AfricaRice, partners plan GRiSP for rice development

To benefit everyone in the society especially the poor and hungry, a global programme known as Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) has be created to look into development challenges of major Africa’s rice, reports StarAfrica

The main aim of the programme, Director General, AfricaRice, Dr. Papa Abdoulaye Seck, said is to mobilize the world's rice science, involve range of stakeholders in technology generation and disseminate process to address issue affecting rice development in the continent.

Seck also said the urgent need to conduct different research activities is acknowledged and hence the reason behind GRiSP as it is a proposal to a new global approach to research.

AfricaRice, Dr. Seck said, is part of the programme with other partners in order to address the constraints of rice production efficiently. Read more

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Canadians donate N11.49billion to East Africans

The Canadian government has donated the sum of $70 million, about N11.49 billion to the drought-troubled East Africa countries.

Minister for International Co-operation, Canada, Ms Bev Oda, disclosed this at a conference on food security in Montreal, at the weekend, reports CBCNews.

“Canadians have once again demonstrated their compassion and generosity by continuing to support the people of East Africa suffering from this catastrophic drought,” Oda said.

She also said that the Canadian government is proud to partner with her citizens to help those affected by the drought.

“We continue to work with partners on ground to ensure Canadian aid is helping those who need it the most, including women and children” she said.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that some of the fund implementing organizations includes UNICEF, CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, World Vision Canada and Plan Canada. Read more.

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Adesina decries Nigeria’s annual fish consumption ratio

Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has decried poor fish production in the country which has led to the low annual per capita fish consumption rate and frozen fish importation in excess of N100 billion, reports ThisDay.

Addressing a national stakeholders workshop in Abuja on Development of Aquaculture Value Chain under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of his Ministry, Dr. Adesina, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Ezekiel Oyemomi, revealed that the fish consumption rate in the country is only 7.5 kilogrammes as against 15 kilogrammes per annum as recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Also, he said the estimated annual fish demand in the country was about 2.66 million as against the annual domestic production of about 0.78 million, thus giving a demand-supply gap of about 1.8 million metric tones and importation of frozen fish worth over N100 billion.

The minister further said that Nigeria imported over 780,000 metric tonnes of frozen fish annually from Europe, Latin America and Eastern countries. Read more.
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ITU urges COP 17 delegates to examine potentials of ICT

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has advised delegates at the up-coming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 17) to address the great potentials of ICT in cutting emissions across all sectors of the economy.

This call was made during the ITU Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change which held in Ghana, last weekend.

ITU in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet stated that there should be an approach to manufacturing and recycling in order to reduce the need to extract and process raw materials.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that ITU also asked for the recognition of the value of ICTs in monitoring deforestation, crop patterns coupled with other environmental phenomena.

ITU, Secretary General, Dr. Hamadoun Toure was quoted as emphasizing on the organisation’s commitment to provide the technical know-how to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

“… It's clear to observers that ICTs have a very cogent role to play,” he declared.

Equally, he said, recognizing the role ICTs at the international level would pave the way for solid argument for countries in rolling out climate change strategies with a strong ICT element.

Also speaking, the Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau at ITU said, a world without ICT in this era is unthinkable as it integrated into almost every parts of the society.

Malcolm also said the increasing use of ICTs have changed lives with a boost to the economic growth.

"The success of technology means it is itself a growing contributor to greenhouse gas emissions." he said.

He also said a message that must be carried to COP 17 is that ICTs is providing the most significant opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, waste disposal, building and transport.

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AU, NEPAD urge implementation of SUN

Stakeholders involved in the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) across the continent have been urged by the African Union and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to assist in the management and implementation of SUN policies, reports GNA.

This call was contained in a joint statement by the duo to the UN General Assembly on Africa Food and Nutrition Security recently.

According to the statement, AU recognized the huge problems of hunger, poverty, food and food insecurity with its result in malnutrition affecting mostly children and women.
They also noted that the success of SUN and related initiatives in Africa depend on capacity building and the effective usage of structures and policies within the continent.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the launch of SUN in September 2010 was acknowledged in the statement, while appreciating the global initiative meant to address the problems. Read more

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‘No Agriculture, no deal’ goes to COP-17

The Chief Executive Officer of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), Ms Lindiwe Sibanda has urged African negotiators to ensure that they secure a deal for agriculture at the forthcoming 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) billed for Durban, South Africa next month.

According to Lindiwe, a deal that would promote food security so as to ensure that climate change does not bring any further devastation to the continent, reports SA.

If they should fail to make a deal at during the COP 17, Sibanda noted that the meeting to be held in Durban between November 28 and October 9, then the civic society would rise against it as any deal that does not have agriculture as a stand-alone sector betrays the farming sector and anybody that needs food to survive.

Lindiwe affirmed that the “No Agriculture, no deal” campaign is being put in place by FANRPAN not for protest but to ensure that African negotiators going for the COP 17 come out of the conference with a responsible deal about climate change that affects agriculture. Read more

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World Bank increases support for Africa's worst drought

With countries in the Horn of African facing the worst drought in decades, the World Bank would increase the aid going to this region by over $500 million to $1.88 billion, an estimated N284.4 billion.

This gesture assistance also coincides with the UN mini-summit to the affected region, reports CNN.

A source from the Bank Head on Saturday said the worst famine in African has caused malnutrition, food insecurity and people's displacement.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General also said 13 million Africans from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti were in dare need of help.

While describing the drought in the Horn of Africa as the "worst humanitarian crisis in the world", Ban Ki-Moon said additional $700 million about N110.6billion is needed this year to assist the region. Read more

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China donates grains to Africa worth N11.7bn

The Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, has concluded plans to donate emergency grains and fund wotrth N11.7bn to assist Africa, reiterating the Chinese resolve to continuously contribute to the food security in African countries in partnership with other international communities, reports GlobalTimes.

He made these known in an address at the Ministerial Mini-Summit on the Humanitarian Response to the Horn of Africa at the United Nations General Assembly's 66th Session on Saturday, noting that the drought and famine in Northern Africa is a great concern to the Chinese government.

According to him, the Chinese government woud give emergency grains' aid and monetary donations worth $70million about N11.07billion to the affected African region.

"It is the largest amount of grain assistance in Chinese foreign aid since the founding of the New China" Yang said. Read More

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ECOWAS trains 358 more youths on agriculture

As part of the efforts by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS') to build-up human capacity the sub-region, the community has concluded training of about 71 youths on agriculture.

The latest training brings the figure of beneficiaries to 358 youths who have so far participated in the previous editions of the programme, just as 287 had earlier benefited.

This, ECOWAS said would encourage and empower youths for self reliance, reports StarAfrica.

Director for the ECOWAS centre, Mr. Francis Chuks Njoaguani confirmed this, saying the programme is aimed at enabling youths to contribute to the regional food security started five years ago.

He noted that already some 287 youths have participated in the previous editions of the programme.

He said that the latest training was organized by ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the training programme which was held at the Songhai Centre in Porto Novo, Benin run for a month and covered various production aspects of agriculture.

He urged the participants at the end of the programme to optimize the benefit of the training so as to realize a future of their dream. Read more.

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Biosafety: Gates Foundation supports NEPAD with N236.9m grant

The African Union's NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency would soon receive a grant of $1,489,098, about N236.9 million in support of the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) that is in progress by January 2012.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that assisting Africa is the major goal of ABNE in the effort to build a functional biosafety system for sustainable and safe application of agricultural biotechnology.

The achievement of this objective, it was also gathered by NaijaAgroNet, to be achieved through the empowerment of African regulators with science-based biosafety information, training and education, in addition to technical assistance and biosafety capacity building programmes.

The fund, NEPAD officials said, is granted following the submission of a proposal to the foundation for supplementary grant in order to expand the support to African regulators with more staff and to also align with the African Union (AU) remuneration policies.

NEPAD further revealed that the grant would be accessible by January 2012.

The grant from Bill Gates foundation made the total grant awarded for the Phase II to be $11,929,537 which is about N1.9 billion.

NaijaAgroNet equally gathered that the grant is important to bridge financial shortfalls in meeting programmatic activities and to ensure ABNE delivers on its objectives as revealed in the grant proposal.

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