Invest in yam research and development-IITA

        

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The first ever global yam conference kicked off in Accra, Ghana with a call for an increased funding for yam research and development in order to help unlock the potential of the crop and enhance food security in Africa.

Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga said that what is needed to unlock the crop’s full potential is the political will by sustaining and enhancing funding support for yam research and development.

Sanginga commended the government of Japan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) for supporting IITA on yam research and called on researchers to develop a vision for the crop.

NaijaAgroNet gathered from the researchers that yam known as the ‘king of crops’ has high cultural value especially in traditional marriages in Africa and has contributed to incomes and food security, but under-researched due to low funding,

The Executive Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Dr Yemi Akinbamijo noted that in spite of the contribution to food security and incomes, African crops such as yam have not commanded the attention they deserved, and have as a result remained underutilized.

The IITA Director for Western Africa, Dr Robert Asiedu  and the Convener of the Global Conference on Yam said that the event provided a platform for consultation and development of a global strategy for improving the yam sector based on genetic enhancement; crop protection and mitigation of risks due to pests, diseases and climate change; conservation of genetic resources; prevention of postharvest losses; improved seed systems; crop diversification; and enhancing industrial potential of yam and improved market access.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that the Global Conference on Yams provides a platform for stakeholders to explore recent innovations in yam improvement, share lessons learned, identify research and development needs, and develop global alliances.

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Nigeria, first African country to develop e-wallet -Minister

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has said that Nigeria is the first country in Africa to develop the e-wallet for input delivery to farmers which in turn generated  a total savings of N25 million in 2012 for the  federal government.

Adesina disclosed this at the second EU-Nigeria Business Forum that was held in Lagos, and explained the government was losing about N26.3 million annually to corruption before the introduction of the e-wallet scheme for distribution of fertilisers and seedlings to farmers.

NaijaAgro Net recalls from the minister that the federal government decided to reach farmers directly using mobile phones, which allow it to send farmers electronic vouchers to buy seeds and fertilisers, created the first national data base for farmers with identity cards and biometric information which allows the ministry to give their information to banks to open up the financial space.

"There is no reason why Nigeria is not self-sufficient in many of its food products and our goals are to achieve 20 million metric tonnes of domestic food supply by 2015, to create jobs and of course to create wealth,” Adesina said.

The Chairman of the EU-Nigerian Business forum, Mr. Andre Ronne described the forum as an exchange platform  to consolidate, leverage, improve, harness and deepen economic and business relations and opportunities that between Nigeria and EU member states.

The Trade Counselor for the EU trade delegation, Mr. Massimo De Luca said the Nigerian market was important to the region as conference was expected to create the enabler for viable engagements that will boost good services, quality products and effective operations within the country and EU members’ states.

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pix: Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

CFS tasks governments on people’s right to food

 Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Committee on Food Security (CFS) has called on governments around the world to put people’s right to food before short term commercial interests, especially the biofuel policies.

The Oxfam food and agriculture advisor, Luca Chinotti made this statement before the opening of the Committee on Food Security's annual meeting in Rome, today while explaining that governments should ensure that biofuel policies do not force poor farmers off their land and fuel food price spikes.

NaijaAgroNet recalls from Chinotti that the CFS meeting is the first United Nation (UN) forum to discuss the issue of biofuels in depth with the aim to agreeing to collective action to ensure that policies, operations and investments in biofuels do not lead to land-grabs and food prices spikes.

It also gathered that the UN's Food and Agricultural Organizations ministerial meeting is taking place during the CFS that runs from 7 through 11 October as the meeting is viewed as an opportunity for governments to show leadership and commitment to phase out support for biofuels that have negative impacts on people's food security and livelihoods.

It is estimated that by 2020, the European Union's biofuel policies alone could push up vegetable oil prices by up to 36 percent, maize by up to 22 percent and sugar by up to 21 percent, while land used to power European cars with biofuels for one year could produce enough wheat and maize to feed 127 million people.

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COSATU backs DTI tariff increase on imported chickens

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has commended the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) decision to increase tariffs on selected chicken imports.

The Union revealed that the tariffs are important to guarantee jobs and food security as the poultry industry directly employs 48 000 employees with another 60 000 indirectly employed in supporting the sectors.

NaijaAgroNet discovered that South Africa is increasing the tariff to ensure that jobs are sustained since it does not depend on imports for basic necessities such as chickens and would not allow imported products to be sold at lower prices than local chickens.

 “A protected market for local producers should be accompanied by conditions, including creation of decent jobs and the five companies have claimed that 11 995 direct jobs and 14 892 indirect jobs are likely to be created when tariffs are imposed to their maximum rates of 82 percent.

“We should eat what we produce and should encourage production- and not consumption-led growth. By supporting producers the government is supporting creation of jobs on a sustainable basis. Most imported products are imported at lower prices in order to reduce the tax on imports and to destroy local industries. 

Once the imported products have obtained a significant market share they would start to raise prices,” COSATU said.

Prior to this determination, NaijaAgroNet learnt there was a dispute between importers and producers and  COSATU commended the Minister in choosing the side of the producers, as required by South Africa`s industrial policy framework.

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IFRC, AfDB sign MOU on food security, disaster risk reduction

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Tunis aimed at providing assistance to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in Africa.

The MoU between the two organizations, NaijaAgroNet was informed, specifically outlines several areas of potential collaboration, including climate change, health care, food security, disaster risk reduction, youth development, and water and sanitation.

The IFRC Secretary General, Bekele Geleta, said that with drought currently affecting parts of southern Africa and many people in the Sahel region coping with flooding, it is imperative that they form strategic partnerships with local actors to help address recurring challenges.

Referring to the successful outcomes of the recent African Development Fund (ADF) negotiations in Paris, African Development Bank Group President Donald Kaberuka highlighted the Bank’s commitment to fragile states and stressed the need for greater urgency to address food insecurity and flooding that affects millions of people across the continent.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the IFRC is the world’s largest volunteer-based humanitarian network, reaching 150 million people each year through its 187 member national societies, while the AfDB is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its 54 regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction.

*With additional report from African Press Organization

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BOA boosts Sokoto cassava farmers with N1.44bn

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

The Sokoto State Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Arzika Tureta has disclosed the disbursement of N1.44 billion loan by the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) to cassava farmers in the state.

Tureta gave this hint to NaijaAgroNet stating that the beneficiaries of the loan comprised of 7,000 farmers registered under the umbrella of the Cassava Growers Association of Nigeria (CGAN) drawn from the 23 local government areas of the state.

The Commissioner also said that the state government had already paid N178.5 million as its equity contribution for the loans scheme.

 "Out of the amount, N35 million was paid for the registration of the cassava farmers, who will benefit from the loan," Tureta said.

He explained that the ministry had set up a committee to ensure that the beneficiaries were genuine farmers from the state, stressing that the loan would boost food security, curb youth’s restiveness, reduce poverty, as well as unemployment, among others.

Tureta, therefore, urged the beneficiaries to use the money for the purpose it was meant for in order to sustain the objectives of the scheme. 

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CABI says 40% food lost to diseases annually, establishes plant clinics

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

United Kindgom-based Center for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) has said that despite the advances made in science and technology, crop disease continues to plague farmers everywhere as 40 per cent of the food grown worldwide is lost to pests and diseases before it could be consumed. 

This postulation was made by CABI while trying to change the trend through a crop protection programme called Plantwise, maintaining, there are about 90 of these clinics in Uganda, while this year donors spent $290,000 about N46, 907,501.64 training plant doctors and expanding the system in the country.

                                                  

NaijaAgroNet learnt from CABI that it has trained nearly a thousand plant doctors in 24 countries, including one near Kampala, Uganda since 2010  and set up Plantwise clinics in 12 African countries - nine in East Africa and  three in West Africa.

One of the trained plant Doctors, according to a press statement from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Daniel Lyazi on arrival in Mukono, a village about 15 kilometers from Kampala to set up a clinic discovered that there is no remedy for the diseased plant samples that people bring to the clinic while the farmers have been using the wrong insecticide.

“I’m recommending the use of another insecticide called Fenkill, and in another planting season they should plant with onions. Onions can repel the caterpillar and so they can get income,” he said.
 

The head of a local farmers’ group, Erifazi Mayanja, said that they are really benefiting from the twice-a-month clinic, which started last year as Lyazi’s recommendations may save the next season’s crop by inter-planting onions between the rows of cabbages as an additional protection measure.

The Coordinator the Plantwise program in Uganda and Zambia, Joseph Mulema opined that plant clinics are far more effective model for getting advice to farmers than the traditional one where agricultural extension workers, in theory, visit farms. 

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World agriculture ministers to brainstorm on international food prices

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

 Agriculture Ministers from around the world would Monday, 7 October assemble at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome for the second ministerial meeting to brainstorm on international food prices.

NaijaAgroNet gathered from a news briefing hosted by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silvawith that some 40 ministers and deputy ministers have confirmed their participation in the forum that is meant to pool knowledge on how to enhance the effectiveness of measures to address food security problems caused by international food price volatility.

It will recalled that the first meeting on food price volatility was held in October 2012 in response to the third spike in international grain prices in five year, although prices of cereals and oilseeds on international markets have fallen from the peaks reached in July 2012, they remain high and there are concerns that markets continue to be vulnerable to supply shocks.

“The event will be held on the first day of the 40th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), even though  the ministerial meeting is not part of CFS, it will allow CFS delegates to follow the proceedings,” he said.

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Mahama advocates roots, tubers solution to end food insecurity

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama has advocated the use of roots and tubers to alleviate poverty and end food insecurity in the rural Africa.

Mahama who was represented by Ghana Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology Innovation, Mohammed Alfa,  gave the charge at the 12^th symposium organized by the International Society for Tropical Root Crops-Africa Branch (ISTRC-AB) in Accra, Ghana and stressed that root and tuber crops such as sweet potato, cassava, potato(Irish) Andean roots and tubers, yams and aroids provide great opportunities for long term poverty alleviation and food security, more than any staple food produced in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions.

NaijaAgroNet learnt from the President that the growth rate of the population in Sub-Sahara Africa which was put at 2.4 per cent as compared to 1.3 per cent in non African countries had brought pressure on farmers to produce food at affordable prices.

He explained that even though root crops were vital for both food security and income generation, especially, for poor rural farmers and women, and often grown on marginal lands, production was mainly for home consumption and the local market.

NaijaAgroNet noted the submission of President Mahama when he said that efforts by the private sector to commercialise these crops had been minimal and ineffective and added that “the challenge had been how to commercialise and improve the competiveness of root and tuber crop products in the markets, whilst safeguarding the interest of women and small-holder farmers who derived significant incomes through the production and processing of thes,e crops.

The ISTRC-AB President, Dr Nzola Mahungu, who is also the Country Representative for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in DR Congo said, “Root and tuber crops play an important role in ensuring food security in Africa, and we must tap the opportunities of these crops.” 

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pix:Ghana President, John Dramani Mahama

CTA boss commends CAADP, seeks alliance for smallholder farmers

Remmy Nweke/NaijaAgroNet:

The Director, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Mr Michael Hailu, has commended the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), just as he seeks collaboration to uplift the small holder farmers.

Hailu in his remarks as gathered by NaijaAgroNet at the Brussels Development Briefing in Belgium, which focused on 10 years of CAADP, reiterated the fact that by adopting CAADP 10 years ago, African Heads of State had put agriculture at the centre of the development agenda.

The CTA boss also emphasised that CTA and NEPAD's collaboration in a number of areas that include support for smallholder farmers, will lead to positive results in growing agriculture as a key driver for broad-based social and economic growth.

In addition, Mr Steve Wiggins from the Overseas Development Institute maintained that food production in Africa is not as bad as it is made out to be. Mr Wiggins highlighted the example of agricultural growth in West Africa, at an average of 4 per cent a year in the last thirty years as surpassing a number of regions in the world, including some parts of Asia and South America.

Mr Ousmane Badiane, Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institute, concluded his presentation by maintaining that, "Agricultural growth is not just growth in the sector alone, but also results in economic growth."  Some of the other conclusions of the Briefing in Brussels included the need to create an enabling environment for investment and innovation; and investing in rural public goods, amongst others.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the 33rd Brussels Briefing was hosted by CTA, the European Commission, the African, Carribean and Pacific Group of States Secretariat and Concord in partnership with NEPAD, consisted of policy deliberations that also brought out proven successes and best practices in African agriculture.

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