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Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Africa launches Climate Smart-Agriculture Alliance Forum





The Africa’s first Climate Smart-Agriculture Alliance Forum, an Africa’s strategic approach for food security and nutrition in the face of climate change has been slated to hold in Addis  Ababa, Ethiopia,  NajiaAgroNet reports.

The launch of the Africa CSA Alliance Forum which will hold at Capital Hotel and Spa, NajiaAgroNet gathered, was formulated to foster harmonisation across various programmes being undertaken by African countries in climate change and agriculture. It is also a critical milestone in facilitating the sharing and learning on the various Climate Smart-Agriculture initiatives.

According to the information made available to  NajiaAgroNet, the Africa CSA Alliance Forum will specifically  agree on the general Africa-specific guiding principles and standards in domesticating the CSA definition into local/country and farming systems specific circumstances; validate the Africa CSA Vision 25x25 toolbox, an important tool for continental benchmarking and measuring CSA adoption for the “25 million targeted farming households by 2025”;  facilitate sharing across the various CSA initiatives at various levels.

It will also foster alignment in regional efforts in supporting and contributing to delivering on the “Africa CSA Vision 25x25” (based on ecosystems potential and related political economy issues).

 NajiaAgroNet also learnt that the Africa Climate-Smart Alliance Forum will be attended by: H.E Ato Sileshi Gutahun, Ethiopian State Minister for Agriculture; H.E Rhoda Peace Tumusiime – African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, H.E Yasmine Foaud – Assistant Minister for Sustainable Development and External Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Arab Republic of Egypt. H.E Andreas Gaarder - Norwegian Ambassador to Ethiopia 

Also in attendance will be representatives and participants from Governments, Regional Economic Communities, Farmers’ Organisations, Private Sector, Civil Society, specialised agencies and development partners.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ ED,OPs

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Friday, April 24, 2015

200 dead as late rains, floods threaten food security – SADC





Executive Secretary, Southern African development Community, (SADC) Dr. Lawrence Stergomena Tax, has at a recent SADC Council of Ministers meeting held in Harare, Zimbabwe confirmed that late last year’s floods and rains of early this year, has threatened food security in the Southern Africa region, NaijaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that the food security situation in the region is expected to be less than satisfactory during the 2015/16 marketing year as a result of poor rains in most parts of the region, dry spells in some areas, and floods in other areas.

Dr Tax, NaijaAgroNet learnt, expressed dissatisfaction over the situation, noting that SADC would continue to monitor the situation and support early warning for food security and vulnerability assessments in the member states.

In a report on food security assessment presented at the 34th SADC Summit held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in August last year, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the region had recorded a cereal surplus of more than 670 000 metric tonnes during the previous agricultural marketing season year.

This, according to the report, was mainly attributed to good rainfall, better access to inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, as well as credit facilities and extension services.
NaijaAgroNet also learnt that the floods of which affected parts of Southern Africa between late last year and early this year, left 200 people dead and 500,000 displaced in Malawi, while in Mozambique, about 27, 838 households suffered losses in cash crops.

Meanwhile SADC during the council meeting, deliberated on innovative ways of dealing with problems associated with changes in weather patterns, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Chairperson of the SADC Council of Ministers, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, said it was now time for the region to seek ways to curb increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods which adversely affects key sectors of the regional economy including agriculture.

Mumbengegwi, who is also Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister, told NaijaAgroNet that SADC to help deal with poor rains, would invest more in regional water infrastructure development such as irrigation, allowing the region to farm all year around and not only depend on climatic conditions to deal with poor rains.

As agriculture is the backbone of most economies in southern Africa, and more than 62 percent of the SADC region’s 277 million people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Council of Ministers, would canvass for an increased budget allocations to agriculture as well as targeted subsidy programmes that would result in farmers accessing agricultural inputs and farm implements at cheaper rates.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE 

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Saturday, April 18, 2015

Food, nutrition security, climate change dominate FAO-EU talks




 
  Food and nutrition security, climate change and soils are among the key issues slated for discussion in the coming months between Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the European Union (EU), NaijaAgroNet learnt.

According to a press release made available to NaijaAgroNet on Thursday, this follows series of meetings involving FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and EU high-level representatives that were held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels.

Graziano da Silva, NajaAgroNet further learnt, met EU Commissioner of Agriculture, Phil Hogan, EU Director-General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO), Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, and the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.

NaijaAgroNet reports that both parties highlighted the alignment between the EU initiatives and FAO's strategic objectives, and expressed satisfaction on the strategic partnership and high-level political dialogue taking place on common key challenges.

They reiterated that food and nutrition security will remain at the heart of their respective programming cycles.

FAO and the EU have also stressed the joint role they will be playing within some of the main conferences and events to take place in 2015, reports NaijaAgroNet.
 
Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Monday, June 18, 2012

Nigeria: Expert attributes food price hike to Boko Haram insurgence


Market women selling farm produce
The Technical Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Dr. Tony Egba said the activities of the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria are responsible for the rise in food price in the northern part of the country.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that Dr. Egba said, fears arising from the activities of the sect have resulted in transporters avoiding some areas in the north.
He also said that Nigerians’ involvement in subsistence farming was also responsible for the low food productivity and that the minister planned to change this.
The change, he said would come through the encouragement of mecahnised farming to boost food production.
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