FAO says world hunger down, but not enough to reach goals

 

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

 The United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said that the number of hungry people in the world is slightly down but not enough to meet development goals.

This is the summation of a new United Nations report sighted by NaijaAgroNet, which explained that one in eight people worldwide or 842 million, suffers from chronic hunger which marks a decrease from last year’s estimate of 868 million and down from 17 per cent from the early 1990’s.

The report noted that what is on the ground is not low enough to reach the goal world leaders set of reducing the proportion of hungry people in developing nations by half by 2015.

“This goal is close and has been reached in many countries. The target for all developing regions is 12 percent undernourishment by 2015. At the current pace, a figure of 13 percent will be achieved instead. The final percentage point will be the toughest,” said FAO statistician and study author, Piero Conforti.

Conforti said that in sub-Saharan Africa or in Western Asia  are more than one country that is really not showing much progress and stressed that it is difficult to tackle those situations where food insecurity is very high.

Conforti pointed out that investments in agriculture and in small-scale agriculture in particular, can make the biggest impact on hunger and poverty reduction.

The FAO report says hunger is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where progress has been modest. Improvement has been slow in Southern Asia and Northern Africa, and non-existent in Western Asia. Latin America and Eastern and South eastern Asia have seen the most progress

"In the countries where you see food security being really mainstreamed among economic policies and where you see real commitment from government, that is where you see results," the FAO statistician and study author added.

Conforti said the recent economic downturn and food price spikes in recent years had a smaller than expected impact on global hunger, as farmers responded to higher prices by increasing production.

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Pix: Malnourished persons

Oyo, Canadian firm signs N209.8bn MOU on mechanised agric

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Oyo State government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth $1.3 billion about N209.8 billion with a Canadian agricultural company for the development of the state agricultural sector towards the production of tomatoes, vegetables, fruits, chicken as well as wind solar system.

At the signing ceremony in the state, the excited Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi explained that his trips abroad had paid off as the MOU with the Canadian company will see that the project commence in the next three months and to attain  full scale production in the next two years.

NaijaAgroNet learnt from Governor Ajimobi that the investment which would be second to none in the annals of agriculture in Africa is meant to enhance food security and also to provide job opportunity for the teeming unemployed youth in the state and beyond.

He commended the firm, SGNTT, for its commitment to the development of agriculture and for its readiness to invest in the state’s agricultural sector and noted that” The MoU is a milestone. It is a legacy that will stand the test of time. It will be second to none in terms of the opportunities available in agriculture.”

The leader of the team, Edward Ndububa  disclosed  that based on the understanding with the state government, the firm is committed to partner with it in the area of large scale mechanised agriculture,  while the project would be located in Itesiwaju and Afijio local government areas of the state

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Pix: Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi

FG cassava industrialization policy boosts production-Minister

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

Nigeria has made an in-road into the mass production of cassava for both export and domestic consumption due to the Federal Government cassava industrialization policy on agriculture.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina made this revelation to NaijaAgroNet, stressing that the country’s cassava has risen from the hitherto close to zero per cent of global trade in cassava-based products to become a money-spinner for Nigeria.

Adesina said that farmers in Nigeria have benefited from the cassava industrialization policy that saw over 24 million stem cuttings of cassava being distributed free of charge in 2012, which has now turned the country to be the largest processor of cassava in the world.

According to him, the ministry also embarked on the cassava flour substitution policy to replace some of the wheat used in making wheat in bread and confectionaries.

“Never before had cassava bread been commercialized beyond demonstrations by research institute, today several of the major corporate bakers have shifted to the incorporation of 20 per cent high quality cassava flour into production of composite flour with wheat to produce bread,” he said.

The minister noted that the cassava bread, for instance, has hit the super markets of Shop Rite, Spar Park N Shop across the country, while UTC and Butterfield continue to make strides in commercialization of cassava bread.

“To accelerate the production of high quality cassava flour, government is supporting the private sector to access cheap financing to import and establish 18 large-scale processing plants with a capacity of 72,000MT per annum to be sited in Abraka, Delta State.

“Nigeria has secured contracts to supply 3.2 million metric tonnes cassava chips to China and arrangements are underway for the Africa Export- Import Bank to provide a loan facility of $40million to cassava chip exporters. Nigeria is expected to earn over $800 million about N129.2billion from meeting the supply contracts to China,” the minister said.

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CAADP@10: 150 delegates took part in Brussels Development briefing

Remmy Nweke/NaijaAgroNet :

Over 150 delegates took part at the recently ended Brussels Development Briefing in Belgium, to evaluate the 10 years of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), NaijaAgroNet can authoritatively report.

Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the knowledge sharing centred on the context of a reflection on the achievements and lessons from 10 years of CAADP implementation with the objective to highlight lessons including issues and key drivers for transformation of African agriculture.

The NEPAD Head of CAADP, Mr. Martin Bwalya, was quoted as saying that "Agriculture is back on the development agenda and the way to keep it there is by demonstrating results."

Outlining some of the positive strides in transforming African agriculture during the last   10 years, Mr. Bwalya said these include the evident improved planning at national level; aligning public financing; coherent  common vision  and agenda on  agriculture as well as strengthening of the policy  design processes and growing attention to institutional and human  capital development.

He noted the compelling need for a transformational shift towards an “agriculture” which first-and-fore-most is motivated and driven by the urged to expand agricultural value in the creation of jobs and wealth into the national economy. Local leadership informed and engaged public, sound regional trade and market strategies are imperative components in the winning formula for agriculture transformation.

Further, he emphasised that 10 years on, 43 African countries are now focusing on investment for growth in agriculture through the CAADP process. 

"The next coming years will therefore see the positioning of 'wealth creation' as the primary driver for transformation in Africa," Bwalya expressed optimism.

Also speaking in the same panel, Mr Kalilou Sylla, Executive Secretary of the Network of Farmers  and Agriculture Producers Organisations of West Africa, insisted that 10 years is not enough time to quantify the changes brought on since the Maputo endorsement of CAADP, but CAADP nonetheless provides a clear mechanism for strategic planning in agriculture.

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USDA-ARS partners PathoGenetix on identifying food borne outbreaks

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and PathoGenetix have signed an agreement to evaluate the company’s Genome Sequence Scanning (GSS) technology for use in identifying strains of Shigatoxin-producing E. coli (STECs) and Salmonella enteric which are two types of pathogens frequently implicated in food borne outbreaks.

The Chief Executive Officer, PathoGenetix, Ann Merrifield stated this in a release sighted by NaijaAgroNet and noted that the ability to quickly and accurately identify these pathogens, particularly in their most virulent forms, can have significant public health and financial impact for consumers, farmers, ranchers,  agricultural and food industries.

 “As we work to deliver a fully automated resolution system for rapid and effective pathogen strain typing next year, we are pleased to partner with USDA-ARS to demonstrate the speed and effectiveness of the GSS technology, particularly in differentiating the most virulent pathogens that pose the greatest challenges to food safety and public health investigations,” Ann Merrifield said.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that under the agreement, USDA-ARS and PathoGenetix researchers will analyze the strains, both as isolates and in mixed cultures, using PathoGenetix’s Genome Sequence Scanning™ (GSS™) technology, currently in development for commercial use as the Resolution Microbial Genotyping System, while the  results of the joint analysis would  assist USDA-ARS in evaluation of the Resolution System as a platform for rapidly identifying pathogenic Salmonella and E. coli in food samples.

The release also confirmed that Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) and Salmonella enterica are an important U.S. public health concern, causing an estimated 1.2 million cases of food borne illness each year while six additional STEC serogroups are now considered adulterants in certain beef products.

PathoGenetix’s GSS technology it further said identifies microbial DNA from complex mixtures or from isolates, and automates the process from sample preparation through data analysis to provide actionable information in five hours.

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Japan donates urea fertilizer to Ethiopia

 Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

Japan has donated over 92,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser valued at valued at 490 million Japanese yen to Ethiopia based upon the exchange of notes signed between the two countries in December 2012 to complement Ethiopian government efforts to increase crop production.

The Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia Hiroyuki Kishino while making the donation said that Japan was pleased to play a modest role in mitigating the existing supply-demand gap of fertilizer through its Grant-in-aid Scheme, KR II.

Kishino noted from that the fertilizer would contribute to improving the people’s livelihoods and facilitate the Ethiopian efforts being carried out to achieve the agricultural targets stipulated in the GTP.

“In view of the dominant role of agriculture in the Ethiopian economy and the projected average annual growth rate for agriculture of 8.6 per cent for five years, agriculture has continued to be a priority sector in Japan's ODA policy toward Ethiopia.

“Food security, which includes agricultural and rural development as well as water supply, is one of the two main pillars of Japan's ODA policy in Ethiopia together with industrial development. Japan would continue to support smallholder farmers so that they can increase productivity in agriculture,” the Japanese ambassador said.

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Nwanze advocates farmers train on new agro-tech

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr Kanayo Nwanze has canvassed for training of farmers on agriculture technology.

He made this call during his recent working visit to IFAD-assisted Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRMP) in Asaba, Delta State, saying that training of Nigerian farmers on agro technology would avail them better chance to use fertiliser and water harvesting techniques in farming.

Nwanze lamented the role agriculture played in the history of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) which was put between 70 to 80 per cent before it nose-dived to abysmal less than 10 per cent and said that the discovery of crude oil resulted in the neglect of agriculture leading to the decline in the production of groundnut, cocoa, rice and many other crops.

NaijaAgroNet noted that CBNRMP is being implemented in the nine Niger Delta states of  Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers aimed at improving the standard of living and quality of life of or at least 400,000 poor rural households with emphasis on women and youths.

He explained that the ongoing agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government has come to restore the country’s lost glory in agriculture and urged Nigerians to embrace all aspects of agriculture because crude oil would one day finish while agriculture would continue to be renewed by nature.

In their remarks, the IFAD Country Programme Manager in Nigeria, Ms Atsuko Toda, urged the state programme officers to utilise the two-year extension of the programme to ensure the achievement of the goals of the programme, while the CBNRMP National Coordinator Jumbo-Ibeakuzie commended IFAD for cutting down the counterpart funding of the participating local governments from 40 per cent to 20 per cent, to make them more committed to the programme.

*with additional report from NAN

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USPF connects rural Nigeria to agriculture

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Ministry of Communication Technology (Commtech) has expressed its commitment on the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to really spend 80 per cent of fund to building or subsidising connectivity to the rural areas in order to boost agriculture in Nigeria.

The Minister of CommTech, Mrs Omobola Johnson gave this expose while addressing stakeholders in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Agriculture Sectors recently in Abuja and said that with the number of programs that have been conceptualised prior to the creation of the ministry, the Mobile phone Expansion BTS program is being accelerated to create the desired impact in the sectors.

According to her, the Rural Broadband Initiative (RUBI) is providing wholesale internet bandwidth to all its cyber cafes, Community Communication Centres, and ICT centres in the rural areas at a subsidised rate to ensure that people have access to internet.

“We’re not just talking about farmers here but anybody that is involved in the business of agriculture, that is farmers, traders, agro-preneurs, extension workers, policy makers, buyers among others and what we need to do to bridge that gap is to take the information that is here and transform it to a way that is relevant, convenient and useful for these stakeholders to develop their businesses.

"We’ve established an IT Innovation Fund; first venture capital fund solely focused on ICT businesses and we’ll be putting this in the seed capital in the next couple of months. But the idea of these funds is to support these entrepreneurs as we focus on agriculture in the coming months, working in partnership with United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) Programme that is looking at agriculture. They are going to be giving us ideas of the needs of this particular program and how they’re going to support and they’re also going to put some vent capital funds,” Johnson said.

NaijaAgroNet recorded that there is collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture, Trade and Investment and Ministry of Communication Technology and Finance to deliver the first online Commodities Exchange, as the Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange have been transformed into an online trading platform for commodities.

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pix: Minister of CommTech, Mrs Omobola Johnson

Djibouti, Saudi sign N807m for economic development

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The government of Djibouti and the Saudi Fund for Development has signed a $5 million, about N807 million loan agreement to support Djibouti’s economic development.

According to the statement from the Saudi government sighted by NaijaAgroNet loan is to support Djibouti in its Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and create 2,400 jobs for graduates.

The signing of the agreement was done by the Djibouti Minister of Economy and Industrial Finance, Ilyas Moussa, who signed on behalf of his country, while Yousef Bin Ibrahim al-Bassam signed for the Saudi Fund for Development.

According to the statement, a large proportion of the funds would be allocated to support women in the areas of agriculture, fishing and transport.

The Saudi Fund for Development NaijaAgroNet learnt is a Saudi government agency established by a royal decree in 1974, began operations in 1975 to channel bilateral aid to developing countries, primarily through grants and soft loans.

 President Ismail Omar, in the statement also said that the government main concern through the provision of the loans and grants is to drastically reduce unemployment among the women, youths, including the construction and rehabilitation of hospitals and health clinics, expansion of water and sanitation services

The statement also revealed that the Saudi fund has offered export credit and insurance amenities for non-crude oil national exports in Africa, to promote domestic economic diversification that contributes to development within recipient countries.

*With additional report from NAN

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Kogi focus on agriculture for transformation of state economy –Wada

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Kogi State Government has declared its commitment in focusing on agriculture to drive the state’s economy and improve the living standard of the people of the state.

The State Governor, Mr Idris Wada, disclosed his administration intention on the state agriculture sector when he played host to the delegates of the High Level Forum on South-South Cooperation (SSC) comprising representatives from 14 countries in Africa, including Nigeria as well as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Chinese officials.

NaijaAgroNet learnt from Wada, that if the ongoing Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the Federal Government is properly implemented, it would address the peace and food security issues in the country.

"We are determined to make agriculture a focus of our administration for the transformation of the economy of Kogi State and improving the living standard of the people of the state,” he said.

*With additional report from NAN

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pix: Kogi State Gov.Mr Idris Wada,