Da Silva outlines policies to eradicate hunger

 NaijaAgroNet

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Director-General José Graziano da Silva, has outlined policy direction that will become signpost of his current tenure at the helm of FAO affairs for another four years, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Graziano who recently received a total number of 177 out of 182 votes cast by FAO member countries which represents the highest number of favourable votes ever scored by a candidate for the FAO topmost job said, "I thank you for showing confidence in the Organization under my leadership," Graziano da Silva told members of FAO's governing Conference meeting in Rome this week,.

"You have given me a clear mandate to lead this Organization in my second term, pressing on the path that we charted together," he stated.

The FAO Director-General, in his address, underscored that the next step must be the complete eradication of chronic undernourishment. This, together with ending malnutrition has been included in the Sustainable Development Goals which will be finalized later this year setting the global development agenda for the decades to come, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Raising levels of nutrition has always been "at the heart" of the mandate of FAO, Graziano da Silva hinted.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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ACP, FAO sign MoU to boost capacity building

NaijaAgroNet

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in collaborating with the African Caribbean and Pacific Group States (ACP), are intensifying efforts aimed at enhancing capacities to cope with the challenges of climate change, sustainable food production and security, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The Memorandum of Understanding to this effect signed by the Secretary General ACP Group, Patrick Ignatius Gomes, and the FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, NaijaAgroNet gathered, is intended towards supporting the 79 ACP member countries to work assiduously to achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals that will be agreed later this year.

The MoU commits both ACP and FAO to jointly promote and contribute to the implementation of activities planned within the Fund's framework.

It also factorizes procedures aimed at enhancing an -ACP South-South Cooperation programme for food security and agriculture, including technology sharing, knowledge exchange and policy dialogue between tropical countries.

Key areas under the expanded collaboration, NaijaAgroNet learnt, is to engage the private sector to support the development of efficient and inclusive agrovalue chains. The emphasis will be on targeted agricultural commodities, both food staples and cash crops, and on smallholders, farmer- and producer organizations and small and medium enterprises.

More so, the collaboration will be identified by ACP members which are likely to be projects to harness private-sector support in building efficient and inclusive agricultural value chains that will help smallholder farmers meet export market regulatory requirements, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Other measures will aim at hunger eradication, better nutrition and sustainable economic practices.

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Nnaemego targets 10,000 youth-led farms

NaijaAgroNet:

A legal practitioner, and Chief Executive Officer of Fresh and Young Brains Development Initiative, Barrister Nkiru Nnaemego, has said that her organization is targeting about 10,000 farms which will be managed by youths, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking to NaijaAgroNet, she stated that there is huge potential in agriculture especially considering the fact that research has shown that 2030 will mark the beginning of global decline in oil and that  British Council’s Next Generation Report 2010 indicated that Nigerian youths will be the greatest resource of Nigerian economy.

As one of those who benefitted from Fund for Agricultural Financing in Nigeria(FAFIN),a federal government financial assistance to farmers, she intends to invest massively in programmes whose targets are the youths. 

“I am honoured to be among the 27 Nagropreneurs that received the initial grant from the presidency through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) under the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP),” she said.

Nnaemego disclosed her plans to invest the funds in the Youth Farm (YFarm) Incubation (One Stop) Centre for African Youth in Agribusiness. 

“This centre will provide online and onsite certificate courses in agribusiness, host a culinary school, agro-processing/packaging plant and an integrated farm for livestock, aqua-culture and crop production,” she said.

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Farmers general assembly to meet in Buenos Aires

NaijaAgroNet.

Plans have been advanced for the General Assembly meeting of the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO-OMA) to be held in Buenos Aires from March 25 to 29, 2014, reports

According to information made available to NaijaAgroNet, every year, the event forms an opportunity to gather about 100 agricultural confederations from 80 countries in Argentina to discuss the future of global agriculture.

The annual event, NaijaAgroNet gathered will be hosted by the Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA), the organization designated to host the event after JA ZENCHU, Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives in Japan.

NaijaAgroNet equally gathered that subjects on climate change, innovation, food security, value chain, women and youth in agriculture are some of the key themes of the meeting, even as it’s an avenue for meetings and debates between the leading experts of world agriculture and large international organizations affiliated to it.

Among other attendees , correspondent learnt will be members of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), World Metrological Organisation (WMO), Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), OIE, the International Meat Secretariat (IMS), International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Prominent personalities expected at the farmers assembly include the United Nations ambassadors of the International Year of Family Farming, Gerd Sonnleitner and Myrna Cunningham, the U.S. Ambassador Dr. Quinn, President of the World Food Prize.

 The presence of the mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, the Director-General of WMO (World Meteorological Organization) and many other representatives of international agricultural is also expected.

The World Farmers’ Organisation General Assembly will be preceded by four workshops which will address the following themes: animal welfare on farms, improvement of agricultural contracts, innovative processes in the field of agriculture and services related to climate. The days of the General Assembly will be dedicated to in-depth sessions  on the role of farmers in the food chain, to the changes as a result of climate change, food security, the role of women, gender differences in this area and, finally, issues related to the generational renewal.

Marco Marzano, WFO Executive Director, said that the World Farmers’ Organisation General Assembly is an important opportunity for the global agriculture community to discuss the major challenges of the near future.

 Also, he said, towards which direction global agriculture is moving, as it changes to cope with the effects of climate change, such as innovative ways to take on and manage the economic crisis: these are some of the topics on which farmers’ organizations will be called upon to discuss”.

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