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Showing posts with label agenda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label agenda. Show all posts

Monday, April 9, 2018

Support to smallholder farmers, women, youth top agenda @Mauritania

The imperative of supporting smallholder farmers, women and youth are top on the agenda for a forthcoming meeting between the President of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mr. Gilbert F. Houngbo, and Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The meeting, according to David Florentin Paqui of IFAD Communications Division in Nouakchott, affirmed to NaijaAgroNet, said would be witnessed by senior officials of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, to discuss how investment in agriculture could ensure food and nutrition security and create jobs for rural people, particularly women and youth.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that in Mauritania, 41 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, and half depend on agriculture for their income, whereas farming generates 25 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), hence, small farms are vital for the country’s food security as well as its economy.

During an official three-day visit to the country starting Monday, April 9, Houngbo hinted his meeting with the Mauritanian President and Prime Minister, Yahya Ould Hademine would have support for smallholders farmers, women and youth top on agenda.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet gathered that a joint working meeting with the Minister of Economy and Finance, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Livestock and the Minister of Environment will focus on the role of smallholder farmers in ensuring food security in Mauritania, the challenge of climate change, and the opportunities agriculture can offer to young people in rural areas.

Investing in a new generation of smallholder farmers is essential. Of Mauritania’s 4 million people, 40 per cent are under 15 years of age, 60 per cent are under 25 and only 5 per cent are over 60. Half of the population derives their livelihoods from raising crops and livestock and fishing. Although the country is self-sufficient in red meat and fish, it imports 60 per cent of other staple foodstuffs, particularly rice, vegetables, sugar and cooking oil.

IFAD and the government of Mauritania are working together to improve food security and nutrition, increase the incomes of poor rural households, create jobs and reduce the country's dependence on food imports. Since 1980, IFAD has financed 14 projects and programmes in Mauritania for a total of $342.3 million, including $136.2 million from IFAD’s own resources, directly benefitting nearly 190,470 Mauritanian rural households.


Houngbo will deliver a keynote address at the opening session of the Regional Implementation Forum organized in Nouakchott by the West and Central Africa Division of IFAD. Later, he will join Lemina Mint El Ghotob Ould Moma, Minister of Agriculture, in Kiffa to meet with rural people benefiting from an IFAD-supported Poverty Reduction Project in Aftout South and Karakoro – Phase II designed to help build, an economic and social fabric based on sustainable natural resource management that is inclusive of poor rural households, particularly women and young people. Because of its achievements in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, this project was a recipient of a 2017 IFAD Gender Award.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Thursday, February 8, 2018

2019: Make family planning political agenda - Salami

The Associate Director, Pathfinder International Nigeria, Dr. Habeeb Salami has tasked the Nigerian media to make family planning a political agenda for the forthcoming general elections in 2019, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Welcoming participants to a three-day Pathfinder’s AFP SMART Advocacy Workshop in Lagos recently urged media practitioners especially in the health sector to ensure that family planning attains agenda status in the next year elections.

“We should let health issues be among campaignable issues as election time is around the corner against 2019,” he charged.

Dr. Salami who lead the Pathfinder’s team on behalf of the Country Director, explained the importance of the workshop for media practitioners, saying its to form a formidable media group that will do a focused-advocacy on family planning.

According to him the overall aim is to achieve an increase in the uptake in Contraceptive Prevalent Rate (CPR) rate by 74 per cent in two-year time, that is, by 2020.

Opportunities, he said, are abound in the media to get policy makers to do the needful, stressing that the current state of “our health indices are too bad for us as a country.”

He also said that there have been calls on why another group is being created because there are other advocacy groups, insisted that “Pathfinder wanted a very focused and evidence-based advocacy.”


The workshop moderated by the Communications Officer at Pathfinder International, Mrs. Somto Atuanya, alongside, Mrs Yemisi and Mrs Edirin Aderemi, while other speakers at the event included Dr. Sidiat Okaga, Dr. Folashade Oludare and Mr. Ayo Adebusoye among others.

Remmy Nweke/Chuks Egbune/ED, Ops

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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

UNICEF sends 6-point agenda to G7 Summit

As the 43rd G7 Summit gets underway in Italy, the United Nations Child Fund (UNICEF) has sent a six-point agenda to the governments across the world for action to protect refugee and migrant children and ensure their wellbeing, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The 43rd G7 summit, NaijaAgroNet gathered would hold between May 26 and 27, 2017 in Taormina (ME), Sicily, Italy.

Disclosing this, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth, said the call has become imperative for the governments to adopt its six-point agenda due to global rise in refugee and migrant children since 2010.

 “These children need a real commitment from governments around the world to ensure their safety throughout their journeys. Leaders gathering next week at the G7 should lead this effort by being the first to commit to our six-point agenda for action,” Forsyth said.

The UNICEF agenda, Forsyth said, include protection of child refugees and migrants, particularly unaccompanied children, from exploitation and violence;  End the detention of children seeking refugee status or migrating, by introducing a range of practical alternatives; and keep families together as the best way to protect children and give children legal status.

In addition, UNICEF agenda comprised keeping all refugee and migrant children learning and give them access to health and other quality services; Press for action on the underlying causes of large scale movements of refugees and migrants; and Promote measures to combat xenophobia, discrimination and marginalization in countries of transit and destination. 

Further, UNICEF also urged the public to stand in solidarity with children uprooted by war, violence and poverty, by supporting the six-point agenda for action.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, and works in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.


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Sunday, September 11, 2016

To avoid bag of rice @N40k, emulate Anambra agriculture agenda

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri has warned Nigerians to prioritize agriculture and start rice production by emulating Anambra State, if a bag of rice will not cost upto N40,000 by December 2016, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Saturday, the Minister said that Nigeria spends about $22bn a year on importation of food into the country.

“For your information, we spend about $22bn a year importing food into Nigeria. We know how many more dollars they bought and that is why you see the price of rice going up. Price of rice was may be N12,000 some months ago, but it is now about N26,000 and if we don’t start producing, by December it could be N40,000. 

Rice, he said, matures in three months, so, this is a wake-up call for Bayelsa people to take the four farms we have seriously. The federal government has four farms in the state in our records. 

"The average land you see in Bayelsa can grow rice, so the colonial masters were not wrong in their assessment when they said Niger Delta could feed not only Nigerian but also the entire West Africa sub-region,” he said.

The minister lamented that unfortunately, agriculture till today, is not a priority of the Niger Delta as far as the state governments are concerned because of oil.

Lokpobiri also said the states in the Niger Delta were yet to give priority to agriculture the way the North-West states such as Kebbi, Jigawa, Kano as well as other states like Lagos, Ebonyi, Anambra, prioritised it.

He said Anambra State, for instance, was not owing salaries despite the fact that it does not have oil but raking in money by merely exporting vegetables.

Culled from The Vanguard:


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Pix: Senator Heineken Lokpobiri

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

ANEC 2016 goes to Rivers State with agriculture, investment topping agenda

The 12th edition of the All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) is headed to oil-rich Rivers State with top on the agenda being agriculture and investment, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The five-day conference slated for August 3 through 7 in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State comes with the theme: Economic Diversification: Agriculture as Option for a Prosperous Nigeria.

The Acting President of the Guild of Editors, Funke Egbemode, said no fewer than 300 Nigerian editors, a collection of mainstream farmers, agriculture financiers, policy-makers and captains of industry would be expected to grace the event.

“The sole emphasis on agriculture for this year’s conference was in response to the falling price of crude oil at the international market which has automatically reduced government’s earnings and revenue base. This is the first the conference is focusing on agriculture in the most pragmatic sense and it is meant to draw the nation’s attention to the limitless opportunities that abound in agriculture” Egbemode said.

She also quoted the host Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, as saying in a press statement available to NaijaAgroNet that the conference would afford the state the opportunity to showcase its investment potentials.

According to the Special Assistant to the Governor on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, Wike noted that the conference would be a fitting platform to partner with editors and the media to consolidate development in both the state and the nation at large.

Wike pointed out that the state is hosting several national and international events as a demonstration of the fact that Rivers State is an investors’ destination, stressing that the state is peaceful and the people hospitable.

“Hosting this year’s conference will also make the editors witness first-hand the development projects and programmes of my administration which has improved the living standard of the people,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the All Nigeria Editors’ Conference is the largest gathering of Nigerian editors and has become a watering hole of ideas that shaped government policies and programmes over the years, with the maiden edition held in 2004 at Ada, in Osun State.

Also, ANEC had previously attracted both local and foreign speakers as well as editors from organizations such as the West African Editors Forum (WAEF), the African Editors Forum (TAEF), the World Editors Forum (WEF) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).

This year’s edition has been tailored primarily to focus on agriculture as a counterfoil to the dwindling receipts from crude oil.  Speakers include a rich mix of practicing farmers, agriculture financiers and policy-makers.

The Founder of HoneySuckle PTL Ventures, Mosunmola Cynthia Umoru, would speak on Agriculture as Panacea for Unemployment while Mr. Kola Adeniji of Niji Farms would talk on Agriculture as a Foreign Exchange Earner.


The Chief Executive of Bank of Agriculture, Professor Danbala Danju would be explaining the 'Role of Banks in Agriculture Financing while Kano-based farmer, Muhammad Abubakar, the Managing Director of L&Z Integrated Farms would experientially explore the topic: Making the Most of Agriculture Value Chain.

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