Working against tide of global warming

NaijaAgroNet 

As we enter the last month of the first quarter of 2015, an alarm was recently raised by scientists from the United Nations-affiliated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the anticipated effect of climate change in the East African region of the continent.

IPCC counseled that an estimated millions of people in East African nations should be ready for intense weather events-related as a result of climate change.

Defined as a whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity, climate change to some experts means any change in climate over time, which could be ascribed to a change of climate either directly or indirectly to human activity but alters the composition of the global atmosphere with an increase in natural climate variability observed over comparable period of time, according to 2001 impacts, adaptation and vulnerability Working Group II to the third assessment report of IPCC.

But experts at New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA) pointed out that global warming is the increase of earth's average surface temperature due to effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from earth.

Global warming, NaijaAgroNet reports, will have catastrophic effects such as accelerating sea level rise, droughts, floods, storms and heat waves, which invariably impacts on some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people, disrupting food production, and threatening essential important species, habitats and ecosystems.

IPCC experts, NaijaAgroNet reports equally said that global warming is no longer an issue of argument because since the 1950s a lot of the observed changes have been dramatic.

An official representing the director, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC), Guled Artan said the challenges on east Africa due to climate change are grave.

“The problem in East Africa is serious. When there’s rain, the rain will be more intense, so there will be floods. The dry spells will be wider, so there will be more droughts. That’s the risk so, increased likelihood of floods, increased likelihood of drought; and two extremes:  too much water, too little water,” Artan said.

However, in the bid to create more knowledge base on this global warming and climate change, the National Environmental Agency (NEA) has concluded a two-day training on the Global Information System (GIS), a climate change project (PARCC) at Baobab Hotel, The Gambia, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The aim of the project, NaijaAgroNet learnt, is to assess the vulnerability of protected areas in West Africa and impact of climate change in view of enhancing resilience by developing strategies and tools to improve effectiveness management in climate change. 

The training held with the JEF-fund project was executed by UNEP-WCMC in partnership with (IUCN PACO) and has been in operation since 2010. This project covers five core countries in West Africa, namely The Gambia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Chad, Togo, Bukina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana as beneficiaries.

"It is indisputable that conservation is the key in sustainable development, especially in our environment that has not been constantly and properly managed. It is interesting to know that research has shown that more than 13 percent of the global land surface is designated as ‘protected area,’" Minister Jarju stated.

As said by Jarju, governments of ECOWAS are aware that region contains a high level of biodiversity and endemic species across multiple areas, having been projected to experience extreme climate change in the future.

Stressing that the government of The Gambia, for instance, was fully aware of the achievements that PARCC project registered in the past year, and these achievements include preparation of a report on projected impacts of climate change on biodiversity in West Africa Protected Area in which impact on reptiles, birds, mammal has been highlighted.

California Governor Mr. Jerry Brown had in the wake of drought bedeviling the state, said that climate-change deniers should wake up, because with the weather and what it's happening in California, climate change is not a deception.

For experts at ‘Building Nigeria's Response to Climate Change’ a non-governmental organization, noted that in Nigeria, this means that some stable ecosystems such as the Sahel Savanna may become vulnerable because warming will reinforce existing patterns of water scarcity and increasing the risk of drought in Nigeria and indeed most countries in West Africa. As well, the country’s aquatic ecosystems, wetlands and other habitats will create overwhelming problems for an already impoverished populace.

Although industry observers there are compelling scientific evidences, governments and businesses have responded very slowly. Despite the fact that even if nations in the region fulfill live up to their promises and pledges in international conventions, the world will still face between 2.6 and 4 ºC of warming.

As work at various part of the continent towards reduction of emissions, Africans must simultaneously begin to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

 

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AAKNet says USD2bn flowing across Africa for environmental adaptation by 2020

NaijaAgroNet:

The Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet) has estimated USD 2 billion is flowing across the continent for adaptation through a variety of sources, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as AAKNet predicts that an estimated 15 billion United States dollars will be committed for cost of emission by year 2020.

AAKNet in a its latest issue of Africa Adaptation Newsletter made available to NaijaAgroNet, with the theme: Africa Adaptation Gap Report 2: Bridging the Gap – Mobilising Resources, noted that the first Africa Adaptation Gap Report demonstrated how delaying action would result in exponentially rising costs down the road, the second report now turns to possible solutions to respond to this urgency.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that past global emissions already commit Africa to adaptation costs of USD 7-15 billion per year by 2020.

The report, NaijaAgroNet gathered, builds on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2014 emissions gap report that showed global emission-reduction efforts are not yet at the level of what is required to put the world on track to hold global warming below 2°C.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet reports that by 2050, Africa’s adaptation costs could rise to USD 50 billion per year for a scenario holding global warming below 2°C, and up to USD 100 billion per year by 2050, if the world does not manage to turn away from the current path that could lead to more than 4°C warming by 2100.

To take a step back: this is not just a question of money, millions of people and their livelihoods are at stake. Africa’s population would be at an increasing risk of undernourishment due to increasing food demand and the detrimental effects of climate change on agriculture on the continent.

A warming of 2˚C globally, AAKNet pointed out, would put over 50 per cent of the African continent’s population at risk of undernourishment.

“Yet, right now, we are heading to 4˚C of warming,” AAKNet stated.

Further, NaijaAgroNet learnt that the report findings showed that sea level could rise by a metre above present-day levels, putting millions of people at risk of flooding in the large coastal cities across the continent.

“These are the striking impacts of climate change risk reversing Africa’s economic and development gains,” AAKNet warned.

+Naija AgroNet 
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FAO: Sugar induces decline in food price index

 NaijaAgroNet

 

 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index has continued to decline in March by1.5 per cent from February and 18.7 percent (40 points) below its level a year earlier, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The FAO food price is a trade-weighted index that tracks prices of five major food commodity groups on international markets, namely cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that a sharp fall in the price index for sugar which reached its lowest level since February 2009 together with dipping prices for vegetable oils, cereals and meat, more than offset a rise in dairy prices and contributed to the lower index, which in March averaged 173.8 points.

The index, NaijaAgroNet gathered has been on a downward path since April 2014.

The FAO noted that the Sugar Price Index averaged 187.9 points in March, down a sharp 9.2 percent from February. Stressing this was mainly due to improved crop prospects but also the continued weakening of the Brazilian currency against the US dollar, which is supportive to exports, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

The cereal output estimate for 2014, on other hand, rose to 2 544 million tonnes mainly due to a larger than anticipated maize harvest in the European Union, which confirmed that the global cereal output in 2014 would outstrip the 2013 record by 1 per cent.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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Mechanised farming solution to food insecurity says Ellen Sirleaf

NaijaAgroNet:

Mechanised farming has been identified as the solution to food insecurity in Liberia, according to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In a nation-wide address recently in Liberia and monitored by NaijaAgroNet, President Sirleaf noted that it is only through large scale mechanized farming operations and agro- industrial operations which focuses on emerging small and medium size entities is the only way Liberia can attain food security.

She observed that Liberia as an agrarian nation must increasingly shift to agriculture to ensure that the nation moves away from the old system of enclave extractive industries.

“We must aim at a higher potential for import and export diversification through stimulation of production in a select few of our traditional tree crops such as rubber, oil palm and cocoa, she said.

NaijaAgroNet also learnt that she reminded Liberians that the private sector must become the driving force of the economy with Liberia’s entrepreneurs playing their rightful role, adding, that this can only be achieved with the support of citizens by promoting and buying products made in Liberia as well as through the payment of rightful taxes.

President Sirleaf then pledged her government’s commitment in doing its part in establishing a peaceful and easy business environment by reducing the bureaucratic hurdles and at the same time ensuring that tax regimes are fair and allow businesses to expand.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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pix: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Cassava is foodstuff, industrial raw material

NaijaAgroNet:

Cassava has been identified as crucial to food security for millions of Africans, and now the shrub’s potential for industrial purposes is being considered, says a professor at the school of molecular and cell biology,Wits University South Africa. Prof. Chrissie Rey, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking on the versatility of the crop, Prof. Rey said its used in several products including flour, paper, textiles, food additives and animal feed.

"The main thrust of cassava in South Africa is for industrial purposes and the use of biotechnology to improve the crop for agro-processing," noted Prof. Rey who has been studying the shrub since the 1980s.

According to Rey,other countries on the continent have always been interested in cassava for food security but all cassava-growing countries are getting interested in its industrial potential.

Rey says herinterest on studying the plant was because its roots are a valuable source of starch. "The need for root-based starch will rise in the next 50 years. Cassava is a potentially valuable crop and the South African government is interested in exploring that potential for small-scale and commercial farmers," she says.

The crop is also used to produce bio-ethanol, which is used in small stoves instead of paraffin. The bio-ethanol produced from cassava is cleaner for the environment, she pointed out.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Pix: Cassava tubers

2015 Yara Prize up for grabs, USD 60,000 @stake

NaijaAgroNet:

The 2015 Yara Prize worth USD 60,000, about N11,943,000, is now up for grabs, according to the Chairman, Yara Prize Committee, Mr. Torgeir Kvidal, NaijaAgroNet reports.

A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet, by Svein Flatebø of Yara Prize Committee Secretariat, quoted Mr. Kvidal, who doubles as President & CEO of Yara International as saying that Yara Prize was established in 2005 as a direct response to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call for a green revolution in Africa in 2004. 

The Yara Prize, NaijaAgroNet reports, recognizes food and nutrition security and sustainable agricultural initiatives with a transformative power. 

“It serves as inspiration for action to scale up the African Green Revolution,” Kvidal said. 

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that the Yara Prize winner receives USD 60,000, a trophy and a diploma which will be awarded in Africa in October 2015.

Kvidal, therefore, invite nominations that deserves recognition for achievements in combating hunger and poverty as well as enhancing food security and sustainable agricultural development on the continent. 

In 2015, the Yara Prize will have a special focus on youth, women and agribusiness, hence, the prize will also consider strongly those individuals who have contributed towards catalyzing transformational change in support of an African Green Revolution.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

 

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Nigerian farmers demand compensation for loss of birds

NaijaAgroNet:

Poultry farmers in Plateau State are calling for government’s help to compensate them for the loss of birds and sales following recent avian influenza outbreaks, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Poultry farmers in Plateau State say that bird flu remains a serious threat to the nation’s economy and called on the Federal Government to tackle it, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The farmers also called on government and other relevant authorities to expedite action on the payment of compensation to those whose farms were quarantined. Alhaji Moshood Okanlawon, one of the poultry farmers, told NaijaAgroNet in Jos, Plateau State that the disease, which ravaged poultry farms recently, had resulted in unemployment.

Mr Okanlawon explained that the negative economic implications of bird flu on the nation’s economy had a wider impact on the lucrative poultry business.

Another farmer, Rebecca Okafor, NaijaAgroNet gathered said she had been into poultry farming in the last 18 years, describing it as a very “good business”. She said poultry farming has tremendous economic importance, adding that the avian influenza had destroyed the business. She explained that more than 700 of her birds were infected by the disease and her farm was quarantined.

“More than 75 crates of eggs and chickens being produced weekly had stopped and I cannot supply manure to local farmers,” she said.

Similarly, Alhaji Abdulazeez Qamarudeen said over 3,650 of his birds were infected with bird flu. He called on government to compensate farmers that were affected, saying poultry farming contributes largely to the GDP of the country due to generation of employment and business opportunities.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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