AGRA goes to Francophone

NaijaAgroNet:

The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has revealed that in 2017, its African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) will be heading to a Francophone country, Cote d’Ivoire, reports NaijaAgroNet.

AGRF, NaijaAgroNet gathered has been scheduled to take place between September 4 and 8, 2017.

NaijaAgroNet reports that every year, the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) brings together stakeholders in the agricultural sector to develop concrete action plans for moving the continent’s agricultural agenda forward.

“This year’s AGRF is co-hosted with the government of Cote d’Ivoire and is being held for the first time in Francophone West Africa,” President of AGRA, Dr Agnes_Kalibata said.

According to her, AGRF plays host to an expected 750 delegates, sponsors and speakers including heads of state, development partners, academia, investors, business leaders will share their insights on how to align, create and leverage financial, technical, policy and market expanding resources to develop game-changing and inclusive agribusiness models for Africa to counter the major challenges facing the agriculture sector on the continent.

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FAO, Japan strategise on how to bolster stronger partnership

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Japan have concluded a high-level meeting meant on bolstering stronger partnership, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The talks, NaijaAgroNet gathered centred on Sustainable Development Goals and improving outreach to Japanese public.

The meeting hosted by FAO saw a delegation from Japan attending in a bid for both sides to commit to a strong relationship between the UN agency responsible for fighting hunger and its second-largest contributor to the core budget.

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sent a number of senior officials to the meeting, one of a series aimed at crafting a strategic plan for further advancing the key partnership. The broader Japanese delegation underscored the increasingly geopolitical nature of assuring food security and putting agriculture on a sustainable and responsible footing in an era of globalization and border-hopping challenges such as climate change.

Japan is a major advocate of the Sustainable Development Agenda, which targets the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger everywhere by 2030.

Along with being the No. 2 donor to FAO's regular budget after the United States of America, Japan has been a major funder of emergency relief projects, notably in Afghanistan and in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. It also by choice boosts FAO's resources for work on the Codex Alimentarius - the world's food safety guidelines - as well as capacity-building efforts to help developing countries assess their vulnerability to climate stress, South-South cooperation initiatives sharing Japanese rice-growing and aquaculture techniques with African nations.

Japan is also a robust sponsor of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems conservation effort and is home to eight of those designated sites.

The meeting aimed at advancing coordinated approaches to key goals, including concrete actions and longer-term plans that can further strengthen the partnership and make progress towards the SDGs.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet reports that Japanese officials including those in charge of economic security, international organizations and agriculture, were briefed on FAO's resilience-boosting programmes for emergency efforts, the ongoing effort to combat desertification in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, nutrition initiatives in Africa, various developments in the fisheries and forestry sectors, as well as on FAO's work in linking smallholder farmers to commercial markets, its partnership strategy with the private sector, and on the guidelines for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems.

The visitors also discussed FAO's Strategic Framework and 2018-21 Medium Term Plan and the results-based management of the Organization's current activities.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 

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Shittu commiserates with Oyo NUJ, BCOS, family, over Alawaye’s death

ITRealms:

Minister of Communications, Barr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu has commiserated with the Oyo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), management and staff of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), family of the late Alhaji Tunji Alawaye, over the death of the ace broadcaster, reports ITRealms.

The minister in a press release by his Special Assistant on Media, Victor Oluwadamilare, said the journalism profession has lost a brilliant journalist, adding that the death of Alawaye is a great loss to the broadcast industry.

According to the minister, “ Alhaji Tunji Alawaye died at a time when his services could be sought after by the numerous newly opened private radio stations in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State and other neighboring states”.

“Experienced old hands like the late Alawaye serve as a veritable recruiting ground for newly opened fm stations that has make the broadcast industry in Ibadan and environ competitive, but it is unfortunate that the cold hands of death snatched him away at this period in time”.

“There is nothing we can do but to submit to the will of Almighty Allah who created us all and has the power to take us at his will. We beg Allah to grant his soul a repose and grant him Aljanah fridous . We pray Allah to give his wives, children and other members of the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss”.

Meanwhile, the minister admonished journalists to always submit themselves to medical check -up periodically to forestall harbouring terminal diseases like high blood pressure and heart related problems due to the nature of their job.

Barr. Shittu also urged the management of the BCOS and NUJ Oyo State chapter to take heart, while he prayed that Allah will put an end to sudden death in their midst.

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NEPAD set to launch hunger, nutrition commitment index

NaijaAgroNet:

The stage is set for the formal launch of the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) for Africa by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and partners, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Senior Communications Officer at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Ms Mwanja Ng'anjo, disclosed this to NaijaAgroNet, saying that NEPAD is partnership with the Institute of Development Studies on this project.

She also said that HANCI-Africa measures countries’ efforts to deliver on the African Union Malabo Declaration commitments of 2014 and other international commitments.

“It measures the efforts that 45 African governments undertake in terms of law, policy and spending, and identifies what they do well and where they need to go further in addressing hunger and undernutrition,” she said.

As said by her, through publicly available evidence, HANCI-Africa seeks to empower stakeholders to hold one another accountable, stressing that all is set for the launch this Thursday in Midrand, South Africa.

During the launch, Nganjo said, HANCI-Africa will be presented as a tool for advocacy, commitment monitoring and accountability.

In addition, she said, discussions will also centre on how the African Union, NEPAD, national governments, regional authorities and stakeholders can adopt, adapt, own and sustainably use the HANCI-Africa for monitoring the Malabo Declaration and other commitments towards addressing hunger and malnutrition.

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EU signs N22.086trn grant with Zambia, improves access to energy

NaijaAgroNet:

The European Union (EU) has signed up the sum of €65 million, about N22,086,252,500.00, grant with Zambia to improve access to energy, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This programme, NaijaAgroNet gathered would provide access to reliable, clean and affordable electricity services to at least 63,000 households, or about 300,000 people, to social and public infrastructure and to eligible Micro Small Enterprises (MSEs), which will be done through the rehabilitation and expansion of the low voltage distribution network in selected low income areas of Lusaka City with high population density.

The financing agreement for a grant of €65 million was signed today in Brussels by Commissioner for International Development and Cooperation Neven Mimica and the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Zambia Felix Mutati. This took place in the framework of a meeting where Commissioner Mimica and Minister Mutati exchanged views on the very good bilateral relations between the European Union and Zambia.

Speaking on this occasion, Commissioner Neven Mimica said: "This €65 million programme demonstrates the continued commitment of the European Union in collaboration with European Financial Institutions (EFIs) to provide the much needed capital investment for basic infrastructure development, in order to improve the livelihood and social status of poor communities in Zambia. 

"The rehabilitation of the low voltage distribution network and the new connections will allow for the provision of reliable and affordable energy services and economic empowerment. The programme will support the implementation of the European External Investment Plan which prioritises socio-economic development through infrastructure and energy in particular."

The project is co-financed with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which provides additional loans amounting to €15 Million. It is also part of a larger Lusaka Transmission and Distribution Rehabilitation plan, co-financed by the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and ZESCO Limited.

Currently Lusaka faces challenges, because its electricity network infrastructure results in significant energy losses. This is coupled with an increasing population in high density low-income areas, which is unable to access electricity services due to high connection costs. 

Lack of access to electricity services seriously deprives the affected population, in terms of quality of life and exposure to various hazards that go with it (in-door pollution, unsafe cooking, poor social services, low self-esteem etc..), worsening the social inequality gap between the low density and high density urban areas.

In addition to the rehabilitation and expansion of the low voltage distribution network, the programme includes a connection-fee subsidy scheme to encourage new household connections as well as measures to promote productive uses of electricity by women and Micro and Small Enterprises. These will include facilitated access to micro credit lines and training in business management and entrepreneurship.

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Food Security: Transforming toilet waste to table water

NaijaAgroNet: 

Given the increasing competition over water usage, how can it be ensured that agriculture has access to water, and hence can provide the global population with food? What part can agriculture, as the largest user of water, play worldwide in the sustainable stewardship of water as a valuable resource?

With existing fresh water resources becoming limited and over-exploited, climate change and water scarcity are ranking high among the biggest global challenges. Therefore, farmers have to look for alternative ways of covering their needs – like using wastewater.

Wastewater is a valuable, and still in many countries untapped resource, which can help the agriculture, agroforestry and forestry sectors achieve food security and move towards climate change adaptation. 

However, wastewater used in agricultural fields often does not meet the required water quality criteria, let it be from the perspective of the farmers’ health and/or agricultural practices (e.g. high turbidity causing the clogging of irrigation pipes).

In the frame of the panel experts from different regions and organizations will discuss the current status of wastewater application in agriculture, its importance for achieving food security, existing challenges, relevance with SDG targets and ultimately the future steps forward.

Improved and affordable mechanisms and state of the art technologies for expanding collection, treatment and safe application of wastewater in agriculture and agroforestry sector might be applied for water scarcity adaptation.

These would not only:

(1) contribute to the country’s food security significantly, and

(2) help cope with climate change sustainably, but also

(3) protect farmers’ health by assuring that treated wastewater being applied in the field is also safe. The latter would also contribute

(4) to the farmer’s income, as well as

(5) reduce the amount of pollution produced by agriculture through replacing a significant amount of fertilizer with nutrients recovered from the wastewater (e.g. nitrate).

Finally new systems could (6) reduce the total water usage, by implementing a stable water-wastewater-circle that sustains several protagonists with hardly any external influences. However, these aims cannot be achieved without proper water pricing policies and sensitization of the public.

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Bayelsa votes N1.2bn for accessible water in 200 communities

NaijaAgroNet:

The Bayelsa State government, has voted the sum of N1.2 billion for establishment of access water in some 200 communities, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Disclosing this Friday, the governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson, expressed optimism that all communities in the State would get access to water in the next three years.

"In Bayelsa State, there is water, water everywhere but none to drink. We rarely have water to drink and some of the water are in salt water area. We need to desalinate it. So, out of a number of communities that really have that challenge, government selected some land locked communities to provide water and we have done that already.

"Our partners have selected 200 communities in Bayelsa State, principally in two Local Government Areas to provide a lot of things. We appreciate our partners, World Bank, EU and UNICEF who are contributing about N700 million and the State government is putting N422 million. In other words, we are actually bearing the cost of about 35 per cent of the project. But the key issue is not what they are providing, I am more interested in their technical expertise that they are bringing to the table. But I have told them that they need to expand it because I want more communities to benefit.

"The provision of portable water for people is our priority. I want to ensure that every community in Bayesla State have water in the next three years. We will look for the resources and work with them. We will also tap on their expertise. I told them that I will be willing if they can create another counterpart funding for even this year."

While acknowledging the fact that States are finding it difficult to meet the contributions, the governor said that Bayelsa State would "be willing to look for money to start another one so that again a minimum of 200 or 250 more communities again can benefit."

"I want to ensure that within the next three years, every community, no matter how small, should have access to some safe drinking water because sometimes the situation they manage is very bad.

"The people drink water from stagnant pools and get infected. We have cases of perennial cholera and drainages with pollution along water ways. There are a lot of things going on and that is why we are very committed to that and we appreciate the partnership", he emphasised.

Dickson called on community leaders to work with the contractors and protect these facilities by putting it on good use.

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Food for All: MaxMart lifts Afram Plains South District with GhC5,000

NaijaAgroNet:

Ghana’s premier family shopping centre, MaxMart has listed  the Afram Plains South District of the Eastern region of Ghana with a donation of GH¢5,000 to Food for All Ghana Sustainable Farms Fund as initial capital to build a community livestock farm for deprived communities reports NaijaAgroNet.

Receiving the cheque from General Manager of MaxMart , Mr. Omar Naboulsi, the founder of Food for All Africa programme, Chef Elijah Addo, reiterated the need for community partnership towards addressing hunger and food waste in Africa.

He also said the donation was as a result of a month long Waitrose Buy More Feed More Christmas project carried out by Food for All and MaxMart to raise awareness on the economic and environmental impact of food waste and hunger in Ghana.

“It was to also involve Ghanaians and stakeholders in creating sustainable means of nutrition for beneficiaries under the Food for All Africa programme. Through the month of Christmas, MaxMart donated 3% of Waitrose branded product prices for which it’s customers bought,” he said.

He quoted facts from the 2016 Cost of Hunger in Ghana report published in August by National Development Planning Commission which shows that Ghana loses GH¢ 4.6 billion which is equivalent to 6.4% GDP annually to hunger among children and 24% of all child mortality cases in Ghana are associated with under nutrition.” 

He indicated that the choice of Afram plains for the community farm project was as a result of the number of children in the community who are out of school due to a lack of regular means of nutrition.He appealed for individuals and corporate bodies to donate to the Food for All Ghana Sustainable Farms Fund to create sustainable means of nutrition for vulnerable communities in Africa.”

Also speaking, Naboulsi indicated MaxMart believes community participation plays a critical role in solving the economic and environmental impact of food waste and hunger in Ghana. It is in that regard that as sole distributors of Waitrose brand in Ghana, they involved their customers during Christmas to raise funding in support of the good work Food for All in undertaking to ensure a means of nutrition for the vulnerable in Ghana.”MaxMart is a socially responsible business and will keep supporting social intervention programs such as Food for All in Ghana.

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FAO tasks stakeholders to act on water scarcity

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director-General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, has called for a better water management and improved access for small farmers, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He underscored the growing water scarcity, saying its now one of the leading challenges for sustainable development, and that challenge is poised to intensify as the world's population continues to swell and climate change intensifies.

Competition for water will intensify as humanity's numbers exceed 9 billion people around 2050 — already, millions of family farmers in developing countries suffer from lack of access to freshwater, while conflicts over water resources already surpass those tied to land disputes in some regions, he noted in remarks made at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (19-21 January) in Berlin.

Additionally, climate change is already altering hydrological regimes everywhere, Graziano da Silva said, citing estimates that around one billion people in dry regions may face increasing water scarcity in the near future. These are regions with a high concentration of extreme poverty and hunger.

Agriculture is both a major cause and casualty of water scarcity. Farming accounts for around 70 percent of fresh water withdrawals in the world today, and also contributes to water pollution due to pesticides and chemicals. 

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Scientists explain why you must chew your food

NaijaAgroNet:

Scientists have explained the essence of chewing your food properly and how it could boost your mouth’s immune system to protect you against illness, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The study led by teams at The University of Manchester and National Institutes of Health in the USA, revealed that a specific type of immune cell, the Th17 cell, can be stimulated when you chew.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the immune cell is important in protecting against bacterial and fungal infections that are commonly found in the mouth.

Although it has long been known that the nutrients from food can support a healthy immune system the findings establish that the action of eating itself is important too.

In other parts of the body, such as the gut and skin, Th17 cells are stimulated by the presence of friendly bacteria; it was previously assumed this was the case in the mouth.

However, the team found that damage caused by the abrasion of chewing induced factors from the gums that could activate the same pathways as friendly bacteria and act upon Th17 cells.

However, stimulation of Th17 cells for immune protection can be a double-edged sword: too many Th17 cells can contribute to periodontitis – a common gum disease that is linked to complications in lots of diseases including diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, heart problems and pre-term birth.

The research was funded by the BBSRC and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in the United States.

Lead researcher and biologist Dr Joanne Konkel, from The University of Manchester, said: “The immune system performs a remarkable balancing act at barrier sites such as the skin, mouth and gut by fighting off harmful pathogens while tolerating the presence of normal friendly bacteria.

“Our research shows that, unlike at other barriers, the mouth has a different way of stimulating Th17 cells: not by bacteria but by mastication. Therefore mastication can induce a protective immune response in our gums”.

In the journal Immunity, the team show that they were able to stimulate increases in Th17 cells in mice by merely changing the hardness of their food, proving that mastication was the critical factor.

 But these Th17 cells also had a bad side; “We were also able to show that increased damage from mastication could also exacerbate bone loss in periodontitis”.

She added: “Importantly, because inflammation in the mouth is linked to development of diseases all around the body understanding the tissue-specific factors that regulate immunity at the oral barrier could eventually lead to new ways to treat multiple inflammatory conditions”

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Pix: Lead biologist Dr Joanne Konkel