‘Role of food security to conflict prevention’

NaijaAgroNet:

The role of food security and agriculture have an essential role to play in preventing conflicts and crises on the African continent, blunting their impacts and acting as engines for post-crisis recovery, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Mr. José Graziano da Silva gave this highlight in address to African leaders and international development actors in Nairobi, Kenya, at the foremost summits on African development.

"Ending hunger and malnutrition, addressing humanitarian and protracted crises, preventing and resolving conflicts, and building peace are not separate tasks, but simply different facets of the same challenge," Graziano da Silva said at a side-event on ‘Peace and Food Security', hosted by FAO, at the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI).

Graziano da Silva was among the high-level delegations who attended in the opening ceremony of TICAD VI, led by the President of the Republic of Kenya and the Prime Minister of Japan.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that the conference which brings together policy makers, UN agencies and financial institutions, among others aimed at promoting high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and their partners and mobilize support for African-owned development initiatives.

The link between conflict prevention and development is of particular importance in the region, which is host to nearly 60 percent of active UN Peacekeeping Missions. And whilst armed conflicts across Africa as a whole have decreased in recent years, this trend has been uneven across the continent.

"Much of FAO's work aims at promoting sustainable development and building the resilience of rural populations," Graziano da Silva said, giving concrete examples of countries where agricultural support helped secure the transition from wars to sustainable peace, including Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"By supporting agriculture and rural development, we help create jobs, provide income and boost youth employment. This can help prevent distress migration and radicalization, as well as mitigate disputes over depleted resources," he said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 

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Pix; FAO D-G, Mr. José Graziano da Silva

Prevention fundamental to containing zika – FAO boss

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Mr. Graziano da Silva has offered FAO’s technical assistance in collaboration with the  International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the effort to contain Zika, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Zika, NaijaAgoNet gathered, is a mosquito-borne disease that has been detected in the country, where a humid and warm climate is ideal for the insects’ proliferation.

Speaking in Rome at the weekend, FAO boss said they are responsible for prevention, describing prevention as fundamental to containing zika globally.

“FAO is responsible for prevention, not for the disease itself. Prevention is fundamental,” he said, stressing that using insecticides in urban areas may not be enough to eradicate the mosquitos.

He revealed that FAO and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have a joint programme to support member countries in insect pest control which has developed a technique of using sterile insects to combat such disease vectors.

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