New IFAD-supported project boosts rural economy, livelihoods

NaijaAgroNet:

A total of 60,000 Angolan rural households in Cuanza Sul and Huila provinces will benefit from a financial agreement, signed today between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Angola, that will generate revenue and boost food and nutrition security of poorer households. The project will increase smallholder agriculture productivity, production and marketing for selected crops and will place a special focus on women and young people.

The financing agreement for the Smallholder Agriculture Development and Commercialization Project in Cuanza Sul and Huila Provinces (SADCP-CH) was signed in Rome by Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, and Florêncio Mariano da Conceição de Almeida, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Angola to IFAD.

The total cost of the project is US$38.2 million, including a $28.8 million loan from IFAD. The project will be cofinanced by the Government of Angola ($8.2 million) and by the beneficiaries themselves ($1.1 million).

During Angola’s 26-year civil war, the agriculture sector was devastated and productivity plummeted. Due to instability, many smallholder farmers reverted to subsistence farming to feed their families. What minimal surplus they had, they sold in local markets. SADCP-CH will help subsistence farmers increase agricultural production and productivity through improved agricultural practices and technologies. Farmer field schools will strengthen the skills of smallholders and their organizations.

With most agriculture in the region dependent on rainfall, SADCP-CH will also enhance access to water and more efficient water use. It will develop small-scale irrigation systems, focussing on the rehabilitation of existing schemes that cover about 500 hectares in the project area.

Support will be provided to farmers’ organizations to promote climate resilient agriculture for key priority food and horticultural crops, while working to promote investments aimed at reducing post-harvest losses and strengthening market linkages. 

For example, the project will pilot and promote low-cost technologies for storage and processing of perishable products. This will help farmers capitalize on the market, rather than being subject to opportunistic traders that are well aware of product perishability. The expectation is that the increased demand for goods and services in rural areas will spur the creation of non-farm jobs, in particular for the young people.

Since 1991, IFAD has financed six rural development programmes and projects in Angola for a total cost of $139.7 million, with an IFAD investment of $76.0 million directly benefiting 261,600 rural households.

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AU commissioner extols rising use of IT to improve agriculture production

NaijaAgroNet:

The African Union’s Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, has extolled the rising use of information technology to improve agriculture production and access to financing, NaijaAgroNet

She said that she believes there is reason to be optimistic that Africa’s agriculture sector is moving toward a brighter future, particularly in the rising use of information technology to improve agriculture production and access to financing, something she said, will play an important role in attracting more young Africans to farm-related ventures,

“We have seen this work in Nigeria with the ‘e-wallet’ and in Kenya with M-Pesa,” she said.
Peace also singled out AGRA for its ongoing effort to increase access to seed, fertilizers and other inputs and promote market and policy improvements that will allow the economic benefits of agriculture to be shared more broadly. The AU Commissioner also called on the continent leaders to banish the hand hoe into a museum, reports NaijaAgroNet.

She said that for the 2015 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) to stay true to its theme of “Walking the Talk on Youth and Women,” delegates must firmly embrace pledge from the 2014 AGRF to banish the hand hoe.

“We need to banish the hand-hoe to liberate our hardworking mothers and sisters from the drudgery associated with agriculture and increase their productivity and return from their labour. And I don’t believe our young people will be attracted to agriculture if we are still using the hand hoe,” Peace said.

Peace, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was the keynote speaker as the AGRF moved into the heart of its deliberations over how to increase production and incomes in Africa’s farm sector - while also generating better opportunities for the 10 million young Africans entering the job market every year and for women across Africa, most of whom are already farmers.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ED,OPs

 
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Earth observation applications critical for African regional integration

 NaijaAgroNet

The Commissioner, Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission, (AUC), Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, has said earth observation applications at continental, regional and national levels are critical for African integration, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking recently at the 1st Monitoring for Environment and Security Forum which examined how earth observation data through Monitoring for Environment for Security in Africa (MESA) Project supports policy, planning and decision making at the national, regional and continental level in Africa.

With the theme “Streamlining MESA products and services towards the decision-making cycle in support of sustainable environmental management” the forum, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was organised by the African Union Commission (AUC) in association with Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources with the support of the European Union.

Rhode stated  that  “the MESA Project contributes to the increase of information management, decision-making and planning capacity of African institutions mandated for agriculture, environment, climate, fisheries, food security and related responsibilities. This is critical for African regional integration.”

NaijaAgroNet also learnt that the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources, Judi Wakhungu, said, cases of poaching and deforestation have reduced by 50 per cent this year compared to 2013.

 “Before this, my office and team members had to travel physically to protected area which took several days and incurred huge costs. Thanks to MESA projects, Kenya Wildlife Service can now get snapshots of satellite images of the protected areas on a single page,” said Wakhungu.

MESA has brought together 250 international delegates comprising decision and policy makers, planners, earth observation data users and experts from across the continent, NaijaAgroNet.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE, additional report from Capital News

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AUC commends FAO resilience policies on humanity, resources, income

NaijaAgroNet

The African Union Commission (AUC’s) Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture Ms. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, has commended the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO’s) commitment in promoting resilience policies and strategies, NaijaAgroNET reports.

She said that such policies have the prospect of addressing the different needs and experiences of men, women, boys and girls, and equal access to and control over resources and incomes.

The Commissioner, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African Union Commission (AUC), on the implementation of the Regional Initiative on Resilience in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

In a statement from the FAO and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the initiative would establish effective knowledge platforms between Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member-states, as well as strengthen the capacity of institutions to scale up proven cost-effective resilience enhancing good practices.

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is a trade bloc in Africa, established in 1986, with a focus on development and environmental control, NaijaAgroNet learnt

It said in the Horn of Africa, the focus would be on supporting IGAD and member-states (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan), to enhance knowledge on practical means for resilience building, as well as heighten the awareness of dynamics of resilience programming.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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 Pix: Ms. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime,