WFP to feed people of South Sudan in 2012

Following the drought threatening the continent of Africa, the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) has made a commitment to feed the people of South Sudan, newest nation in 2012, reports Mongabay.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that with the year's drought in Somalia killing about 300, 000 children, and the ongoing drought and conflict in South Sudan that threatens food supplies of 2.7million people, the WFP promised to feed the nation in 2012.

Chris Nikoi, the WFP director in South Sudan confirmed that prices of food has already doubled or tripled in some areas of the country with hundreds of thousands children prone to malnutrition at a key developmental stage of their young lives.

The United Nations WFP also noted that the newest nation will require emergency funds of about $100million, about N16.22billion for food services for the first four months of 2012.

Despite the WFP's efforts to feed the people of South Sudan, Lack of infrastructure and land mines are part of the travelling challenges being faced by the WFP team. Read more
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Africa vulnerable to global warming - UNIDO

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has warned that African continent is vulnerable to global warming, reports ThisDay.

Director General of UNIDO, Dr. Kandeh Yumkell, gave this warning at the 10th anniversary of the Bank of Industry (BoI) held recently, saying that Africa is more vulnerable to the side effects of global warming.

"Climate change is one of the biggest long-term risks to global development," he said, even as he identified climate change as the biggest environmental and humanitarian crisis of all time.

Dr. Yumkella said there is need to act as soon as possible in order to encourage the adoption of cleaner energy sources at home and abroad.

He also affirmed that solving global warming will go a long way in improving the lives by cleaning up air pollution while investing in clean energy, green jobs and smart energy solutions.

“The increase in population is alarming and we need to as a matter of urgency develop ways to boost food security in the continent to meet the demand for food,” he said. Read more

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IFAD votes N243.3bn to fight food insecurity in developing nations

The International Food for Agricultural Development's (IFAD) member states ended its meeting in Rome for Consultations on the Ninth Replenishment of the Fund's resources by voting the sum of US$1.5 billion about N243.3 billion, a contribution to food security in developing countries.

NaijaAgroNet gathered through a press statement revealed that the new funds, which is 25 per cent more than IFAD's Eighth Replenishment is meant to finance agriculture and rural development projects across the developing world.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that every three years, IFAD member states replenish resources provided by the organisation as loans and grants to developing countries.

The fund also leverages members’ contributions to mobilize much higher amounts of grants through project co-financing with national governments, international donors and private sector.

Almost 2 billion rural dwellers depends on 500 million smallholder farms in developing nations for their livelihoods, hence the injection of new funds from member states is a confirmation of IFAD's important role in international development architecture; an effective organization delivering results in the area of food and income security, especially for the poorest people.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that between 40 and 50 per cent of the new funds will be channeled to the Sub-Saharan Africa for development projects.

IFAD President, Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze said "This significant support from IFAD's member states, especially during these challenging global economic times, demonstrate extraordinary resolve and political will to give agriculture a major boost and help the world's small farmers find their way out of poverty."

He also pointed out that a replenishment cementing IFAD's unique status is the echoing of the spirit of global development partnership that emerged from the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Republic of Korea, early December this year.

IFAD, he said, has members from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC),  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) among other developed world; playing an active role in the Fund's governance.

NaijaAgroNet found out that all these partners contributed to the upward trend of the IFAD-9 pledges.

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Land acquisition, a threat to Tanzanian small-scale farmers - Sungusia

Tanzanian land experts have said that land acquisition by foreigners in the country is a threat to small scale farmers, reports IPPMedia.

A research on laws and policy about land and investment in Tanzania, according to a lawyer, Guardian Harold Sungusia, confirmed that most of the laws and policies do not have adequate safeguards to protect the ordinary citizens from land grabbing.

"The legal framework in Tanzania is unduly favouring investors to the detriment of citizens," he said, noting that the current investment on land would not assure Tanzania of food security unless strict measures are taken.

As said by him, only through changing laws and policies would local people benefit from the investments that it should go along with empowering local communities to be able to invest in various sectors.

He warned that failure to create an equitable balance between people's interests vis-a-vis those of investors, Sunguisia insisted that a manifestation of this is in the exclusion of the public from decision making, unfair and inadequate compensation with low level of public knowledge on land issues and contracts.

He also affirmed that it will be a violation of the laws safeguarding land rights among many others. Read more

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Study warns large land deals impoverishes the poor

The latest study released by the International Land Coalition (ILC) has warned that large land deals is known to have consistently threatened the poor further, according to the Secretariat Director, Dr Madiodio Niasse.

The International Land Coalition membership includes United Nations (UN) agencies, International Financial Institutions, research institutes, and civil society and farmers’ organisations.

He said that the study outlined some key failures of governance which harm the rural poor in developing nations including the fact that national elites play a much larger role in land acquisitions than has been noted to date by media reports that have focused on foreign investors.

Equally, he noted that food was not the main focus of the land deals following revelations that out of the 71 million hectares in deals that the study could cross-reference, 22 per cent was for mining, tourism, industry and forestry and three-quarters of the remaining 78 per cent for agricultural production was for biofuels.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the study revealed that while large land deals could create opportunities, they are more likely to cause problems for the poorest members of society, who often lose access to land and resources that are essential to their livelihoods.

The lead author of the study, Ward Anseeuw of the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) was quoted as saying that under current conditions, large-scale land deals threaten the rights and livelihoods of poor rural communities and especially women.

The study went on to stated that of large land acquisitions in developing countries to date published online on 14 December by ILC, more evidences of harm than benefits were discovered.

He pointed out that the over 40 organisations collaboration on the Global Commercial Pressures on Land Research Project, which synthesised 28 case studies, thematic studies and regional overviews gave credence to this report.

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5 banks reiterate commitment against global warming

With the end of the Conference of the Parties (COP-17) in Durban, South Africa five Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), who lend some $8.4 billion annually for climate action in cities, joined force to further combat global warming.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the aim was to better coordinate and deepen support to cities in adapting to and mitigating climate change.

These banks include the African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (AsDB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Inter-Am.erican Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank, even as they agreed to work more closely to develop common tools and metrics for cities.

NaijaAgroNet was also informed that these five MDBs would develop a common approach for cities to assess climate risk, standardize greenhouse gas emissions inventories, and encourage a consistent suite of climate finance options.

A press statement confirming this development to NaijaAgroNet quoted the Director of the African Development Bank’s Energy, Environment & Climate Change Department, Hela Cheikhrouhou as saying that considering the rates of urbanization in Africa, which is the highest in the world, this is a timely initiative and is aligned with the Bank Group’s recently approved Urban Development Strategy.

For the Deputy Director General, Regional and Sustainable Development Department at ADB, Woochong Um,  "ADB is working with multilateral development banks through the Climate Investment Funds and other avenues to mobilize the public and private sector financing needed by developing Asia and the Pacific to support climate change."

Equally for the Director, Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD), Jean-Patrick Marquet, the sustainability and climate change challenges for cities could be managed with a multi-faceted approach involving active stakeholders’ participation in pursuit of both environmental benefits and transition objectives.

In addition, the Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Chief at the IDB, Mr. Walter Vergara, pointed out that this is an effort to disseminate best practices on an issue of global importance and where south-south cooperation aided by multilateral banks could really make a difference.

World Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development, Ms Rachel Kyte, stated that while cities account for over two-thirds of global energy consumption and an estimated 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, they are also crucibles of innovation as cities are critical in the fight to tackle climate change.

“With this new partnership, the development banks will be able to better leverage city-level leadership on climate change mitigation and adaptation across the world,” she said.

Further, it was gathered that many cities around the world are already responding to the challenges of climate change. Just as they are increasingly acting in concert and learning from one another, regionally, and through national as well international networks such as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, United Cities and Local Governments, the EU’s Covenant of Mayors, and the World Mayors Council on Climate Change.

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NaijaAgroNet emerges finalist @ Ardyis Award 2011

NaijaAgroNet, an international award-winning online publication of DigitalSENSE Africa Media has emerged finalist at the Ardyis Project Award known as the Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloCo Awards).

Confirming this, the Executive Director, Operations at DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA) Media, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke said that NaijaAgroNet’s emergence was within the West African region and in the institutional blogs category.

She explained that what is now left is for comments from readers of the blog at http://ardyis.cta.int/yobloco/?page_id=239 before 31^st December, 2011.

Mrs. Nweke also urged Nigerians and especially visitors and readers of NaijaAgroNet to be part of this progress by commenting on the above web link.

Official of the Netherlands-based Centre for Technical Agriculture (CTA) the organizers of the away in collaboration with African Union (AU) had informed that one of the aims of the competition is to put into limelight issues, successes and challenges faced by youth engage in agriculture and urban and rural areas, and the promotion of the sharing of information on issues of agriculture and rural development in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Noteworthy is that the last edition of Highway Africa conference which held in the city of Cape Town, South Africa, saw Nigeria winning the first runner up by NaijaAgroNet, an initiative of DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA) Media.

DSA was honoured for the innovative use of new media for corporate category at this year's Highway Africa New Media Award, which held International Conference Centre, Cape Town.

The prize was presented to the Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa Media, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke by the Honourable Minister of Information, Nigeria, Mr. Labaran Maku in the company of the Vice Chancellor of Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Dr. Saleem Badat and Group Executive Director, Telkom, Mrs. Brenda Kali among others.

Maku also commended the management of DSA for the initiative and invited more Nigerians to emulate such step to sustain the tempo of good image for the nation.

Speaking after receiving the award, the Executive Director, Operations, DSA, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, expressed gratitude to God Almighty for his mercies, especially considering the fact that NaijaAgroNet was an initiative that berthed a few months ago.

This award, she said, indicates there is a brighter future for online revolution in the most populous nation on the continent and the world generally with focus on agro business and sustainable development of the environment.

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