CAADP 9th kicks off in Addis Ababa on Monday

The African Union Commission (AUC) Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Rhoda Peace Tumusiime alongside the Chief Executive Officer,  NEPAD Agency,  Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, are billed to grace the 9th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform.

The two-day meeting scheduled for African Union Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, NaijaAgroNet gathered would hold between Monday 25 and Tuesday 26, 2013, with the theme “Sustaining the CAADP Momentum - from Decisions and Commitments to Implementation for Results and Impact.”

The continental annual forum which brings together stakeholders in African agriculture, would be graced by President of Benin, H.E Boni Yayi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, H.E Hailemariam Desalegn  and  AUC Chairperson, H.E Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Also expected in attendance would be High level African Leadership, Regional Economic Communities, government ministries, farmers’ organizations, the private sector, civil society, development partners, donor communities, the African Union Commission, and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development stakeholders involved in agricultural development.

NaijaAgroNet recollects that the CAADP PP is a programme that facilitates practitioners, especially country level players and other stakeholders to share and learn lessons.

In addition, the 9th CAADP PP would build on the discussions and outcomes of the 8th CAADP PP but with more focused attention on implementation, results and impact.

This year’s theme NaijaAgroNet learnt is within the broader CAADP framework of eliminating hunger, job creation and reducing poverty through agriculture.

The theme on “Sustaining the CAADP momentum” according to the organizers, is aimed directly at renewing the thrust of CAADP by providing a clearer perspective and the overall role of agriculture in the economic transformation of the continent.

 It will particularly aim to examine achievements and successes during the past 10 years of CAADP in order to achieve CAADP objectives. The 9th CAADP PP will take into account  the creation of a platform for “CAADP at 10”, which will provide an opportunity to reflect on drawbacks in order to impress a new thinking and visioning on how to transition the CAADP agenda into the next decade. 

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Green Climate Fund Board meets in Berlin, searches for innovative solutions

The 24-member board at a recent meeting.

As the three-day meeting of the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) takes off in Berlin, Germany, today, how to finance innovative solutions tops the agenda at the third session of GCF.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the meeting would last between March Tuesday 12 and Friday 15, 2013. Noting that the Green Climate Fund was established by the United Nations Climate Change Convention to channel support to the developing world to address climate change.

Also gathered by NaijaAgroNet was that the Green Climate Fund is expected to be one of a range of funding channels to deliver on the long-term goal to mobilize US$ 100 billion, about N158,249 billion per annum in climate finance by 2020 from a range of sources, both public and private.

According to a Press Advisory, the Fund’s board, equally composed of representatives of developed and developing countries, is currently in its start-up phase and is focusing its work on establishing the systems and policies to manage financial flows in order to have a global impact on climate change.
 

Co-chair of Green Climate Fund Board, Zaheer Fakir, said they need to put systems in place, robust enough to handle a significant flow of climate funding and flexible enough to ensure that these funds are spent effectively on adaptation and mitigation throughout the developing world.

‘The challenge is to get the Fund up and running as soon as possible with the institutional
structures, policies, and safeguards to target funding based on country owned strategies,” he said.

Equally speaking, the Co-Chair of GCF, Mr. Ewen McDonald, pointed out that the impact of climate change in developing countries could limit or even reverse their growth.

“The Fund needs to be innovative to help developing countries undertake action to move their economies onto climate-resilient and low-emission development pathways. A key part of this will be the Fund’s ability to leverage significant funding from both public and private sources. Discussions in Berlin around the design of the Private Sector Facility will be critical in this regard.” McDonald said.
 
Alongside discussions on a business model framework, the three-day Board meeting is also expected to advance the plans to establish the Fund within its host city of Songdo, Incheon City, Republic of Korea, as well as adopting additional rules of procedure for the Board, and begin discussing how best to mobilize resources for the Fund.



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Nigerian Adesina is guest speaker @ 30th Brussels Development Briefing

Dr. Adesina, Nigerian Agric Minister

The Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, would today address the 30th Brussels Development Briefings in Belgium, NaijaAgroNet can authoritatively reveal.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), in conjunction with the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group, Concord and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) are the organisers of the 30^th Brussels Development Briefings, which holds today, 4 March 2013.

The briefing under the theme, “Agricultural Resilience in the Face of Crises and Shocks” is expected to attract some 200 ACP-EU policy makers, representatives of EU Member States, civil society groups, researchers, development practitioners and media.

Confirming this, CTA  Director, Mr. Michael Hailu says that since its inception in 2007, the Brussels Development Briefing has been the premier event for sharing and debating up-to-date information on critical issues relating to food security and agricultural development in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

“It has also offered an excellent networking opportunity for development partners in Brussels. The session on agricultural resilience marks the 30^th edition of this highly successful programme that CTA is proud to host on behalf its partners,” he said.

As disclosed by him, Nigerian Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, is the chief guest of this edition of the briefing and would give a keynote address on conducive policies in support of resilience.

Other speakers expected at the briefing, he said, would address key challenges to strengthening resilience, cutting across the capacity of agriculture to withstand or recover from stresses and shocks and bounce back to the previous level of growth.

Hailu stressed that experts would present proven successes on building resilience and decreasing the vulnerability of agricultural systems in the ACP region.

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FG to establish 774 agro ‘one-stop-shops’ by 2015, commissions Iseyin centre

The Federal Government has concluded plans to establish an agro ‘one-stop-shop’ centre in all 774 Local Governments (LGs) in the country by the year 2015, with the first phased commissioned at the weekend in Iseyin LG, Oyo State.

(L - R) Prince Fehintola Oyelade, Chairman, All Farmers' Association, Iseyin LGA,   

Mrs. Areola Aderibigbe, Association of Women Farmers of Nigeria (AWFAN), 

Oyo East, Princess Ayobami Temilade, State Secretary of AWFAN, Oyo State.

Disclosing this to NaijaAgroNet, at the official commissioning of the Iseyin centre, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, said these centres will be constructed by the federal government for the purpose of ensuring the availability, accessibility and affordability of agricultural inputs such as fertiliser, agro-chemicals, quality seeds, livestock feeds, veterinary drugs, tractor hiring, primary processing and extension services and to serve as access warehouse facility for inputs for farmers.

She also said that the task of making food available, affordable and accessible to all Nigerians through promotion of food security programmes has been the major focus of the federal government in pursuance of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

She said her ministry is very mindful of the serious impediment of inaccessibility of good quality agricultural inputs such as fertiliser, agro-chemicals, seeds and seedlings, livestock feeds, veterinary drugs, tractor hiring, primary processing and extension services by farmers in a bid to maximising aggregate production output for the nation.

This impediment as well as the federal government’s intention to withdraw from direct procurement and distribution of all agricultural inputs, she said, informed the decision of the ministry to establish at least one ‘one-stop-shop’ agro-input centre in each of the local government areas in the federation by the year 2015.

These centres, Mrs. Odusote said are established as part of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda in the agro-input sub-sector to strengthen the food security programme of the federal government.

“They are aimed at providing market information services, promote private sector investment in viable commercial agriculture and enhance food security,” she said.

Each of the centres, she revealed, has facilities for about 500 tonnage storage capacity for fertilisers, seeds and agro-chemicals as well as provides tractor hiring, primary processing and extension support services. The centre will also enhance the activities of the Growth Enhancement Supports (GES) programme of the federal government to a large extent.

“The first phase of 62 one-stop-shop agro-input centres was awarded in October 2010 for execution nationwide while the second phase of 18 was awarded in December 2011,” she disclosed.

She noted that three of these centres were being established at various locations in Oyo State, namely each at Iseyin, Fasola and Ago Amodu, in Iseyin, Oyo West and Saki East LGAs.

“The projects, after completion, are envisaged to be concessioned to private sector operators, through approved concessioning process in accordance with federal government Concessioning Act,” she said.

Presently, the Perm Sec pointed out that most of the centres in the first phase have been completed and ready for commissioning and utilisation.

“Within the constraint of time, one representative centre per geo-political zone of the country has been selected for official commissioning,” she said, emphasizing that the Iseyin commissioning symbolises inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, chemicals and tractors with attachable implements will be available for sale and hiring respectively.

“With the sales of these inputs, it is hoped that the productivity of the potential beneficiaries will be boosted,” she said.

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