Farmers go to Italy for global forum - NaijaAgroNet

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The Farmers’ Forum would next month, February 12 and 13 assembly in Italy for their global meeting, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The forum is a bottom-up dialogue on rural development and poverty reduction between farmers’ organizations, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and governments and has been scheduled for February 12 through 13, 2024 in Italy.

Forum says ‘Leverage ICT to transform agriculture’ - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

Over 200 attendees at the 2018 Global Forum just concluded in Marrakesh, Morroco, have called for the leveraging of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a veritable tool for the transformation of agriculture, reports NaijaAgroNet. 

The Forum, NaijaAgroNet reports was supported by the European Union and organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), made this call in its outcome document.

The Forum also made a strong case for greater investment in innovation, stressing that digital technologies are transforming every sector of the global economy, including agriculture.

New technologies are improving agricultural productivity, lowering carbon emissions and making better use of the earth's natural resources. They are also making information more accessible to small-scale producers across the globe.

While the private sector is largely driving the development of such technologies, the public sector can help facilitate their adoption and keep an eye on technologies that have the power to bring positive outcomes, especially to small-scale farmers and small-to-medium enterprises. That means understanding the different technologies - and obstacles hindering their uptake, especially by small-scale producers - and identifying the necessary policies, regulations, incentive frameworks and capacity development.

Other discussions at the Forum focused on the private sector's views on investing in emerging markets and managing risks in value chain financing, and on the importance of making agrifood systems greener as well as more inclusive, especially for women and youth.   

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Nairobi agog for African Green Revolution forum 2016

NaijaAgroNet:

The city of Nairobi, capital of Kenya would from this weekend becomes agog in readiness for the hosting of the 2016 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) with the theme: “Seize the Moment - 

Securing Africa's Rise through Agricultural Transformation,” reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the organisers, the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), all is now set for the week-long stakeholder forum between September 5 and 9, this year.

NaijaAgroNet gathered the forum kicks off this weekend with pre-forum organized field visit to the Dryland Seed Company (DSL) in Machakos County, while the official opening ceremony has been slated for Monday, September 5, 2016 under the chief host, H.E Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of Kenya.

The African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) promises to advance policies and secure the investments that will ensure a better life for millions of Africa’s smallholder farmers and families who make up 70 per cent of the population.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that AGRA is an alliance led by Africans with roots in farming communities across 18 countries in Africa. The alliance was formed in 2006 in response to a call from former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who believed that time had come for African farmers to wage a “uniquely African Green Revolution.”

For the past five years AGRA has used the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) to not only highlight major accomplishments but also to bring all stakeholders together to advance the policies and secure the investments that ensures a better life for millions of Africa’s farmers and families – and realize the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The forum expected to attract hundreds of participants to Nairobi.

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ARSO President’s Forum to boost inter-African trade

NaijaAgroNet

African Organization for Standardization’s (ARSO) President’s Forum slated for Abuja next month will remove the restrictions placed by the differences in the standards governing trade among African countries, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Dr Joseph Ikem Odumodu, who is the Director-General of the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and president of the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO), while speaking to newsmen in his office in Abuja recently, stated that the theme of the seminar is “the Role of Standards in Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.”

Speaking further, NaijaAgroNet learnt, “Every organism prospers by utilizing the material which every part supplies. But hardly does Africa draw strength from the trade the different countries in the continent engage in because, separated by standards, the countries hardly trade among themselves. Now, ARSO President’s Forum Abuja 2015 is bringing fifty-five heads of national standards bodies (NSB) in Africa together to open the gates of harmonization of standards and let goods and services flow smoothly across the continent”.

 Dr. Odumodu elucidated further that the forum will feature African Day of Standardization seminar in addition to the CEOs Roundtable and the Made in Africa Expo.

 
Participants expected at the forum include manufacturers, service providers, medium and small scale enterprises, investors and representatives of government ministries, departments and agencies. The International Conference Centre, Abuja is the venue of the Forum.

The ARSO President’s Forum, NaijaAgroNet reports, is the aftermath of the 20th ARSO General Assembly endorsement of a proposal for the ARSO President to convene a special forum of NSB chief executives and engage them on ARSO standardization programmes to make Africa one market. The ARSO 20th Assembly took place in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2014.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

 
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Africa must innovate to open up agriculture potentials – FARA

NaijaAgroNet

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the German government ended a two-day forum in Nairobi by declaring that the continent must embrace agricultural innovations to become globally competitive in bio-economy, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Felix Koskei, told participants that one of the key ingredients to growth in the agriculture sector is attributable to development of technology that fails to be aligned to the needs of the client and effectively fails to compliment national and institutional goals’ aspirations.

NaijaAgroNet reports that particularly, Koskei noted that innovations should be self-perpetuated or be taken up by commercial entities and business the innovations are expected to yield immense socioeconomic benefits and impact productivity income and sustainability of the environment for the small holders.

“Despite this huge resources and potential, this continent together with other developing countries are host to 852 million hungry residents who require constant support,” Koskei noted.

According to Rhoda Tumusiime, Commissioner for Agriculture at the Africa Union, “Africa must feed itself and in fact this initiative of scaling up innovation is very critical. One world no hunger Africa should have no hunger because we have the capability, the land the people but as you have also heard only 50 per cent of agriculture productivity is contributed to by innovation.”

The executive director, FARA, Yemi Akinbamijo,lamented that “Money is not everything; by the way because we have spent more than 150 billion US dollars, about N29,925 trillion, in the last three decades and we are still where we are and we are spending 50 billion US dollars to borrow foods.”

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Bank Ki-moon, da Silva call for pro-family farming policies

The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, have called on the international community for commitments during International Year of Family Farming, reports NaijaAgroNet.

They made this call while speaking in support of small-scale family farmers, urging governments to boost support to the world’s small-scale family farmers in order to win the fight against hunger.

Mr. Ban said the International Year of Family Farming being celebrated in 2014 called “for commitments” in a message relayed by Graziano da Silva to the Global Forum and Expo on Family Farming in Budapest.

“Governments can empower family farmers, especially women and youth, by creating policies conducive to equitable and sustainable rural development,” Ban said. “This includes better infrastructure to reduce the amount of food lost after harvest when small-scale producers are unable to store, process and transport their goods.”

The UN Secretary-General also encouraged public and private lenders to provide vital financial services such as credit and insurance.

Ban warned that small-scale family farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate change events such as extreme weather, droughts and floods.

Pro-family farming policies

In his address to the forum, Graziano da Silva echoed the UN Secretary-General in urging governments to adopt explicitly pro-family farming policies.

He underlined that family farmers, fisher folk, forest-dependent people, pastoralists and traditional and indigenous communities are key for food security in most countries but at the same time are among the world’s most vulnerable populations.

A recent study of 93 countries shows that family farms account for over 90 percent of all farm holdings, he told the forum.

Family farmers also manage most of the world’s farm land, including 63 percent in Europe, he said.

“Apart from producing a high proportion of the food we eat, family farmers are by far the biggest source of employment in the world,” the Director-General stressed, adding that they are also the guardians of the world’s agro-biodiversity and natural resources.

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Nokia, Microsoft, Dalberg partner on agro job creation forum

The trio of Nokia, Microsoft and Dalberg recently hosted Innovation for Vision 20:2020 Forum to boost Nigeria’s economy and to stimulate discussion about the role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT’s) and innovation in catalyzing development last December in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), especially in agriculture and job creation.

DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that phone manufacturer, Nokia, in partnership with leading software maker, Microsoft and Dalberg Global Development Advisors organized a full day forum to discuss ways the ICT sector could impact agriculture, job creation and the power sector in achieving Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020 goals.

The forum reportedly stimulated discussion around how information and communication technologies and local innovations could be used for improving the performance of the agriculture, entrepreneurial and energy sectors and what barriers exist for unleashing creativity both within public and private domains for making these solutions a reality.

Speaking, the Microsoft’s General Manager for Nigeria Emmanuel Onyeje said “it is important to build our understanding and knowledge about the power of ICT’s, but only action will allow us to reach our dreams. We need to move from policies to actionable programs that benefit the people.”

Also speaking, Mr. Robin Miller, Manager and ICT subject expert for Dalberg explained that the primary criterion for choosing the agricultural, entrepreneurship and the power sectors is due to their unique ability to drive inclusive and sustainable growth.

‘’Nigeria is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa with potential for global competitiveness. As such, we must look beyond the traditional solutions and recognize ICT innovation as a cornerstone of the country’s development,” she said.

The forum highlighted the current global thinking about the role of technology and innovation in driving national competitiveness, economic growth and social development. The forum brought together policy makers, local innovators, academics and private sector to join forces in developing the Nigerian innovation society and to build bridges between sectors. The discussions highlighted the importance of collaboration and demonstrated in practice how each stakeholder group has a role to play in reaching national development objectives.

The forum finished with the participants themselves presenting their solutions and recommendations for way forward. Excited Nokia’s Vice President for Corporate Relations Jussi Hinkkanen, noted that with the results of the day “Reaching of Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020 objectives will require collaboration and alignment across stakeholders.

Private sector, Hinkkanen said, is ready to contribute to this process as we have seen today. The identified solutions showed maturity and now we need to action on them”.

The occasion was graced by the Honourable Minister of Communication and Technology, Mrs. Omobala Johnson under whose patronage the event was organized.

 

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