LDRI supports AU efforts to end hunger, poverty, reduce inequality – Nyaggah

NaijaAgroNet:

The Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) has asserted support for the African Union (AU) member states in their efforts to end hunger, poverty and reduce inequality, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Executive Director, LDRI, Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah made this known in Abidjan, Cote D’Iviore in a chat with NaijaAgroNet during a three-day workshop hosted by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in collaboration with World Bank.

He said that LDRI, which commenced operation in 2015, is an action-oriented think-tank whose work contributes to the efforts of African governments to end extreme poverty, end hunger and reduce inequalities.  

According to him, with 65 per cent of Africa’s labour force employed in the agriculture sector with estimation of contributing approximately 30 per cent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), coupled with the increasing need to achieve food sufficiency for some 1.5 billion people by 2020, it is certain that agriculture will be pivotal to achieving these objectives.

LDRI, he said, focuses on the role of agricultural transformation in ending hunger, poverty and inequality especially the capability of states to have and use data/statistics in decision-making on the continent.

The strategic objectives of LDRI for the next four years, Nyaggah said, strengthening the Africa data ecosystem for planning, monitoring and review of interventions to drive agriculture transformation in Africa.

Also, he said, LDRI supports inclusive processes for evidence-driven policy on agriculture transformation in Africa and tend to build capacity of stakeholders to make their data openly accessible to others.

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Kalibata, Baker, Kadiyala to keynote at ANH Academy 2016

NaijaAgroNet:

The President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and former Rwandan Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, would be joined by the Director of Nutrition at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Shawn Baker, and Haris Gazdar, Senior Researcher at the Collective for Social Science Research as well as the Principal Investigator for the IMMANA, Dr. Suneetha Kadiyala, to give keynotes at the inaugural Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health (ANH) Academy Week, in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, reports NaijaAgroNet

The Academy Week events, NaijaAgroNet gathered would commence today, Monday, June 20, with a two-day training sessions tagged Learning Labs and which cover a broad selection of impact measurement methods and skills, as well as sessions focusing on interdisciplinary research, gender-sensitive interventions and getting published, among others.

The Learning Labs, as explained by the organiser’s Research and Knowledge Uptake Manager, Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA) Mr. Joe Yates are followed by a three-day Scientific Conference on Agri-Health Research.

Expected speakers, he said, would deliver oral and poster presentations around six major themes, namely Agriculture and Nutrition Linkages; Agriculture and Sustainable Diets; Health Impacts of Animal Sourced Foods; Women, Households and Nutrition; Markets, Value Chains and Nutrition; Determinants of Diets and Nutrition.

He quoted the Dr. Suneetha Kadiyala, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition-Sensitive Development at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Principal Investigator for the IMMANA as saying that to achieve the goals of overcoming further 165 million children from suffering stunted growth, there is need to understand the interactions between agriculture-food systems and nutrition and health, so as to have tools that allow stakeholders to predict the effects of agricultural-food system change and innovation on health and nutrition outcomes. 

“This requires collaboration across disciplines and sectors, recognition of which is reflected in the objectives of the ANH Academy,” Kadiyala said, declaring that his team is really inspired by the interest and initiative shown by the scientific community in the ANH Academy Week. 

Institutions from over 20 countries and a wide range of discipline, he said, would be represented at these events, reflecting the complex challenges facing us and the collaborations required to tackle these headlong.’   

He pointed out that the ANH Academy Week expands on the successful history of the five LCIRAH conferences, as well as events and activities by A4NH, and is part of one of three workstreams of IMMANA.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

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Gov. Ikpeazu advises FG to establish NYSC farms to ease unemployment

NaijaAgroNet:

The Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has advised the Federal Government to think of establishing farms across the 36 states, using members of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) as drivers of a youth agricultural initiative, reports NaijaAgroNet. 

A press statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Comrade Enyinnaya Appolos, said this at the weekend when Gov. Ikpeazu received the Director General of NYSC, Brig. Gen. Sule Kazaure, on a one day working visit at Government House, Umuahia. 

Governor Ikpeazu said the policy will make it mandatory for Corp members to be trained by experts in various aspects of agriculture during their one year national service, and every state will provide farm. 

He said that upon the completion of their service year, the Federal Government will make Agric loans accessible to them to go into various aspect of farming.

Ikpeazu said that the scheme will provide employment as it will encourage youth involvement in agriculture and reduce the number of white collar job seekers.  

The governor said, "I've thought about how to solve the problem of unemployment in Nigeria and I think that the best way to solving this problem Sent from my iPad

According to him, "NYSC is a vehicle that can drive government policies including agriculture and achieve good value chain in the industry".

He promised that the erosion site at the orientation camp will be visited and the female hostel looked into, promising that government will continue to assist the NYSC in the state.

Ikpeazu also pleaded with NYSC to consider awarding contracts for the production of uniforms and boots to Aba tailors and shoe makers to support his administrations drive for patronage of made in Aba goods and services. 

He assured that the state Government will guarantee high quality products as well as provide industrial capacity machines and high quality inputs to a consortium of tailors and shoe makers at Aba to meet the demands of NYSC in a timely manner.

 The governor stated that the state is also ready to supply uniforms and boots to military men in the country at competitive prices.

Earlier, the DG of the NYSC, brig Gen Suleiman Zakari Kazaure said that he was in the state for a routine inspection of the camp facility for the batchA stream 2 of the NYSC.

He thanked the Governor for the cordial relationship between the state and the NYSC team in the state and appreciated his achievements in the state including his benevolence to the NYSC and requested him to assist in the area of erosion control in the camp, fix the dilapidated female hostel and provide borehole as well as do something about the subvention payable to NYSC.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Pix: Dr Okezie Ikpeazu

Hungry children can’t learn says Applegate, petitions congress

NaijaAgroNet:

A resident of Spencer, Indiana in the United States, Ms Rebecca Applegate has petitioned the Congress against the plans to take food out of the mouths of hungry school children, insisting that hungry children cannot learn in any circumstance, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The petition on change.org and made available to NaijaAgroNet which has garnered over 3,330 supporters, Applegate wondered if anyone has been so hungry they could not concentrate on anything and then imagine being a 6-year-old trying to learn how to read with an empty stomach.

Applegate, who is a second-grade teacher, noted that in a rural community where most families struggle to make ends meet despite both parents working, families rely on the free or reduced cost meals provided to their children at school.

“Unfortunately, some in Congress are trying to pass a law that would cut off these meals for many of our most vulnerable children,” she decried.

According to her, the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Bill of 2016 currently in the United States Congress, is misleading as the bill will make it harder for the poorest schools, wondering if schools like hers would ever qualify for community eligibility.

Community eligibility, Ms Applegate said, is an option for schools when there are so many disadvantaged students, all students qualify for free lunch.

“This saves resource strapped school districts from having to individually track each eligible student in the lunch line and prevents low income students from going hungry,” she said, stressing that if this bill becomes law, it would jeopardize approximately 3.4 million students in the 7,000 schools that have already implemented community eligibility.

“My school would be one of them, and I can’t stand by and let my students go hungry,” she said, appealing for support against allowing the Congress to take food away from hungry children.

Often, she said, children come to class hungry and cannot wait to go to breakfast, hence, they are restless and even confess often they have had very little or nothing to eat the night before.

“I personally pay for peanut butter crackers and other snacks to pass out mid-morning to keep my students going. Without free meals, I am not sure what these children are going to do,” Ms Applegate said.

She further enjoined well-meaning individuals to join her in asking Congress to reject H.R. 5003, the supposed ‘Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016’ insisting that hungry children cannot learn.

“We should be feeding and empowering our youth, not leaving them hungry,” Applegate maintained.

One of Applegate supporters stated that “Even as an adult, can you read or learn in a hungry situation, the answer is NO, so why wish that for small ones. It’s the way we treat them now will determine how they will treat us when we get old and they are in the centre of authorities.”

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Addis Ababa agog for inaugural agriculture, nutrition, health academy week

NaijaAgroNet:

Ethiopia is now agog for the inaugural agriculture, nutrition, and health otherwise known as ANH Academy Week, as researchers and users of nutritional research from over 20 countries head to the capital, Addis Ababa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Research and Knowledge Uptake Manager for the Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA) Mr. Joe Yates, confirmed this in a press statement available to NaijaAgroNet, saying that for the next five days, between June 20 and 24, the global community of interdisciplinary researchers and research-users working at intersection of agriculture-food systems, health and nutrition would convene in Ethiopia.

According to him, the academy week would avail participants to learn, share and strengthen collaborative partnerships with the goal of improving nutrition and health.

The ANH Academy Week is held in Addis Ababa to facilitate African participation with attendees from around the world and comes just a week after the release of the Global Nutrition Report 2016, which warns that ‘malnutrition and diet are by far the biggest risk factors for the global burden of disease.’

Yates disclosed that the ANH Academy grew from a commitment to build interdisciplinary capacity and foster a community of researchers working in agriculture and food systems, health and nutrition.
NaijaAgroNet recalls that the academy was founded jointly by the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), and the Innovative Metrics and Methods for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA) research initiative, to facilitate learning and sharing among researchers working at the intersection of agriculture, nutrition, and health.  

Remmy Nweke/ED,Ops


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18% of Anambra children under 5 malnourished - NGO

NaijaAgroNet:

The Anambra State chapter of the Nigerian Civil Society Scale-up Nutrition, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), has alleged that 18 per cent of children in the state under the age of five suffer from malnutrition-based stunted growth, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Local Working Group Coordinator for the NGO, Dr. Moses Ohamaeme, told newsmen at the state capital, Awka at the weekend that a survey conducted in the South east region by the organisation showed that Anambra State is worst hit in child malnutrition.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that Ohamaeme pointed out that malnutrition is severe among children with low milk consumption as well as those whose mothers had limited knowledge of its impact, stressing that malnourished babies have a higher risk of dying at infancy and are more likely to face life-long cognitive challenges capable of leading to poor school performance and chronic health problems.

He equally said that malnutrition in children usually manifest in form of wasting which Ohamaeme described as low weight for height, stunting as low height for age and underweight as low weight for age.

Lamenting this situation in a state like Anambra, reputed for abundant human and material resources, Dr. Ohamaeme emphasized that malnutrition and its related diseases are still an issue in public health in Anambra State. The state also has the lowest median of Exclusive Breast Feeding (EBF) in the zone.

“Even though EBF in the first six months is proven to be effective in preventing children from malnutrition, the practice is still very low in Anambra State,” he said.

The Group Coordinator in Anambra State, further urged the state government to create nutritional budget lines in the state ministries of health, primary health care development agency, education, economic planning, and agriculture.

In addition, the NGO said, local governments and the state House of Assembly should as matter of urgency similarly make certain the inclusiveness of funding for maternal child and adolescent nutrition centre among others.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that on 14 November 2011, the Federal Republic of Nigeria joined the global Scale-Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement with a letter of commitment from then Minister of Health, Dr. Onyebuchi Chukwu.

Noteworthy is that then, Nigeria recognised the role of nutrition as a development issue and had committed to addressing malnutrition with the adoption of a National Health Strategic Development Plan which recognises nutrition as an important component.

Emeka Ozo/GEE

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Africa can feed on small fish - Study

NaijaAgroNet:

There is a burgeoning small, fast growing wild fish sector with capabilities to feed the continent of Africa, says the latest study of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) especially from drylands, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The new FAO report on fisheries in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa, its crucial to look towards these allies in the race to end hunger in some of the world's most chronically poor and underfed regions.

Lead author of the study, Jeppe Kolding, a professor of biology at the University of Bergen in Norway, noted that in order to get fish in a dryland their eggs could be boosted.

"Fish are incredibly productive when conditions are right. Their egg-laying capacities made them, more like insects than other vertebrates," he said.

Although the study recognized water as an ephemeral resource in Africa's dryland regions, which could be formed and disappearing relatively in a short period of time could not be surprising.

Kolding noted that despite this, fish some of which weigh as little as a few grams at maturity could survive and thrive in these environments, meaning the continent's dryland fisheries are in fact highly productive and resilient.

Pointing out that output from dryland fisheries fluctuates due to climate trends - mainly low and above all uncertain rainfall -but productive potential is very high in smaller water bodies, some of which appear only once a decade but could produce up to 150 kilograms of fish per hectare per year. Together, these small water bodies cover a much larger area than the sub-Saharan region's lakes and reservoirs.

This, the study said, if properly managed, these bodies in southern Africa alone could produce 1.25 million tonnes of fish, which is half the total recorded inland fisheries yield of the entire continent.

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Cote d’Ivoire reduces poverty rate by 7% - Minister Sangafowa

NaijaAgroNet:

The Honourable Minister in charge of Agriculture in Cote d’Ivoire, Mr. Mamadou Coulibaly Sangafowa has revealed that the country reduced poverty rate by seven per cent in recent times, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Experts at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined poverty rate as the ratio of the number of people in a given age group whose income falls below the poverty line; taken as half the median household income of the total population.

Speaking to group of African journalists drawn from over 20 countries, participating in the on-going weeklong workshop organized by the African Media Initiative (AMI) in collaboration with the World Bank in Abidjan, the Minister made this disclosure.

He also said that women are the bedrock of the successful farming output of the country lately.

According to him, in Cote d’Ivoire, the government has a programme that encourages less government involvement in business and investment, thereby spurring private sector to come in so that businesses and investment, especially in the country could thrive.

Sangafowa, maintained that his country, Cote d’Ivoire has reduced poverty rate from 62 per cent a few years ago to about 55 per cent, even as efforts are geared towards improving on this achievement.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that Cote d'Ivoire is a developing nation in the Sub-Saharan Africa with the income level as ‘Lower middle income’ with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at 2014 stood at $34.25 billion whereas, current population, according to the World Bank is about  22.70 million 2015.

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pix: L-r World Bank Country Director for Cote d'Ivioire, Mr. Pierre Laporte, Agric Minister, Mamadou Sangafowa, CEO, AMI, Eric Chinje and Mr. Sarwat Hussain of WorldBank.

AMI, World Bank three-day workshop on media on agriculture opens

NaijaAgroNet:

 A three-day workshop on media on agriculture opened Monday in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire by the country’s Minister of Agriculture, Mamadou Coulibaly Sangafowa, who was represented by a director in the ministry, with over 50 media practitioners in attendance across Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The meeting expected to last till Thursday, June 16 seeks indepth and informative media coverage on development themes was notably uninformed.

NaijaAgroNet reports that in addition, there have suspected superficial, perfunctory or lacking altogether in media across most of Africa, according to the organisers, the World Bank Group and the African Media Initiative (AMI).

They also said that the objective is to expand and deepen media understanding as well as coverage of agriculture and related issues by media on the continent.

The Chief executive, AIM, Mr. Eric Chinje, said the mission is to support the media to play a more decisive role in promoting democratic governance, economic growth, social development and citizen empowerment in Africa.

“It seeks to narrow the gap that currently exists between media content and national development agendas,”

He also said that AMI has two strategic pillars namely strengthening African media houses through viable business, models, technology use, effective audience measurement, and improved ethics, and improving media content by reinforcing the capacity of reporters to cover development stories, establishing platforms for program exchange and cross-fertilization, and identifying incentives for writers and other content producers. Its strategic goal is to reduce the gap between media content and the development agenda of countries on the continent.

Chinje also said that the organization supports the emergence of a media sector that is professionally proficient, financially sustainable, technologically efficient, and socially responsible so that it can best serve the public interest and informs the Africa narrative.

Thus, AMI seeks to engage, empower and strengthen the capacities of African media owners and operators by tackling key constraints to media action, and to drive the development content agenda through a programme of specialization among journalists in the critical sectors of the economy in Africa.

On the collaboration with the World Bank Group, he said, AMI look out to mainstream media coverage and promote content that enriches the continental dialogue on agriculture and its related issues. Both will work together with other relevant partners to develop training packages and generate the resources necessary to build a critical mass of media specialists to focus on agriculture, a sector that is critical to growth in national economies.

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Exclusive: Nigeria, 36 other countries need external food assistance

NaijaAgroNet:

Some 37 countries globally including Nigeria are in need of external food assistance, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisaton (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Other countries comprised of Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, and Kenya.

Equally affected based on FAO outline include Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Also, FAO raised its forecast for global cereal production in 2016 to 2,539 million tonnes, up 17.3 million tonnes from its previous May projection and up 0.6 percent from last year's harvest. 

Aggregate cereal production in Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) is also forecast to increase to 420 million tonnes in 2016, led by a recovery in rice and wheat production in India after last year reduction due to El Niño-related drought.  That would be a 2.5 percent increase from last year's "sharply reduced" level.

NaijaAgroNet, in spite of the improved world production prospects in 2016, output would still fall slightly short of the projected demand in 2016/17, meaning global stocks would need to be drawn down from their near-record level.

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