World Bank increases support for Africa's worst drought

With countries in the Horn of African facing the worst drought in decades, the World Bank would increase the aid going to this region by over $500 million to $1.88 billion, an estimated N284.4 billion.

This gesture assistance also coincides with the UN mini-summit to the affected region, reports CNN.

A source from the Bank Head on Saturday said the worst famine in African has caused malnutrition, food insecurity and people's displacement.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General also said 13 million Africans from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti were in dare need of help.

While describing the drought in the Horn of Africa as the "worst humanitarian crisis in the world", Ban Ki-Moon said additional $700 million about N110.6billion is needed this year to assist the region. Read more

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China donates grains to Africa worth N11.7bn

The Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, has concluded plans to donate emergency grains and fund wotrth N11.7bn to assist Africa, reiterating the Chinese resolve to continuously contribute to the food security in African countries in partnership with other international communities, reports GlobalTimes.

He made these known in an address at the Ministerial Mini-Summit on the Humanitarian Response to the Horn of Africa at the United Nations General Assembly's 66th Session on Saturday, noting that the drought and famine in Northern Africa is a great concern to the Chinese government.

According to him, the Chinese government woud give emergency grains' aid and monetary donations worth $70million about N11.07billion to the affected African region.

"It is the largest amount of grain assistance in Chinese foreign aid since the founding of the New China" Yang said. Read More

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ECOWAS trains 358 more youths on agriculture

As part of the efforts by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS') to build-up human capacity the sub-region, the community has concluded training of about 71 youths on agriculture.

The latest training brings the figure of beneficiaries to 358 youths who have so far participated in the previous editions of the programme, just as 287 had earlier benefited.

This, ECOWAS said would encourage and empower youths for self reliance, reports StarAfrica.

Director for the ECOWAS centre, Mr. Francis Chuks Njoaguani confirmed this, saying the programme is aimed at enabling youths to contribute to the regional food security started five years ago.

He noted that already some 287 youths have participated in the previous editions of the programme.

He said that the latest training was organized by ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the training programme which was held at the Songhai Centre in Porto Novo, Benin run for a month and covered various production aspects of agriculture.

He urged the participants at the end of the programme to optimize the benefit of the training so as to realize a future of their dream. Read more.

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Biosafety: Gates Foundation supports NEPAD with N236.9m grant

The African Union's NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency would soon receive a grant of $1,489,098, about N236.9 million in support of the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) that is in progress by January 2012.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that assisting Africa is the major goal of ABNE in the effort to build a functional biosafety system for sustainable and safe application of agricultural biotechnology.

The achievement of this objective, it was also gathered by NaijaAgroNet, to be achieved through the empowerment of African regulators with science-based biosafety information, training and education, in addition to technical assistance and biosafety capacity building programmes.

The fund, NEPAD officials said, is granted following the submission of a proposal to the foundation for supplementary grant in order to expand the support to African regulators with more staff and to also align with the African Union (AU) remuneration policies.

NEPAD further revealed that the grant would be accessible by January 2012.

The grant from Bill Gates foundation made the total grant awarded for the Phase II to be $11,929,537 which is about N1.9 billion.

NaijaAgroNet equally gathered that the grant is important to bridge financial shortfalls in meeting programmatic activities and to ensure ABNE delivers on its objectives as revealed in the grant proposal.

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NaijaAgroNet wins Highway Africa new media prize

The 2011 edition of the Highway Africa conference ended recently in the city of Cape Town, South Africa, with Nigeria winning the first runner up by a Lagos-based NaijaAgroNet, an initiative of DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA) Media.

DSA was honoured for the innovative use of new media for corporate category at this year's Highway Africa New Media Award, which held penultimate Sunday night.

The prize was presented to the Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa Media, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke by the Honourable Minister of Information, Nigeria, Mr. Labaran Maku in the company of the Vice Chancellor of Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Dr. Saleem Badat and Group Executive Director, Telkom, Mrs. Brenda Kali among others.

Commenting briefly on the award, Maku commended the management of DSA for the initiative and invited more Nigerians to emulate such step to sustain the tempo of good image for the nation.

Equally reacting after receiving the award, the Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, expressed gratitude to God Almighty for his mercies, especially considering the fact that NaijaAgroNet was an initiative that berthed a few months ago.

This award, she said, indicates there is a brighter future for online revolution in the most populous nation on the continent and the world generally.

The event which held at the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CICC), also saw Nigeria emerging finalists in all the three categories, namely the individual, student and corporate at the award supported by the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and Telkom South Africa.

Other Nigerian-based initiatives that made it to the finalist included African Interest and Africa Athletes; all are online based outfits.

Welcoming participants to the event earlier, Director, Highway Africa, Mr. Chris Kabwato noted that on January 12, 2004, when his family of two adult and three children came to the university town of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape from Johannesburg, their expectation was uncertain.

“It was a terribly hot day and the infant was irritable,” he said, stressing that the eight years after, it has been an incredible journey for the entire family.

According to him, it is not very often that one declares that certain jobs were made for some people, yet he thinks of having the Highway Africa DNA.

He pointed out that today, Highway Africa now consists of research, education and training of future journalists programme; conferences, namely the Highway Africa and Digital Citizen Indaba.

Although he said, they were not relenting; Kabwato said that his team is now morphing into a distinct entity called the Highway Africa Centre, with the support of Rhodes University, its parent entity, the School of Journalism and Media Studies, sponsors and great team to take Highway Africa to another level.

He emphasized that 15 years of Highway Africa, it is appropriate to celebrate what have been collectively achieved and look forward to the next 15 years.

“Celebrate with us; comrades and friends and I hope our timely conference will be an occasion for learning, sharing and taking action to save our world, especially with the theme of this year:

African Media and the Global Sustainability Challenge.

Meanwhile, a Nigerian new media outlet, the NaijaAgroNet.blogspot.com published by DigitalSENSE Africa Media, was recognized with enlisting into the finalist for the 2011 year.

NaijaAgroNet is a project of DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA) Media with concentration on bridging the digital gap between the teeming youths of Nigeria, technologies and agro-business.

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GEJ prioritizes agriculture - Okonji Iweala

The current Federal Government administration led by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) has prioritized agriculture.

Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonji-Iweala made this disclosure at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington DC to negotiate a $550million about N86,8billion financing from the World Bank for the country, MenaFn.

She noted that the present administration is keen at creating jobs for the teaming unemployed populace and in particular the youths.

According to her, agriculture is part of the priorities of the government in driving this dream home, re

She also told newsmen that the financing is meant to meet the federal government's transformation agenda couple with the land pollution at the Niger Delta region.

Okonji-Iweala said that other sector that the loan will be put into use is environmental issues among others.

She affirmed that the responses of multilateral institution to Nigeria’s request have been quite encouraging and the deal will be finalized upon the arrival of the new World Bank Country Director for Nigeria. Read more

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Kenya urges ACP to invest more in agrotech

A call has been made by Kenya to African, Caribbean and Pacific States (APC) countries to give more funds to agricultural and technology development in order to help its marketability, reports CoastWeek

This call was made by Romano Kiome, Kenya Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture while at Eastern and Southern Africa agricultural meeting in Nairobi, Kenya recently.

He said if agriculture is to become a profitable venture in the continent, the priorities must be inputs, markets, credit and institutions.

Inputs like seeds, fertilizer, external market, loans, research and supports from governments, he said are catalysts to a revolution in agriculture within the continent.

He also said that the use of technology in agriculture in the continent is low when compared to other nations of the world, hence the result in low productivity. Read more

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US allocates N782.8m to gender equality in agriculture

In an effort to fight food security in the world, the United States government has allocated about $5m, about N782.8m to promote gender equality in involvement in agriculture and land use this year, reports GhanaBusinessNews.

The announcement was made recently by the Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, while hosting a panel discussion with the theme "Women and Agriculture: A Conversation on Improving Global Food Security” in New York.

The gender equality programme, NaijaAgroNet gathered would be under the previous initiative of Feed the Future which is in United State's efforts to combat hunger and promote food security.

She also said that according to the United Nations, the drought in some parts of Africa, the worst in decades is affecting 12.4 million African.

The US gender equality programme, she said, is to remove obstacles facing women in agriculture globally so as to increase women's contribution to food production. Read More

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High level dialogue on food security ends in Swaziland

High Level Food Security Policy Dialogue of the Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) ended at the weekend in Swaziland alongside FANRPAN Annual General Meeting (AGM) with over 300 participants.

Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini, the Swaziland Prime Minister opened the event with the theme "Advocating for the Active Engagement of the Youth in the Agricultural Value Chain.”

The AGM which ran between September 19 and 23, this year, ended with case study presentations from some African nations including the host country, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Bostwana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Madagascar and Mauritius.

Delegates at the meeting were also taken out on groups for field trips to see actions on ongoing projects for food security, while the Food Security Policy Leadership Award was presented to Her Majesty, Queen Mother Ntombi Indlovukazi of Swaziland as a result of the motivation of the project witnessed.

The engagements of young people in agricultural sector topped discuss, even as different components of agricultural sectors implication on youths and alternative policy approaches to the development of agricultural sector.

Speaking at the dialogue, Hlobsile Ndlovu, Swaziland's Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs noted that there could only be solutions to youths’ challenges when the youth themselves are involve in the fight.

"We believe that nothing is for the youth without the youth,” Ndlovu declared and urged those youths should not just to seen as assets of any nation but permitted to access all the advantages as set out by the constitution of their countries.

In Swaziland, the minister said, government gave youths access to land for productive use in partnership with stakeholders like the traditional rulers. Stressing that programmes concerning the youths are being implemented and evaluated in order to eliminate any challenge for the youth.

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African youths possess energy, passion to use ICT

Yinka Awosanya

Co-chairman of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development (BCDD) and Rwandan President, Mr. Paul Kagame has expressed optimism on African youths’ ability to make appropriate use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

He said that African youths possess the energy, passion and dedication to use these technologies in facing the global challenges and truly gain from ICTs.

Kagame made his voice known at the just ended Broadband Commission for Digital Development (BCDD) meeting in Rwanda, saying that the Commission has high hopes on young innovators from the continent tapping on ICT for getting Africa online.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that Kagame was optimistic that the role of youths in defining new ICT services and driving take-up remain the focus of Commission, noting that half of Africans are yet to reach the adulthood, while 42 per cent of Rwandans are under the age of 15.

The Rwandan President also stressed the fact that African leaders are to build the right environment and promote the necessary investments to allow the youths on the continent to fulfill their potential, said “African youths possess the energy, passion and dedication to use these technologies in facing the global challenges and truly gain from ICTs.”

He further said that Africans do not have to wait for another century before recognizing the fact that broadband was another missed opportunity of the continent.

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