Group, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), HSBC and the National Farmers’ Union spoke at the launch event, where attendees explored the need for a sustainable food system to meet current and future needs, particularly in light of population growth and climate change impacts.

Delegates also explored critical issues such as building resilience in the supply chain, closing the skills gap, antibiotic resistance and integrated approaches to food and nutrition. Attendees had direct access to funders, new partners in industry and academia, and took part in a series of interactive workshops addressing issues surrounding sustainable food production, supply chains and improved consumption and health.

Professor Bruce Grieve, Director of The University of Manchester’s e-Agri Sensors Centre, said this is a really exciting time as the N8 Agri-Food programme represents 12 per cent of the total academic research and resources in the UK and the first time such a large group has come together to tackle the global challenge of sustaining food supply and nutrition.
“This is such a complex and interconnected problem, spanning everything from soil and plant science through to consumer psychology and engineering, that only through bringing such a large group together can we help to deliver a new paradigm with our farming, industry and charity partners,” Grieve said.
 

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Pix: because a partnership make us stronger! @GianelaM

Monday, June 13, 2016

Exclusive: Nigeria, 36 other countries need external food assistance

Some 37 countries globally including Nigeria are in need of external food assistance, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisaton (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Other countries comprised of Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, and Kenya.

Equally affected based on FAO outline include Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Also, FAO raised its forecast for global cereal production in 2016 to 2,539 million tonnes, up 17.3 million tonnes from its previous May projection and up 0.6 percent from last year's harvest. 

Aggregate cereal production in Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) is also forecast to increase to 420 million tonnes in 2016, led by a recovery in rice and wheat production in India after last year reduction due to El Niño-related drought.  That would be a 2.5 percent increase from last year's "sharply reduced" level.

NaijaAgroNet, in spite of the improved world production prospects in 2016, output would still fall slightly short of the projected demand in 2016/17, meaning global stocks would need to be drawn down from their near-record level.

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Friday, June 10, 2016

Conflicts, droughts exacerbate food insecurity

Drought linked to El Niño and civil conflict has pushed the number of countries currently in need of external food assistance up to 37 from 34 in March, according to a new FAO report.

The new edition of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation report sighted by NaijaAgoNet, adds that Papua New Guinea, Haiti and Nigeria to the list of countries requiring outside help to feed their own populations or communities of refugees they are hosting.

In Haiti, NaijaAgoNet gathered the output of cereals and starchy roots in 2015 dropped to its lowest level in 12 years. Around 3.6 million people, more than one-third of the population, are food insecure, almost half of them "severely", while at least 200 000 are in an extreme food emergency situation.

According to the report, Haiti's woes are largely due to El Niño, which has also exacerbated the worst drought in decades in Central America's dry corridor.


In Southern Africa, El Niño impacts have significantly worsened food security and the 2016 cereal harvest currently underway is expected to drop by 26 percent from the already reduced level of the previous year, triggering a "substantial rise" in maize prices and import requirements in the coming marketing year.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Wednesday, May 25, 2016

FAO, WFP require $169m to save CAR from drought

NaijaAgroNet:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have cried out for lack of $169m funding for the ‘seed protection’ programme going-on in the Central African Republic (CAR) to be successful, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In a joint press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet, WFP noted it requires US$83 million to respond to the urgent needs of 1.4 million people 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, in order to boost food security.

The programme,NaijaAgroNet gathered, is currently being funded by governments of Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and 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 World Bank, yet only half of the estimated number of beneficiaries could receive support based on available fund.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that with 75 percent of the population depending on agriculture, FAO, WFP and their partners have been working together since the beginning of the unrest to mitigate negative impacts on agricultural production and food security.

The programme which involves 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) in a bid to make sure families do not survive with the current scarcity by eating the seeds meant for planting.

Okoli Vincent/GEE

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Sunday, May 22, 2016

FAO heads to World Humanitarian Summit 2016

The first-ever World Humanitarian Summit slated for Istanbul, Turkey has attracted the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

The summit which commences Monday, May 23 through Tuesday, 24, 2016, NaijaAgroNet gathered comes at a time when the world is witnessing the highest level of humanitarian needs since the Second World War.

NaijaAgroNet reports that rural communities are often the hardest hit by crises and disasters, hence, FAO believes that much more must be done to ensure they have unimpeded access to food and nutrition and that their livelihoods, which are mostly based on agriculture, are protected.

Globally disasters and conflicts, FAO said, are increasing in frequency and magnitude, stressing that these are as diverse as Typhoon Haiyan, the recent Ebola outbreak, and civil war in Syria, to name just a few.


FAO said, supporting agricultural livelihoods could help reduce risks, promote stability, and drive post-crisis recovery, just as investing in agriculture is a good investment in building a future in which no one is left behind.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

WHO, FAO unveil roadmap to deal with highly hazardous pesticides

The World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have unveiled new guidelines aimed at reducing the damage done by pesticides that pose especially high toxic risks to human health and the environment, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Sources from both organization, informed NaijaAgroNet that products with high acute toxicity account for high numbers of immediate poisoning cases, particularly in developing countries, while products with chronic toxicity effects may cause cancer or developmental disorders among growing children. 

NaijaAgroNet reports that in industrialized countries, such so-called "highly hazardous pesticides" may be no longer permitted or subject to strict use limitations, yet they often remain widely available in developing countries. 

“Even hazardous products are still permitted in industrialised countries can cause severe problems in the developing world, where use circumstances can be very different,” FAO source said.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that small-scale farmers in developing countries in particular often do not have, or use, the necessary protective gear and mostly use back-pack sprayers that pose high risk of exposure.

Therefore, both WHO and FAO pointed out that restriction on the use of such highly hazardous products often prove hard to enforce, leading to widespread use by untrained persons, warning that high numbers of poisoning cases, contaminated food and environmental damage could be the result.

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Friday, May 6, 2016

Farmers, backbone for food, nutrition security – Gornass

The Chairperson of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), Ambassador Amira Gornass has described farmers as the backbone of any efforts for food and nutrition security, report NaijaAgroNet.

Ambassador Gornass gave this description in her video message to the opening ceremony of the 2016 General Assembly of the World Farmers Organisation (WFO) holding in Livingstone, Zambia on the theme, Partnership for Growth.

“Farmers are the backbone of any efforts for food and nutrition security” she declared.

Gornass who also is the Permanent Representative of the Sudan to FAO noted that the role of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of food security and nutrition (VGGT) cannot be over-emphasised.

She pointed out that the guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security in 2012 serves as a reference to improve the governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests with the overarching goal of achieving food security for all and supporting the progressive realization of the right to adequate food.

“An effective implementation of this instrument will be achieved only if also farmers will advocate for the application of the guidelines at the country level,” she said.

WFC, Gornass said, should never forget that according the recently released figures, in the middle of the 21st century, 793 million is still going to bed hungry.

“The challenges to ensure their rights to adequate food are huge,” she said, maintaining that farmers are the most powerful solution to global hunger and malnutrition.


“Farmers are responsible for providing the food we all need,” she said, encourage adequate management of farm lands.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Pix: Ambassador Amira Gornass

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Drones assist Philippine farmers prepare for climate disasters

The government of the Philippines in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has started using unmanned aerial drones to assess where farmlands are most at risk from natural disasters and quickly assess damages after they strike, NaijaAgroNet reports.

This, NaijaAgroNet also reports is in a bid to stay ahead of the negative impacts of climate change, floods and typhoons on food security, especially in the Philippines.

In addition, under a pilot phase of the still-fledgling project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Philippines and the FAO, two drones have already been sent soaring over the Philippines provinces that have been affected by the current El Niño.

NaijaAgroNet equally reports that some 25 FAO and government technical experts are ready to be deployed across the archipelago to support drone missions. They were recently trained over three weeks on how to fly the drones and learned a range of remote aerial assessment methods.

The drones, NaijaAgroNet reports, are equipped with navigation and photogrammetric equipment that could generate detailed and data rich maps from aerial photographs including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index or NDVIa formula used for assessing vegetation and plant health.

Data gathered, NaijaAgroNet gathered, could be used to see where agricultural systems are at particular risk from natural disasters and identify ways through which such risks can be countered, for example, through ground contouring, building retaining walls, or planting protective vegetation.

Capable of covering up to 600 hectares a day, the drones should significantly accelerate the process of risk analysis, according to Christopher Morales, Director of Field Operations for the Philippines Department of Agriculture.

"It is efficient, it saves time and we will be using a reliable source of data so that we can plan and provide appropriate interventions and responses for our farmers in times of disasters and calamities," he said.

"Additionally, imagery generated from drone flights can reveal where agricultural infrastructure projects and service facilities like irrigation or storage facilities could be sited to best serve local farmers. The technology can also potentially support in the assessment of coastal and forest areas." said Jose Luiz Fernandez, FAO Representative in the Philippines.


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Monday, December 14, 2015

Breaking News: Climate agreement prioritises food security



Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has hailed the breakthrough in the climate change agreement reached upon at the COP21 which held in Paris, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, applauded the promise to scale up funding for agriculture.

"For the first time ever, food security features in a global climate change accord," he said, stressing that the Paris Agreement often dubbed COP21, recognized "the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the impacts of climate change."

According to him, this underlines the need to "increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience … in a manner that does not threaten food production." 
He further said that this is a game changer for the 800 million people still suffering from chronic hunger, and for 80 per cent of the world's poor who live in rural areas and earn income and feed their families from agriculture sectors. 

“By including food security, the international community fully acknowledged that urgent attention is needed to preserve the well-being and future of those who are on the front line of climate change threats," Graziano da Silva said.

Louisa Effiong/GEE

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