Animal milks not recommended for infants under 12

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that animal milks are not recommended for infants under 12 months, according to the latest publication: Milk and Dairy Products in Human Nutrition.

NaijaAgroNet gathered this position from FAO Senior Nutrition Officer Ellen Muehlhoff, who co-edited the publication, noting though that milks are efficient vehicle for delivering vital nutrients and improving growth for young children, whose nutrition is critical in the first 1 000 days of life.

FAO also lamented on prohibitive prices of milks and dairy products saying these are still too expensive for the poorest families to buy.

Dairy consumption in developing countries, FAO disclosed to NaijaAgroNet is expected to increase by 25 per cent by 2025 as a result of population growth and rising incomes, but milk and dairy products will likely still be out of reach for the most vulnerable households.

Governments, therefore, FAO insists need to address the issue by making nutrition a specific objective in dairy sector development and by investing in programmes that help poor families keep small dairy livestock like goats at home, according to the publication.

Also speaking, FAO Livestock Industry Officer, and co-editor of the new publication, Anthony Bennett, said that small-scale dairy farming is especially beneficial to poor households as it provides food and nutrients but also a regular income.

“Whereas crop agriculture means getting paid once or maybe twice a year, dairy is produced and sold daily so smallholders have cash in hand for immediate family needs such as food, household goods, clothing and schooling – and that changes lives,” he said.

FAO says that currently about 150 million households made of some 750 million people are engaged in milk production around the world, the majority of whom are in developing countries.

“A major challenge is for governments to develop inclusive policies and encourage investment from the private sector that helps these small-scale farmers take advantage of the escalating demand for milk and dairy in developing countries to improve their livelihoods,” Bennett said.

Remmy Nweke
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Make milk, dairy products more accessible to vulnerable FAO told governments

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in its latest publication urged government to make milk and dairy products more accessible to vulnerable households so as to improve on livelihoods of hundreds of millions of poor people across the world, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The new FAO publication launched at the weekend, according to NaijaAgroNet inquiries shows that the book, Milk and Dairy Products in Human Nutrition, demanded of governments to invest more in programmes that make milk and dairy products available to poor families and help them in production of milk at home.

FAO Senior Nutrition Officer Ellen Muehlhoff, who also co-edited the publication, affirmed to NaijaAgroNet in a public statement endorsed by Fiona Winward of FAO’s Media Relations in Rome that as part of a balanced diet, milk and dairy products could be an important source of dietary energy, protein and fat.

“They are also rich in micronutrients critical for fighting malnutrition in developing countries where the diets of poor people are often starch or cereal-based and lack diversity,” she said.

Muehlhoff underscored the fact that a combination of food is necessary for a healthy diet, and milk and dairy products are not the only sources of essential nutrients.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that in a landmark decision the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) endorsed the new Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security on 11 May 2012. 

Also, FAO launched a major fund-raising campaign with the aim of securing USD 20 million to translate into action the guidelines, aimed at helping governments safeguard the rights of people to own or access land, forests and fisheries and others to help the focus on improving the lives of millions of smallholder farmers and their families.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology
Pix: Cover of the latest FAO publication on Milk

COP19 lacks climate justice says IIED

NaijaAgroNet:

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has reacted to the outcome of the recently held 19th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP19) in Warsaw, Poland, saying it lacks sense of climate justice, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The COP19 — the 19th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change -- ended on 23 November. Here, IIED's climate change specialists react to the conference outcomes.

Head, IIED's climate change group, Dr Simon Anderson, informed NaijaAgroNet that there is no sense from the outcomes of Warsaw that climate justice is any closer than before the COP was inaugurated.

The delays, he said, in countries disclosing how they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions continue has continued unabated.

“It would seem that we are moving almost inevitably to a 4C degree warmer world. Having been billed as a climate finance COP, Warsaw failed to deliver,” he said.

Stressing that the need for both finance and disbursal mechanisms that genuinely reflect and respond to the needs of countries and people that need to adapt and become more climate resilient is imperative.

He maintained that in the absence of agreement on a mid-term target and a clear pathway, poor and vulnerable countries are unable to understand how the developed countries are going to deliver the promised target of US$100 billion annually by 2020.

“Looking at decisions related to long term finance, developing countries can see a few gains, but there were reassuring words and little else," he noted.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Video: Dr Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in IIED's climate change group summarises how COP19 ended and what will happen next. Enjoy!

Rukuni predicts faster food security for Africa by 2025, charges media

NaijaAgroNe:

A professor of Agricultural Economics, Mandivamba Rukuni has predicted that Africa’s agriculture is poised to grow faster and by 2025 Africa will be food secured, NaijaAgroNet reports.

This is coming as he charged African media practitioners to see something good on the continent and report same always.

Prof. Rukuni who advises African Union (AU) on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) among others made these assertions at a two-day training workshop of CAADP Journalists Network in Pretoria, South Africa.

According to him, there are avalanche of development messages African journalists should showcase to the world, including that Africa’s agriculture is now grows faster and by 2025 Africa will reach food secure, stressing that Africa’s economies are rising sustainably, though many Africans are still poor and hungry.

He also told NaijaAgroNet that African agriculture is growing slowly now after decades of stagnation and food security is improving, stressing that sustained improvements in governance and political stability will usher in these predictions.

Prof. Rukuni equally predicted that the industrialised world will have no capacity to feed 8 billion people by 2040 and Africa will have to be the food-basket of the world by next 27 years, insisting these are some of the stories; Africans are waiting to hear so as to build their confidence and belief.

“Africans need to re-write their own narratives, create their own future and fulfill own destiny. African journalists, therefore, have the unique role in shaping that narrative, so as to aid the main responsibility in re-branding Africa,” he said.

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Prof. Rukuni said, is a major part of the narrative on ‘African solution to an African problem’ although Africa has a lot of homework to do.

Pointing out that between year 2000 and 2012 were proverbial unprecedented decade for the continent for Africa which now has impressive economic growth across the 54 countries accompanied with improved governance, human development indicators.

Despite the aforementioned good signs, Prof. Rukuni decried that Africa still faces major challenges of poverty, food insecurity, concerns that Africa is unlikely to meet most of the MDGs, especially MDG 1 on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015

Remmy Nweke in South Africa 

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology
Pix: Prof. Mandi Rukuni (2) Brenda Zulu with Mwanja Nyajo of NEPAD, Marie-Noelle Guichi and Agathe Aline

UN launches Int’l Family Farming 2014

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations has launched the 2014 International Year of Family Farming to raise awareness on eradication of hunger and preserve natural resources, NaijaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNet note that in both developed and developing countries, over 500 million family farms, defined as farms that rely primarily on family members for labour and management, produce the food that feeds billions of people. In many developing countries family farms represent up to 80 percent of all farm holdings.

The launch of the International Year in New York was attended by UN officials, ambassadors to the UN, government ministers and civil society leaders who will serve as special ambassadors for the year (names listed below).

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva pointed out to  NaijaAgroNet the huge productive potential of family farmers.

"By choosing to celebrate this year, we recognize that family farmers are leading figures in responding to the double urgency the world faces today: improving food security and preserving the natural resources, in line with the Millennium Development Goals, with the debate on the post-2015 development agenda and the Zero Hunger Challenge," Graziano da Silva said.

Speaking on behalf of FAO, which is the lead UN agency for the year, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme, he added:  "Nothing comes closer to the sustainable food production paradigm than family farming. Family farmers usually run non-specialized, diversified agricultural activities that give them a central role in securing environmental sustainability and preserving biodiversity."

He portrayed most family farmers, as well as fisher folk, pastoralists, indigenous people and traditional communities, as among the world's most vulnerable populations, a situation that the year will try to address.

"We need to reposition family farming at the centre of national and regional development programmes," he said. "Governments play a key role in leading the support so that family farming can reach its potential.

"This includes offering technical assistance and policies that support the productivity increase of family farms; placing appropriate technologies within their reach; improving their access to land and water, credit and markets; and creating an enabling environment for further investments," he added.

He said that everyone had a role to play in fulfilling the potential of family farming, including family farmers associations and networks, international and regional agencies, the private sector, civil society and academia.

Special ambassadors for the year include Ibrahim Coulibaly, from Mali, President of the National Coordination of Peasant Organizations of Mali; Mirna Cunningham, from Nicaragua, former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; and Gerd Sonnleitner, from Germany, President of the European Farmers Association. 

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Cotula explains how law can make foreign investment work

NaijaAgroNet:

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has published a handbook that shows how government officials and civil society organisations in low and middle-income countries can use legal tools to ensure foreign investments contribute to sustainable development.

NaijaAgroNet reports that the book focuses on investments in agriculture and the extractive industries – mining, oil and gas, authored by Dr Lorenzo Cotula.

These sectors, the author said attract much of the foreign investment in many low and middle-income countries. Increased investment could transform local economies by contributing public revenues and new livelihood opportunities. But the deals can also pile pressure on natural resources and spark conflict with local communities who depend on them.

"Public mobilisation against 'land grabbing' highlights that investment quality, not just quantity, matters a great deal, even in countries where investment is much needed," Dr Cotula said, stressing that legal tools can influence investment quality – from the tax regime to social and environmental safeguards, though to the inclusiveness of investment models and processes.

"There is much that governments and civil society can do to use those tools to promote investments that respond to local aspirations, and to get a better deal from incoming investments," he said.

The handbook, NaijaAgroNet gathered, explained what the laws that regulate foreign investment are, how they work, and how to use them most effectively.

It covers the variety of legal arenas that can influence the outcomes of investments — from investment treaties, extractive industry legislation, land tenure, human rights norms, environmental legislation and tax law —including arrangements to fight tax avoidance.

The book covers four main ways in which government and civil society can use legal tools to promote sustainable development, by:

• Aligning public policies and decisions on investment with a strategic vision of sustainable development based on local and national aspirations.
• Ensuring a fair economic deal.
• Taking social and environmental considerations seriously.
• Balancing investment protection with competing policy goals.

The handbook aims to support government officials in low and middle-income countries in their management of foreign investment for sustainable development, and support civil society efforts to influence decisions and hold government and investors to account.

Governments play a central role in developing and enforcing legal rules. But Cotula argues that engagement with investment law is not a task for regulators and legal experts alone.

"Harnessing the law to make investment work for sustainable development requires vibrant civil society organisations and social movements to advocate, scrutinise, challenge and influence," writes Cotula. "Perhaps most importantly, it requires citizens themselves to be able to appropriate and wield legal tools in their efforts to shape their own future."

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology
Pix: cover of the book

Royco unveils TV commercial, promises meatier than ever flavour, aroma

NaijaAgroNet:

In the bid to boost its consumer connection to the brand of Royco, the seasoning company, Unilever Nigeria Plc has unveiled a new and exciting television commercial tagged ‘Great Taste of Home.’

Speaking in Abuja to NaijaAgroNet, Managing Director, Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mr. Thabo Mabe, noted that the new campaign commercial captures the essence of the new Royco by bringing its ‘Great Taste of Home’ theme fully to life and delivering on a promise of taste that is ‘Now Meatier than Ever’ for all Nigerian dishes.

“At Unilever, we are proud to say that one of the pillars of our vision is to continue to improve the lives of our consumers,” he said, pointing out that the confidence with which they introduced the new Royco Chicken in addition to the existing variants of Beef and Goat flavours, for its teeming consumers delighted with the exciting array of flavours from Royco that now come in new and attractive packs.

Consumers, he said, could now choose their preferred flavour from the three Royco variants of Beef, Chicken and Goat which are now more meatier with the best aroma ever.

Brand Building Director, Unilever Nigeria Plc David Okeme, explained that with Royco, everyone could prepare and enjoy great tasting food with irresistible aroma every day.

Okeme stated that one of the unique selling propositions of the Royco seasoning range, besides its affordability, is its re-formulation which guarantees a meatier than ever flavour, thus helping the Nigerian woman prepare a variety of mouth-watering dishes for her family every day. Hence, the campaign theme, ‘Great Taste of Home.’

Explaining further, Category Manager, Savoury, Bolanle Kehinde-Lawal said, “The new Royco gives a more meaty taste and adds the best aroma to everyday Nigerian meals, while also being very affordable to the average Nigerian.

“Royco Chicken, the latest introduction to the existing Royco family is specially formulated to deliver ‘Irresistible Chicken Taste’ and great aroma to dishes. One cannot go wrong with cooking with the new Royco. Just go out and get your pack and your family will love you even more for it,” Kehinde - Lawal concluded.

Royco now comes in three cube formats of beef, chicken and goat, while the powdered format is specially formulated for stew and soup to give consumers more exciting flavours.

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

Fish Center, WFO sign MoU on food security

NaijaAgroNet:

The World Fish Center (WFC) and World Farmer’s Organisation (WFO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote food security and rural development, reports NaijaAgroNet. 

The WFO, NaijaAgroNet gathers is an assemblage of national farmers’ organisations and agricultural cooperatives in 44 countries in order to represent and safeguard global food security, the environment as well as the socio-economic wealth of rural communities. On the other hand, the WFC, an international scientific research center part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) involved in promoting sustainable fishing and safeguarding water resources.

NaijaAgroNet reports that WFO Executive Director, Marco Marzano de Marinis, described the MoU between WFO and WFC as efforts at supporting agricultural organisations, with the firm belief that farmers and fishermen are a fundamental resource for global food security, rural development, and, in general, for global development.

“Farmers are the main investors in their sector, thus they have to be involved in any strategy aimed at raising their incomes and promoting this sector. Thus, farmers need better policies and a normative framework which includes economic incentives,” Marco Marzano said.

NaijaAgroNet notes that farmers and fishermen are fundamental resources for global food security and rural development. A 10-year agreement has been signed to strengthen their partnership as well as cooperate to develop projects and programs aimed at supporting farmers through learning and development initiatives. The activities will consist of mutual planning and support in research, promotion through conferences, seminars, workshops, but especially the development of common policies and advocacy strategies.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

FAO drums urgent support for farmers hit by Typhoon Haiyan

NaijaAgroNet:

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for assistance for the region’s most severely affected by the typhoon account for one-third of the total rice production in the country of Philippines.

NaijaAgroNet reports that FAO lamented the fact that hundreds of thousands of farmers in the Philippines whose crops were destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan need urgent assistance to sow new seeds before the end of the current planting season.

FAO also warned that the typhoon caused damage in the central part of the country to the 2013 main season rice crop, harvesting of which was well advanced.

“It also badly disrupted planting of the current 2013-2014 secondary season, which ends in late December,” FAO declared in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet by Fiona Winward, stressing concern that many storage facilities may have been destroyed, along with their contents.

For instance, FAO informed NaijaAgroNet that damage to the main season paddy crop both by Typhoon Haiyan and by Typhoon Nari, which hit northern parts of the country in October, as well as disruption to the planting of the second season is expected to result in lower rice production than anticipated for 2013.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that FAO has downgraded its forecast for the 2013 rice production in the country to 18 million tonnes from the expectation of a bumper crop of 18.9 million tonnes at the beginning of the season, FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS).

The rice production shortfall of 900,000 tonnes will be felt disproportionally in the five most affected regions.  

While rice production at the national level is likely to remain close to last year’s level, the damage at the regional level is more severe. FAO warned that farmers in areas hit by the typhoon could face severe food security and livelihood problems if they do not succeed in planting the next crop in the weeks ahead.  

The five regions most severely affected by the typhoon in terms of cereal crop losses accounted for one-third of the total rice production in 2012.

Isaac Oyima/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, people & technology

UN enters Expo 2015 deal to end hunger

NaijaAgroNet:

 

The United Nations (UN) today, Thursday signed an agreement as the major exhibitors at Expo 2015 in Milan, which will run for six months from 1 May until the end of October, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The exhibition focusing on the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” will avail UN to bring decades of experience and expertise on food security, nutrition, hunger and poverty reduction to the table.

The three Rome-based food agencies, namely the Food and Agriculture Organisaiton (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) will coordinate the participation of the UN system under the leadership of the Director-General of FAO, José Graziano da Silva.

NaijaAgroNet confirms that already, some 22 UN agencies have submitted proposals for content and events at Expo 2015.

The Expo 2015 deal sealed at the Sheikh Zayed Centre, FAO headquarters in Rome, affirms the agreement on the UN’s participation at the 2015 World Expo signed by the UN Commissioner-General for Expo 2015 and FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry, Eduardo Rojas-Briales, and Giuseppe Sala, Chief Executive Officer of Expo 2015.

Emma Bonino, Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of FAO, Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD and Claudia von Roehl, Director of the Government Partnership Division of the WFP participated in the signing ceremony.

In a related development, NaijaAgroNet gathered that before the signing ceremony, a side event “Women and Nutrition: ideas for a sustainable future,” was organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expo 2015 with the participation of Emma Bonino and David Nabarro, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Food Security and Nutrition.

Remmy Nweke

... Linking agrobiz, people & technology
Pix: Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General