Smoking ovens help internally displaced fish processors in Cameroon - ITREALMS

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Sitting on the Logone River in the Far North region of Cameroon, right on the border of Chad, Logone-Birni has experienced more than its share of conflict and upheaval. The Boko Haram insurgency, which has been affecting the Far North region for nearly a decade, meant that many have suffered violence and disruption.

But in December 2021, violent clashes erupted once again. This time the conflict arose between inland fishers, ethnic herders and farmers over limited water resources, a result of climate change and declining rainfall. Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee for their lives.

Center on Adaptation to help smallholder farmers enhance food security - NaijaAgroNet

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The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) has said its providing technical advisory support to a new World Bank’s investment project in Ethiopia valued at $600 million to increase the resilience of food systems and preparedness for food insecurity, reports NaijaAgroNet.

As a result of climate change, smallholder farmers in Ethiopia are suffering from greater variability and extreme weather events, increased temperature and declining rainfall in a country where 85 percent of farmers are depended on rain-fed agriculture. Ethiopia is currently in the middle of one of the worst droughts for 50 years which follows 12 to 18 months of erratic and failed rains which have dried up many water sources. The war in Ukraine and subsequent rising wheat, fuel and fertilizer costs are also worsening the country’s food crisis.

IFAD-funded project to help preserve Amazonian forest - NaijaAgroNet

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The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of the State of Maranhão signed a financing agreement today for the implementation of the Amazon Sustainable Management Project (PAGES). Implemented in Brazil’s state with the highest poverty and food insecurity rates, the project will address the entrenched environmental degradation of the Amazonian forest.

The total project cost is US$ 37 million, of which IFAD will contribute with a grant of US$ 17 million, provided by the Government of Germany through the Enhanced Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP+). The Government of Maranhão will contribute $ 16 million, and the beneficiaries will provide in-kind contributions of $ 4 million.

Assessing Patent Landscape: How IDTechEx can help your technology -NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

In any emerging technology, the pace of innovation is rapid, sometimes dauntingly so.  More companies enter the market with new products that have been in in secretive development for several years, protected by patents in an effort to gain a dominant position as quickly as possible. This is true of any emerging technology, be it 3D printing, lithium ion batteries or synthetic biology: those companies who develop a product that not only meets a customer need, but is their protected intellectual property, often go on to become the market leaders and reap the financial rewards accordingly.

Of course, developing the right product is half the battle, but how can an organization accurately assess their competitor’s product before it’s even been announced? How can they pre-empt how crowded the market is, who is entering or leaving, or whether there are any global locations in which a particular product would face fierce competition?

Patent Analytics is a service that IDTechEx provides utilising our long-standing expertise in a range of emerging technologies to provide clients of our services with visibility to these questions through the analysis of the patent information stored on international IP databases. Using dedicated software, the highly technical analysts at IDTechEx can query the data to develop a bespoke Patent Analytics Report sharing actionable insights which are tailored to answer a client’s key strategic technological questions.

Leveraging our combined technical and commercial acumen in emerging technologies, an IDTechEx Patent Analytics Report is a data-driven interpretation of the existing patents in a technology domain in the context of the commercial environment. Our Patent Analytics Reports provide competitive analysis, assessment of the entire value chain and visibility on those highly prized technology whitespaces, which in turn can mitigate risk when launching a new product, gain insight into competitors’ activities and accelerate time to market.

Charlotte Martin/GEE

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Rotary gives $49.5m to help eradicate polio

NaijaAgroNet:

With just 11 confirmed polio cases so far in 2017, the world is on the brink of eradicating polio, a vaccine-preventable disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children each year, reports NaijaAgroNet.

To this effect, Rotary International has voted the sum of $49.5m to help eradicate polio and its attendant challenges, arguing that without full funding and political commitment to eradication, the disease could return to countries that are now polio-free and put children everywhere at risk.

Chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, Michael K. McGovern, said this donation was in recognition of the historic progress worldwide and will aid the hosting of events in conjunction with Rotary International’s fifth annual World Polio Day celebration on October 24, 2017.

This year, he also said, the event will be co-hosted by Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and held at the foundation’s headquarters in Seattle. The program will feature an update on the global fight to end polio and an array of guest speakers, celebrities, and public health experts. People around the world can view the livestream of the event at this link on October 24 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time.

“Rotary and its partners are closer than ever to eradicating polio. World Polio Day is the ideal opportunity to celebrate our successes, raise public awareness, and talk about what is needed to end this paralyzing disease for good,” he said.

Rotary, he said, has granted $49.5 million to support immunization and surveillance activities led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Specifically, some of the funds will support efforts to end polio in the three countries where polio remains endemic: Afghanistan ($9.32 million), Pakistan ($8.94 million), and Nigeria ($7.71 million).

NaijaAgroNet said, further funding will support efforts to keep six vulnerable countries polio-free: Chad ($2.37 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo ($4.5 million), Guinea ($961,000), Somalia ($1.62 million), South Sudan ($3.77 million), and Sudan ($2.56 million). An additional $7.74 million will go toward surveillance activities in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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