Experts call for policies to tackle environmental crises

Scientists and experts in the field of sustainable development have called for immediate changes in the policies and institutions to enable humanity to combat environmental crises.

The group made this known in a press release made available to NaijaAgroNet by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

The scientists and experts, who are all past winners of the Blue Planet Prize, a yearly award programme organized by Asahi Glass Foundation with which individuals or organizations globally are recognized for their outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application.

The Blue Planet Prize past recipients assembled in London in order to put a final touch to a paper which will be launched at the United Nations Environmental Governing Council meeting to be held in Nairobi between 20 and 22 February.

Unveiling the major conclusions and recommendations of the paper titled 'Environmental and Development Challenges: The imperative to act', Bob Watson, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs (Defra) and a co-author of the paper said the paper focus on transformational solutions to key environment and development challenges.

NaijaAgroNet gathered the paper also highlights the policies, technologies and behaviour changes necessary to protect the local, regional and global environment, and stimulate the economy and enhance the livelihoods of the poor.

Emphasizing on the focus of the paper, Bob Watson who won the Blue Planet Prize in 2010 said "The challenges facing the world today need to be addressed immediately if we are to solve the problem of climate change, loss of biodiversity and poverty."

Commenting on the paper, the UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner appreciated the efforts of the 14 authors of the paper for articulating their vision on how key development challenges can be addressed. 

"The paper by the Blue Planet laureates will challenge governments and society as a whole to act to limit human-induced climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in order to ensure food, water energy and human security," Achim Steiner said.

'Yinka Awosanya

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African agronomists in Kenya for food enhancement

Agricultural experts from Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania gathered in Kenya for an empowerment workshop on carbon projects geared towards enhancing food production, reports CoastWeek.

The workshop is organized by World Bank; NaijaAgroNet gathered is to support farmers in Africa to earn from carbon credits.

Speaking about the workshop, Dr. Mei Xie, a Senior Specialist of Climate change at the World Bank Institute said the programme is aimed at building hand on capacity ad know how to establish activity monitoring systems and model derived emission factors for smallholder carbon agricultural projects.

"We look forwards to empower the agricultural experts from the respective countries on the development of carbon projects and take back home the experience and knowledge to the benefits of the farmers," she said.

The workshop is a platform for networking and sharing experiences among participants during and beyond the forum. Read moreAdmin/LS

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FAO says food prices rise by 2%

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has said that food prices has risen by two per cent.

FAO in its latest Food Price Index datasets revealed that the price index of food increased by almost 2 per cent in January 2012.

The Food Price Index datasets made available to NaijaAgroNet showed an increase of nearly 2 per cent, exactly 4 points in food price index with oils in the lead; recording the highest increase.

Foods items topping the list include cereals, sugar, dairy products and meat, even as the index stood at 214 as at January 2012, which is 7 per cent lower to the record of January 2011.

Speaking on the dataset, a Senior Grains Economist at FAO, Abdolreza Abbassian said that the index could not be traced directly to the value of the dollar and oil prices which were much involved in January.

"But one reason is poor weather currently affecting key growing regions like South America and Europe. It has played a role and remains a cause for concern,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that international prices of all major cereals with the exception of rice rose, with maize gaining most, which is 6 per cent. Wheat prices also gained, though less significantly.

The fear of a decline in the export supplies in the Commonwealth of Independent States also played a part in the increase as prices mostly reflect worries about weather conditions affecting 2012 crops in several major producing regions.

A latest forecast by FAO on world cereal production also revealed that cereal production is expected to be more than sufficient to cover anticipated utilization in 2011/2012 as production is expected to reach 2,327 million tones, a 3.6 per cent more than that of 2010, hence a new record.

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Arab world faces food security challenges - IFPRiI

A report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has revealed that Arab world may be facing a serious food security challenge, reports VOA.

IFPRI attributed the reported food security challenge couple with higher rate of poverty to the vulnerability to volatile food prices, natural disasters and water scarcity.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that food security in Arab world poses a serious challenge, this due to high dependency on food imports exacerbated by global price volatility, diminished capacity for generating foreign exchange to pay for imported food and the increase in demand for food which is being driven by continued high population growth.

IFPRI also affirmed that less than 20 per cent of the population in the Arab region lives below the $2 per day poverty line. Read more

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UNDP says human index on sustainability may reduce drastically by 2050

The Human Development Index (HDI) may be lower than 8 per cent by 2050 given the prevailing environmental challenges, says the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 2011 sustainability report on HDI.

 This, UNDP said could be obvious looking at the baseline in an environmental challenge scenario which will capture the adverse effects of global warming on agricultural production and access to clean water by 2050.

The Human Development reports for 2011 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) focused on sustainable, equitable progress and how environmental degradation intensifies inequalities through adverse impacts on already disadvantaged people.

The 2011 annual report made available to NaijaAgroNet affirmed the need to address sustainability - locally, nationally and globally in ways that are equitable and empowering order to promote human development.

The 2011 report also revealed that there is a potential future deterioration in environmental degradation as there are increasing points to widespread environmental degradation around the world.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the United Nations Development Programme is trying to ensure that poor people's aspirations for better lives are fully taken into consideration in moving towards greater environmental sustainability.

There are also ranges of predictions and insight of human development which also points that the extent of future changes is uncertain.

The simulations for the report also gave the impression that the Human Development Index would be 8 per cent lower than in the baseline in an environmental challenge scenario which will capture the adverse effects of global warming on agricultural production and access to clean water by 2050.

UNDP also affirmed that the environmental disaster scenario will lead to a turning point before 2050 in developing nations if nothing is done to halt or reverse the current trends.

Part of the projections of the present trend as gathered by NaijaAgroNet is that the most disadvantaged people will bear the repercussions of environmental deterioration even though they contribute little to the problem.

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FAO, WFP warn on impending extreme hunger in South Sudan if …

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) had warned that millions of South Sudanese if urgent action is not taken.

A report jointly prepared by FAO and WFP titled "Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to South Sudan," which is based on a research conducted on the agricultural sector of South Sudan and made available to NaijaAgroNet gave this indications.

The report revealed that the national cereal production in 2011 is 19 per cent below that of 2010, adding that the nation also witnessed an influx of returnees in 2011 but on the other hand there is reduction in harvest.

The number of food-insecure people has risen from 3.3 million in 2011 to 4.7 million in 2012, the report stated.

Also, FAO and WFP gave an estimation that the number of people who are severely food-insecure could double if conflicts continue to cause major population displacement and food prices keep rising.

"This is a rapidly approaching crisis that the world cannot afford to ignore. The situation is dire, and we are doing everything we can to be ready, but we are running out of time," the WFP's country director in South Sudan, Mr. Chris Nikoi said.

Equally speaking, the Head of Office, FAO in South Sudan, Mr. George Okeh said there is need to enable household to first have quick access to sate, nutritious food and other basic necessities.

Okeh emphasized the need to break the cycle of increasing hunger and poverty, asserting, "We can do this by helping people to resume the farming, livestock and other activities and other activities that support their livelihoods."

In an effort to reach 2.7million vulnerable people with food assistance, WFP, the acclaimed world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger globally thus seeks donor support to cover the current shortfall of $160 million about N25.5 billion; noting that there will be need for further additional funding if the situation deteriorates.

Also seeking financial assistance for South Sudan is FAO, which is requesting $23 million about N3.66 billion in donor support through the United Nations consolidated Appeal Process.

Part of the actions put in place by FAO is also to provide agricultural support to revive production capacity for the next cropping season.

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