COP27: African ministers explore ways to scale up food production, feed continent - NaijaAgroNet

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The African agriculture ministers attending the United Nations climate summit in Egypt reiterated a commitment to work with development partners to unlock the continent’s agriculture potential.

During the special ministerial session, there was a strong consensus that Africa can feed itself if supported with green financing and climate-smart technology to boost agriculture productivity, under the conference of party (COP27).

Investments in agriculture will unlock prosperity in Africa – IFAD President

NaijaAgroNet:

The President of the United Nations (UN's) International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, has told African leaders that investments in agriculture have the capacity to unlock prosperity of the continent, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Nwanze in a message to African leaders participating in the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Kigali that he is optimistic that such investment which must be a collaborative one between government and businesses will grow Africa tremendously.

"Investments in agriculture can generate great riches for the continent and lift millions out of poverty and hunger," said Nwanze en route to Rwanda. "There are high returns to those countries that take agriculture seriously."

Since 2009, he said, Africa has been seen as the next great investment frontier yet, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), economic growth on the continent is now predicted to be slower than the rest of the world for the first time in sixteen years.

He emphasised that with many countries in southern and eastern Africa suffering from the worst drought in decades, coupled with fiscal deficits widening and conflicts increasing, some experts are questioning whether Africa is still on the rise.

Despite these dire predictions, Nwanze said Africa is still a continent of unprecedented opportunity, and supporting small-scale farmers and investing in rural areas are some of the best ways for countries to meet their broader development objectives, including poverty reduction.

“With the right investments, Africa could double its agricultural productivity in the next five years,” he said, stressing that half of the world's uncultivated land which is suited for growing food crops is in Africa.

"We need to work together to harness the continent's potential and this means investing in small-scale farmers who are the backbone of African agriculture," Nwanze said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Build farmers capacity, increase efficiency – Lubinda

NaijaAgroNet:

The Zambian Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Given Lubinda, has stressed the importance for building farmers’ capacity on the continent, NaijaAgroNet reports.

He gave this position at an address to the just concluded World Farmers Organisation (WFO) General Assembly in Livingstone, Zambia, saying that building farmers capacity it will increase efficiency in the agriculture sector.

“Africa is home of the small scale ‪farmers poors that create wealth, and feed the world,” Lubinda said.

Farmers, the Minister said, need to develop the right skills and knowledge needed to effectively improve their capacity.

“A secure access to the land, ownership and control over land, access to productive resources and inputs, including modern technology, markets, inputs and financial resources are essential elements to enable farmers to improve agricultural efficiency and productivity,” Lubinda said.

The farmers, minister further said, need to develop their agricultural management and marketing skills to efficiently strengthen their entrepreneurial skills.

“In this respect, agricultural extension and advisory services are increasingly seen as a key means to build farmers’ capacity,” the Minister said.

These services, Lubinda pointed out, help farmers deal with risk and change, by providing options and capabilities to make the right choices at the right time.

“The services assist rural actors to share technology and practices, and support farmers to acquire a better position in value chains and markets,” Lubinda said.

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PermSecs reiterate commitment to accelerate agriculture in Africa

NaijaAgroNet:

The second retreat for the Permanent Secretaries ended in the city of Accra, Ghana with reiteration to accelerate agricultural transformation across the continent, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The retreat, NaijaAgroNet also reports was aimed at accelerating the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) to transform agriculture in Africa, assembled over 100 participants including Permanent Secretaries and CAADP Focal persons of Ministries of Agriculture, Rural Development, Livestock and Aquaculture and the Regional Economic Communities. 

Declaring open the expert gathering convened by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the NEPAD Agency in Accra, the Ghanaian Minister for Food and Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed-Munira Limuna noted that even though the agricultural sector is faced with numerous challenges such as low uptake of modern technologies, depleting natural resources especially water and climate change negative impacts, solutions that could be adopted to counter them at national level should be sought and implemented.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the retreat provided space for Permanent Secretaries to reflect on several thematic and policy factors, especially on the El Nino and implications on agricultural transformation and food security; Trade and industrialization drive and implications for agriculture; and Land tenure systems and trends and implications for the Malabo commitments.

They also focused on validating the revised Country CAADP Implementation Guidelines.  This includes modalities for monitoring and evaluation, reporting and accountability including operationalisation of the African Union Biennial CAADP Review Cycle.  Country perspectives were also sought on CAADP-Malabo Financing Architecture; technical networks arrangement to mobilise and make accessible expert support arrangements, and; revising the CAADP partnership architecture. 

NEPAD’s Head of Programme Development, Mr. Martin Bwalya told participants that the outcomes of the meeting will clarify the necessary measures needed to achieve the CAADP Malabo Declaration targets for results and impact in agriculture, food security and nutrition.

While the AUC Director for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Dr. Janet Edeme, reiterated one of the critical objectives of meeting as being “The review of progress in implementing CAADP and the guidelines developed to help guide countries in implementation.” 

NaijaAgroNet recalls that permanent secretaries are the primary custodians of government policy and practice.  They are also the overall accounting officers in their government ministries, thus putting their offices and mandates at the centre in driving institutional reforms and overall transformation in national development goals.

  
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Grow Africa Partnership secures $10bn to boost agriculture

NaijaAgroNET

Over 200 member companies have committed $10-billion about N1.99 trillion in the Agricultural sector in 12 African countries aimed at boosting agriculture and employment on the continent. This figure represents an increase of about 40 per cent over 2013 commitment levels reports NaijaAgroNet.

Grow Africa released the figures at the Grow Africa Investment Forum in Cape Town as the first stage of a joint reporting process for Grow Africa and the New Alliance, on behalf of the African Union.

According the information received by NaijaAgroNet, “Investment continues to increase: in 2013 and 2014, investments totalling $1.8 billion about N358.2billion have led to the creation of 58 000 jobs, bringing improvements in services and market opportunities to 8.6 million smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of the sector’s production capacity.

Sarita Nayyar, Managing Director, World Economic Forum said, “We stand at a pivotal moment of opportunity to capitalize on an enormous body of collective learning to foster successful public-private cooperation. We must seize this opportunity to deliver on the promise of African agriculture to drive sustainable and inclusive economic growth for the continent.”

 “Over half of the investment commitments come from domestic agribusiness and service companies, which benefit from Grow Africa’s focus on convening and facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships to strengthen inclusive agricultural value chains.”

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Grow Africa Partnership was founded jointly in 2011 by the African Union (AU), The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the World Economic Forum to enable countries to realize the potential of the agriculture sector for economic growth and job creation, particularly among farmers, women and youth.

In 2014, about $300-million, about N59.7 of staple and cash crops were sourced from smallholders as a result of the investments.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

 
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AU, Harvest Plus sets to promote farming technologies

NaijaAgroNet

African Union commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Tumuslime Rhoda Peace, has said that the union would partner with lead research-based agriculture institution, Harvest Plus, to promote farming and consumption of boi-fortified crops, through the use of farming technologies, especially among poor farming and urban communities, to boost Agriculture in the African continent. NaijaAgroNet, reports.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that Tumuslime appreciated the role of the institute in lifting the rural poor communities in Africa out of poverty and stressed that in order to improve market access, the use of farming technology needs propagation at higher policy making levels so that farmers can adopt it and sellers can buy the micro nutrient-added to produce in good quantities.

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Director Harvest Plus, Dr. Howarth Bouis and Harvest Plus, Head of Africa Strategic Alliances, Dr. Anna-Marie Ball NaijaAgroNet learnt, briefed the commissioner on its accomplishments in breeding and production of bio-fortified food crops and distribution bio-fortified seed varieties as well as improved cultivars, thereby empowering rural communities.

Dr. Bouis said, “The organisation also helps add value to locally produced agricultural crops in countries where the organization is working in Africa.” She added that “we have released a number of bio-fortified crops including: iron beans, iron pearl millet, vitamin A cassava, vitamin A maize, vitamin A sweet potatoes, Zinc rice and Zinc wheat.”

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Harvard Plus has executed countless programmes in Africa, especially the rapid expansion in production and consumption of yellow cassava in Nigeria.

Harvest Plus as NaijaAgroNet learnt, is a lead research-based, agriculture technology institution that was established to respond to the problem of ‘hidden hunger’ which is caused by the lack of essential vitamins and minerals in the diet, such as vitamin A, zinc, and iron, thus reinforcing agriculture’s pivotal role in improving the quality of diet and increasing micro-nutrient consumption. 

Nsolibe Daniel/Ed, Ops.

 

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Working against tide of global warming

NaijaAgroNet 

As we enter the last month of the first quarter of 2015, an alarm was recently raised by scientists from the United Nations-affiliated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the anticipated effect of climate change in the East African region of the continent.

IPCC counseled that an estimated millions of people in East African nations should be ready for intense weather events-related as a result of climate change.

Defined as a whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity, climate change to some experts means any change in climate over time, which could be ascribed to a change of climate either directly or indirectly to human activity but alters the composition of the global atmosphere with an increase in natural climate variability observed over comparable period of time, according to 2001 impacts, adaptation and vulnerability Working Group II to the third assessment report of IPCC.

But experts at New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA) pointed out that global warming is the increase of earth's average surface temperature due to effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from earth.

Global warming, NaijaAgroNet reports, will have catastrophic effects such as accelerating sea level rise, droughts, floods, storms and heat waves, which invariably impacts on some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people, disrupting food production, and threatening essential important species, habitats and ecosystems.

IPCC experts, NaijaAgroNet reports equally said that global warming is no longer an issue of argument because since the 1950s a lot of the observed changes have been dramatic.

An official representing the director, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC), Guled Artan said the challenges on east Africa due to climate change are grave.

“The problem in East Africa is serious. When there’s rain, the rain will be more intense, so there will be floods. The dry spells will be wider, so there will be more droughts. That’s the risk so, increased likelihood of floods, increased likelihood of drought; and two extremes:  too much water, too little water,” Artan said.

However, in the bid to create more knowledge base on this global warming and climate change, the National Environmental Agency (NEA) has concluded a two-day training on the Global Information System (GIS), a climate change project (PARCC) at Baobab Hotel, The Gambia, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The aim of the project, NaijaAgroNet learnt, is to assess the vulnerability of protected areas in West Africa and impact of climate change in view of enhancing resilience by developing strategies and tools to improve effectiveness management in climate change. 

The training held with the JEF-fund project was executed by UNEP-WCMC in partnership with (IUCN PACO) and has been in operation since 2010. This project covers five core countries in West Africa, namely The Gambia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Chad, Togo, Bukina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana as beneficiaries.

"It is indisputable that conservation is the key in sustainable development, especially in our environment that has not been constantly and properly managed. It is interesting to know that research has shown that more than 13 percent of the global land surface is designated as ‘protected area,’" Minister Jarju stated.

As said by Jarju, governments of ECOWAS are aware that region contains a high level of biodiversity and endemic species across multiple areas, having been projected to experience extreme climate change in the future.

Stressing that the government of The Gambia, for instance, was fully aware of the achievements that PARCC project registered in the past year, and these achievements include preparation of a report on projected impacts of climate change on biodiversity in West Africa Protected Area in which impact on reptiles, birds, mammal has been highlighted.

California Governor Mr. Jerry Brown had in the wake of drought bedeviling the state, said that climate-change deniers should wake up, because with the weather and what it's happening in California, climate change is not a deception.

For experts at ‘Building Nigeria's Response to Climate Change’ a non-governmental organization, noted that in Nigeria, this means that some stable ecosystems such as the Sahel Savanna may become vulnerable because warming will reinforce existing patterns of water scarcity and increasing the risk of drought in Nigeria and indeed most countries in West Africa. As well, the country’s aquatic ecosystems, wetlands and other habitats will create overwhelming problems for an already impoverished populace.

Although industry observers there are compelling scientific evidences, governments and businesses have responded very slowly. Despite the fact that even if nations in the region fulfill live up to their promises and pledges in international conventions, the world will still face between 2.6 and 4 ºC of warming.

As work at various part of the continent towards reduction of emissions, Africans must simultaneously begin to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

 

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AAKNet says USD2bn flowing across Africa for environmental adaptation by 2020

NaijaAgroNet:

The Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet) has estimated USD 2 billion is flowing across the continent for adaptation through a variety of sources, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as AAKNet predicts that an estimated 15 billion United States dollars will be committed for cost of emission by year 2020.

AAKNet in a its latest issue of Africa Adaptation Newsletter made available to NaijaAgroNet, with the theme: Africa Adaptation Gap Report 2: Bridging the Gap – Mobilising Resources, noted that the first Africa Adaptation Gap Report demonstrated how delaying action would result in exponentially rising costs down the road, the second report now turns to possible solutions to respond to this urgency.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that past global emissions already commit Africa to adaptation costs of USD 7-15 billion per year by 2020.

The report, NaijaAgroNet gathered, builds on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2014 emissions gap report that showed global emission-reduction efforts are not yet at the level of what is required to put the world on track to hold global warming below 2°C.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet reports that by 2050, Africa’s adaptation costs could rise to USD 50 billion per year for a scenario holding global warming below 2°C, and up to USD 100 billion per year by 2050, if the world does not manage to turn away from the current path that could lead to more than 4°C warming by 2100.

To take a step back: this is not just a question of money, millions of people and their livelihoods are at stake. Africa’s population would be at an increasing risk of undernourishment due to increasing food demand and the detrimental effects of climate change on agriculture on the continent.

A warming of 2˚C globally, AAKNet pointed out, would put over 50 per cent of the African continent’s population at risk of undernourishment.

“Yet, right now, we are heading to 4˚C of warming,” AAKNet stated.

Further, NaijaAgroNet learnt that the report findings showed that sea level could rise by a metre above present-day levels, putting millions of people at risk of flooding in the large coastal cities across the continent.

“These are the striking impacts of climate change risk reversing Africa’s economic and development gains,” AAKNet warned.

+Naija AgroNet 
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