USAID supports Asia, Africa, Middle East with N17.33b

NaijaAgroNet:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced further $87 million, about N17.33 billion to  combat pandemic animal disease threats in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, reports NaijaAgroNet.

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The funding which backs the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) efforts to combat global animal disease, covers the 2015-19 period and is expected be channeled into monitoring and surveillance, epidemiological studies, prevention and control activities as well as improving veterinary capacities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and promoting links between animal health specialists and the public health sector.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, NaijaAgroNet gathered, thanked the U.S. for its support and longstanding partnership.

"This shows how important transboundary diseases are for FAO and the UN system, and how much more important they will be in the future if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Millions of people rely on livestock for survival, income and nutrition, and their livelihoods must be protected," he said.

The Director, Global Health Security and Development with USAID's Bureau for Global Health, Dennis Carroll, said: "We are pleased by what our partnership with FAO for emerging pandemic threats has so far achieved, and the important contribution FAO's work is making to the U.S. Global Health Security Agenda programme to address threats posed by the natural emergence of new diseases and the intentional and/or accidental release of dangerous pathogens.

The latest USAID contribution of $87 million to FAO, NaijaAgroNet learnt, will further strengthen the programme and partnership between our two organizations, and build upon the good work already underway in the second phase of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats program (EPT-2). 

 Nearly $50 million of this contribution will support the global fight against the Ebola virus by building global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to future outbreaks and prevent them from becoming epidemics."

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Global production to drop by10 per cent

NaijaAgroNet:

Latest evidence has revealed that from 2070 onward, severe shocks, which could see global production drop by 10 per cent, may be happening in seven out of every ten years, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

An author from the UK's Met Office,  Kirsty Lewis, said, "It is very difficult to characterize these extreme events and their frequency, but what we do see quite clearly is that events that are very rare in the present day are becoming more frequent in the future.

“The most extreme events of the future are likely to become more intense, so potentially larger shocks and more frequent shocks."

Researchers, NaijaAgroNet reports, say an over reliance on global trade may make these production shocks worse especially in Africa and the Middle East.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says that increasing population will drive demand for food up by 60 per cent by 2050 in any case, so there is going to be significant pressure on food production.

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Pix: Kirsty Lewis

China, others cause food price crash in July---FAO

NaijaAgroNet

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has revealed that in July, the dairy price index dropped 7.2 per cent from the previous month, mainly due to lower import demand from China.

Other regions which contributed to the crash in prices, NaijaAgroNet gathered, include Middle East and North Africa along with abundant European Union (EU) milk production which has resulted in good availability of dairy products for export.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 164.6 points in July, down 1.0 per cent from June, and 19.4 per cent from a year earlier. The trade-weighted index tracks prices on international markets of five major food commodity groups: cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar.

The July, NaijaAgroNet reports, vegetable oil price index was some 5.5 per cent below its June level, reaching its lowest value since July 2009. The recent slide was primarily caused by a fall in international palm oil prices due to increased production in Southeast Asia combined with slower exports especially from Malaysia, and a further weakening of soy oil prices on ample supplies for export in South America and a favourable outlook for global supply in 2015/16.

The cereal price index, NaijaAgroNet reports, rose by 2.0 per cent from June, but was still 10.1 per cent below July last year's level. For the second consecutive month, higher wheat and maize prices, in part due to unfavourable weather in North America and Europe, kept the cereal index rising, but rice prices continued to fall.

In July the meat price index remained nearly unchanged from the previous month. An increase in international prices of bovine meat offset a decline for pig meat and ovine meat, while prices for poultry remained stable. The sugar price index rose by 2.5 per cent from June 2015, largely due to less than ideal harvesting conditions in the main producing region of Brazil, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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Investment in ICT to boost healthcare markets in MEA

NaijaAgroNet:

Investments in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector are anticipated to boost the four core healthcare markets of Middle East and Africa over five years, reports NaijaAgroNet. 

Latest study made available to NaijaAgroNet by International Data Corporation (IDC), spending on Information Technology (IT) services and products among healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) will grow by 70 per cent over the next five years, expanding at 11.2 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over the five-year period from 2013 to 2018.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that spending priorities based on the study by IDC will be strongly driven by healthcare policy mandates and efficiency improvement needs. 

In the context of a pronounced shortage of IT expertise among healthcare organizations, NaijaAgroNet reports that IDC Health Insights expects the demand for IT services to continue to rise in all four markets. In fact, IT services will be the fastest growing segment of the healthcare providers' market, with particularly intense growth projected in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Additional highlights from the data showed that spending on mobile devices and networking equipment will contribute significantly to overall hardware spending growth in all four markets.

In the software segment, NaijaAgroNet reports that system infrastructure software still accounts for the largest share of total external IT spending. 

While clinical information systems, NaijaAgroNet gathered, makes up the smallest share but will post the fastest growth at 13.5 per cent annually.

Nino Giguashvili, senior research analyst for IDC Health Insights, confided in NaijaAgroNet that all the four markets are set to grow at an impressive rate, stressing "While these markets present exceptional opportunities to healthcare IT suppliers across the whole ecosystem, it is the right time to focus on mobile solutions to healthcare providers' organizational needs, and MEA's healthcare challenges overall."

The study further gathered by NaijaAgroNet indicates IDC's Middle East and Africa Healthcare Provider 2013 IT spending and 2014–2018 Forecast provides IT spending data and forecasts for 15 technologies and five countries (Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates).

Anulekha Shetty of the Public Relations told NaijaAgroNet that the study has been designed to help IT suppliers identify short and long-term opportunities and for health providers to assess the state of the market.

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