African Union commends ECOWAS on CAADP implementation

NaijaAgroNet:

The African Union (AU) commissioner in charge of  Rural Economy and Agriculture (REA), Mrs. Rhoda Peace Tumuslime, has commended the Economic Community for West Africa States (ECOWAS) on its strides in implementation of agricultural-related policies of the commission, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking to NaijaAgroNet at the press conference on-going meeting of Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the headquarters of AU Commission, the Commissioner, commended ECOWAS, saying the regional organization is well organization, especially on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) initiatives.

“ECOWAS is organized very well around CAADP, creating relevant institutions to ensure compliance on implementation,” she said.

Responding on how to optimise CAADP at the regional levels, she said, adding they have made efforts at setting up REC across the regions of the continent.

She further said that some other regions and precisely the Regional Economic Communities (REC) tend to meet very often to restrategise for the benefit of the continent.

The Commissioner also assured that AU has plans to evaluate the activities of STC within the intermediary years before its next meeting which has been scheduled every two years.

According to her, it is easier for nations on the continent to meet, have resolutions and see it through adequate implementation.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 
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Inclusion of Weather, Climate in STC status vital - Mukabana

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director of the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (inclusion of Meteorology and precisely weather and climate, in the established Specialized Technical Committees of the African Union, is vital AMCOMET) Secretariat in Geneva, Dr Joseph Romanus Mukabana, has stressed the inclusion of Weather and Climate Services in STC, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Dr. Mukabana made this known at the sideline of the newly inaugurated STC and underscored the importance of inclusion of Meteorology, saying that Weather and Climate information and Services provided by the WMO National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in the amelioration of impacts of natural disasters caused by Weather and Climate extremes to the vulnerable communities in Africa.

 

Mukabana, who doubles as Director of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Office for Africa and Least Developed Countries (AFLCD), noted that Weather and Climate information and services provided by the WMO National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in the amelioration of impacts of natural disasters caused to the vulnerable communities in Africa, could not be overlooked.

“The inclusion of Meteorology and precisely weather and climate, in the established Specialized Technical Committees of the African Union, is vital,” he declared.

This, he explained is imperative, considering their importance to human lives in the region.

He also expressed the hope that this suggestion by WMO would be considered by STC to afford Weather and Climate issues assume a cardinal part of the operational modality of the Union (AU)”, he maintained.

NaijaAgroNet recalled that in April 2010, the first Conference of Ministers Responsible for Meteorology in Africa, through the Nairobi Declaration, established the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) as a high-level policy mechanism for the development of meteorology and its applications in Africa. AMCOMET is the inter-governmental authority on Meteorology in Africa.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa 

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IRRI boss advocates inter-operability portals for databases

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Robert Zeigler, has urged every gene bank in the world to re-design their databases to match some international standard, saying that what is needed is inter-operability, to create portals where everyone's databases can talk to another, NaijaAgroNet reports.  

Genome sequences of more than 3,000 rice varieties have been placed with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) by the world's leading rice research institute in a move boosting plans to set up a global data exchange system for crop genetic resources.

The Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Treaty (ITPGRFA) NaijaAgroNet informs, made the announcement at the 6^th session of the Governing Body of the FAO-based 136-member nation plant treaty that is being held in Rome this week.

Around the world governments and organizations are storing genetic material in seed banks, but without one single gateway to genetic resource data, it is very difficult for researchers and plant breeders to know what is held where and what genetic resources are contained in the seeds.

The Secretary of the International Treaty, Shakeel Bhatti, said, "The genetic information that IRRI is making available to us, and the public at large, is a hugely generous and significant show of support to our endeavours to make all relevant information on genetic resources on plant crops available for future food security."

"To have so much information on rice, which after all is the basic food for half the world's population, placed at the fingertips of everyone is a major step in securing food security for future generations," he added.

The Rome meeting will discuss how to enhance the current multi-lateral system through the creation of one Global Information System on Plant Genetic Resources. This system containing information including on how to access genetic material and seed samples from existing gene banks would be developed and overseen by the Treaty's host, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), NaijaAgroNet learnt

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Africa CSOs canvass for more openness, inclusiveness in STC

NaijaAgroNet:

The African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has canvassed for more openness and inclusiveness in the activities of the Specialised Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (STC-ARDWE), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Arising from the meeting of the African CSOs Working Group (AWG) at the on-going inaugural conference of the STC on Rule of Procedure held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the group called for a review of the Rule 14 on “Open and Closed Sessions.”

According to the chairman of the group, Mr. Martin Tsoukeu, in a working group report, said that Rule 14 should better be put the other way round by stating that all sessions are open but a decision could be made whether any of these shall be closed.

They also expected that STC-ARDWE recommends to the Ministerial Meeting to reconsider the idea of alleged abolishing of existing Ministerial conferences, in addition to the long-standing request submitted by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), with regards to their relationship with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The African Working Group urged that the STC on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment should be designed in a spirit that could make it an effective coordinating body, rather than a political representation organ.

In addition, AWG, Tsoukeu said, should be made to compliment the functionalities of the existing Ministerial conferences to be renamed or reconstituted, because Ministerial conferences have shown obvious effectiveness.

These, AWG emphasized should be maintained and fully capitalized on in the new STC operating format.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia +NEPAD CAADP CAADP 
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