EU, FAO call for funds to combat cassava diseases in Africa

NaijaAgroNet:

The European Union (EU) and the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) have called for increased investments to prevent further crop damage and the rapidly spreading strains of cassava disease.

This position was made in a statement by the two bodies as the outcome of the meeting of 70 regional cassava professionals in Nairobi, Kenya where it was decided that a minimum of $100 million ( about  N15.9 billion) is needed to continue the efforts of the EU funded, FAO coordinated Regional Cassava Initiative.

 NaijaAgroNet gathered from the statement that over a four-year period, the initiative has improved food security and repaired damaged yields in the areas affected by cassava disease and noted that the project is set to end without further investment.

Seven countries including Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda worked with the initiative to offer cassava farmers disease resistant plants and clean materials.

Although these efforts curbed the effects of Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD), Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) continues to spread, threatening the food security of the 135 million people in the region, while NaijaAgroNet learnt that without continued funding of the Initiative, CBSD is likely to spread into Nigeria, the biggest cassava-producing nation in Africa.

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CTA mets FAO on e-agriculture

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) has finalized plans to meet with the Food and Agri-culture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) over e-agriculture.

ICT4D Programme Coordinator at CTA, Mr. Ken Lohento, confirmed this to NaijaAgroNet, saying that the essence billed as prelude for forthcoming World Summit on the Information Society WSIS Forum 2013 in Geneva, would include to investigate the state of national and regional strategies for e-agriculture strategies, and their impact on how the entire sector can tap into the full benefits of ICT. 

“The outcomes of these actions will serve as the starting point for the e-agriculture action line session at WSIS Forum 2013,” Lohento said.

He also said that for those not attending WSIS, they could join remotely and would be able to ask questions and make comments.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the session would be moderated by Mr. Michael Riggs of FAO, while panelists includes Ms Jennifer Britton, Caribbean Community (CARICOM ) Secretariat, Guyana; Mr Edward Addo-Dankwa, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana; Mr Ken Lohento, Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA); Mr Harsha Liyanage, Sarvodaya-Fusion and eNovation4D, Sri Lanka and Mr Shahid Uddin Akbar, Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID).


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IFAD projects in Yemen worth $230m

Nwanze, IFAD President

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has valued its projects in the west Asian country of Yemen to the tune of $230million, about N36.19 billion.

The United Nations’ specialised agency’s recent pledge to support agriculture and rural development in Yemen to the tune of $41million, brings the total investments in the country’s projects to $230million, as at September 2012

Of the total sum, $130 million was co-financed from domestic sources and the rest by external financiers, such as the European Union, International sDB and World Bank.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that some of the previous projects co-financed by IFAD in the Asian country include a $32.9, about N5.17billion Fisheries Investment Project in 2010, a project which benefited small-scale fishers, their associations as well as poor households that want to engage in aquaculture.

IFAD came up with the Fisheries investment project in a bid to improve the economic status of small-scale fishers through the creation of sustainable and diversified economic opportunities for poor women and men alike with special focus on the development of value chain development.

One of the numerous projects that sum IFAD’s financial commitment to N36.19billion includes the Economic Opportunities Programme early in 2010, which seek to create economic opportunities for the rural poor while working with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to significantly reduce poverty.

The economic opportunities programme, NaijaAgroNet further gathered also assisted landless households to develop the value chains for coffee, honey and horticulture products, being the three high-value agriculture commodities for some of the selected areas for the project.

IFAD in collaboration with the Government of Yemen introduced a private-sector-led approach to development operations with the economic opportunities programme.

The programme also established a private-public partnership to effectively, efficiently and transparently manage development resources and create synergies, whilst women constituted the key target group for the micro-business.

NaijaAgroNet equally gathered that projects by IFAD in Yemen have supported more than 1.2 million poor women and men alike, helping them build resilience to shocks and conflict, and at the same time improving their household food security and incomes.

However, the new pledge by IFAD will also allow the scaling up of successful investments to cater for additional communities and introduce innovations with the IFAD supported country programmes.

The investments according to IFAD are expected to stimulate rural economic growth and job creation for additional one million poor women and men in the rural areas.

Yemen was one of the first countries to receive financing from the UN specialized agency at the early period of its establishment.

IFAD as an international financial institution created in 1977 as a result of the outcome of the 1974 World Food Conference with the aim of financing agricultural development projects targeted at food production in developing countries, has since inception being working towards the eradication of poverty and food insecurity in developing nations of the world.

Yinka Awosanya

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FAO, Brazil vote N3.15b to assist developing nations

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Orgarnisation (FAO) has entered into a $20 million, about N3.15 billion worth of agreement with Brazil in a bid to help developing countries in the production of cotton.

“This agreement represents an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of South-South cooperation between developing-world partners as a vehicle for sustainable economic growth,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva while signing the agreement recently at FAO’s Rome headquarters.

FAO revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that the agreement would enable developing nations boost cotton production through Brazilians’ expertise in the production of cotton.

The agreement which is a four-year project was signed by the UN special agency, FAO, the Brazilian Cotton Institute and external cooperation wing of Brazil’s Foreign Relations Ministry, to see to the technical assistance and training in best practices in cotton cultivation and its marketing.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the first phase of the project would be in Haiti and the MERCOSUR zone of South America, and will later be extended to some other developing countries in Latin America as well as Africa.

Commenting on the agreement, FAO Director General, José Graziano da Silva affirmed that the agreement is an opportunity for the demonstration of effectiveness of the South-South cooperation among developing-world partners.

According to the FAO chair, the agreement is a vehicle for sustainable economic growth.

While the Brazilian Cotton Institute will provide $10 million, about N1.57 billion financial support for the project with an additional $10 million from the external cooperation wing of Brazil’s Foreign Relations Ministry, FAO's Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean will contribute $200 000, about N31.5 million worth of nonfinancial support.

The FAO's nonfinancial contribution, NaijaAgroNet learnt entails provision of expertise and technical information and mobilising the agency's international networks for support. 

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UN urges political leaderships to lead disaster management

Dr. Satterthwaite, IFAD Senior Fellow

The United Nations (UN) has found out that political leadership is very crucial in terms of protecting lives and economic assets of cities from disasters.

The 2012 report of Making Cities Resilient, a major urban safety campaign launched two years ago by UN revealed to NaijaAgroNet that local governments through a team led by a Senior Fellow of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Dr. David Satterthwaite, had reduce disaster risk.

A press release made available to NaijaAgroNet by IIED revealed that despite rise in extreme weather events, Dr. Satterthwaite’s team affirmed that the Making Cities Resilient campaign is proving that urbanization does not have to lead to an increase in risk. "Where city and local governments demonstrate leadership and competence in working with low-income populations living in informal settlements flood impacts can be reduced and the threats from other natural hazards minimized," part of the report stated.

The campaign created by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction now have over 1,050 members from major metropolis across San Francisco, Copenhagen, Cape Town and Mumbai to small towns in countries such as Austria and Pakistan.

Margareta Wahlström, the UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction also disclosed that over $100 billion, about N16.1 trillion is lost to disasters annually for the past two decades.

"Most of these damages can be avoided through better risk management and investment in social and structural infrastructure," said Wahlström that some communities are already leveraging on whatever resources they have to reduce the impact of disaster event in their environs.

Wahlström cited an example of such communities to be the local government of Siquirres in Costa Rica which joined the campaign and in six months was able to avoid the usual annual flood of February in 2012.

"There are many cities like Siquirres which are proving that if you manage your risks, you build your resilience to disasters and avoid unnecessary disruption in the home and the workplace,” she concluded.

Yinka Awosanya

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UN calls for urgent actions against food price hike

The United Nations (UN) agencies have called for swift and coordinated international actions in a bid to maintain stable prices for food stocks.

In a press statement jointly prepared by three UN agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) made available to NaijaAgroNet, revealed the need to maintain food price so that it does not turn to a catastrophe.

This, the agencies said, could hurt tens of millions over the coming months, and that the problems of some high food prices must be solved as well as the long-term issue of how we produce and consume.

Also, the agencies, disclosed that the food price hike does not affect every country in same way that the urban, rural poor and those in food import-dependent countries are most vulnerable to the international increase in prices as the listed categories spent a larger part of their incomes on food.

Findings by the bodies affirmed that although some smallholder farmers fall into the category of poor and food insecure that they can powered to take the food price hike advantages by becoming part of the solution and improve the overall food security.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that part of initiatives employed by the UN agencies comprise the UN High-Level Task Force on Global Food Security and Agricultural Markets Information System (AMIS), to improve transparency in the global food market.

Also part of the initiative, the Rapid Response Forum was set up to facilitate coordinated policy responses by the major world producers and traders of key cereals and soybeans.

WFP made an estimation of extra $200 million, about N31.6 billion per year for food assistance for every 10 per cent increase in food price; everyone is vulnerable as global grain production in a good year is not enough to meet the growing demand for food.

 

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