Prep-eez Tech partners World Bank on 24/7 free call e-extension

The Chief Executive Office, Prep-eez Tech Limited, Mr Kow Sam, has said the company is partnering the World Bank and the West Africa Agricultural Production Programme on piloting the e-Agriculture and extension programme, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He also revealed to NaijaAgroNet that they are up-scaling services to cover the entire Ghana in the next couple of months, covering over 11 languages and also executing similar projects in Nigeria, La Cote D'Ivoire and other West African countries.

The programme, he told NaijaAgroNet is to expand a free multi-lingual interactive voice response system and audio conferencing and free messaging services across the region.

As said by him, the service has currently attracted over 40,000 active subscribers and an average daily usage of 2,000 accessing each day on their standard mobile phone with languages, including Twi, Ga, Ewe, Nzema, Dagbani and Frafra.

"The company is also building a multi-lingual call-centre that is toll-free at the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agricultural (MoFA) resource centre," he said, stressing that this would allow direct access to information in real time from subject matter specialist as well as experts to farmers through standard phones at zero cost to the farmer.

In addition, Sam said three e-resource centres are being established in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale to help build ICT agricultural resource, where MoFA staff, extension officers, women and youth in agriculture would learn to build business plans, research and experimentation, cash flow and productivity and performance analysis for effective output.

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NENA countries pledge cooperation on hunger, nutrition

 Governments from the Near East and North Africa (NENA) has wrapped up a five-day meeting on regional food security challenges pledging enhanced cooperation to tackle the critical issues of water management, food waste and building more resilient rural communities, reports NaijAgroNet.

The communiqué made available to NaijAgroNet after the 32nd regional conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for the Near East and North Africa, endorsed three key proposals tabled during the talks.

NaijAgroNet also reports that the first was a regional strategy framework to bring countries together to improve food security and nutrition. Though at present, the number of undernourished people in the 19 countries of the Near East and North Africa remains high at nearly 43.7 million, or 10 per cent of the population.

Reducing those numbers while coping with a ongoing population growth, increasing scarcity of natural resources and climate change will require much closer inter-governmental cooperation.

The framework endorsed today calls on governments to work together to  address lagging productivity growth through increased investment in research and development; improvements to supply chain efficiencies that will reduce exposure to market volatility and other shocks; and strengthened safety nets and nutrition education programs.

The creation of strategic regional cereal reserves to help offset spikes in commodity prices is another tool considered by the framework.

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220 varsities, FAO join hands on food security in Latin America, Caribbean

Over 220 universities joined the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to expand learning opportunities and improve policies in the Latin America and the Carribbean, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This, NaijaAgroNet gathered is a sign of new educational partnership of putting knowledge into the hands of thousands of professionals working in food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that the partnership offers individuals and institutions the opportunity to gain access to a broad suite of online courses to develop their capacity to improve policies and programmes.

The initiative, NaijaAgroNet learnt will offer a new Master’s programme in Food Security, in addition to e-learning courses currently offered by FAO. Even as the programme partnership will target current and potential policymakers through a vast network of over 220 universities in the region.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that with the support of the European Union (EU), FAO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Association of Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean (UDUAL) to develop the education programme.

Hence, FAO and UDUAL will work with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to develop the curricula. Rollout of the new courses is slated for January 2015.

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Strengthen family farming, solve global agro puzzle - Sonnleitner

The United Nations (UN) Goodwill Ambassador of the International Year of Family Farming and World Farmers Organisation (WFO) Member, Mr Gerd Sonnleitner, has declared that strengthening family farming is the answer to global challenges in agriculture, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He made this known to NaijaAgroNet at the occasion of the 14^th Asian Farmers’ Group for Cooperation (AFGC), saying that as a family farmer himself, “It is a sustainable, flexible and resilient model, especially with regards to achieving food security.”

Sonnleitner said he could understand from his own experience the role family farmers play - not only for the development of domestic markets but also with regards to international trade.

“They need to be adequately supported, as the economic risk and the responsibility lie in their hands – especially through the development of policies which favour them,” he said.

The 2-day-event which ended at Saturday, March 1, 2014 was hosted by the Cooperative League of Thailand (CLT) in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that it is co-organised by the Japanese farmers’ organization JA Zenchu which provides the permanent secretariat of the AFGC, offering opportunity to exchange information and experiences and to promote cooperation amongst the participating member organizations.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that AFGC is a platform for farmers organizations was established in 1999 in Tokyo. Members are national farmer and cooperative organizations from nine countries in the Asian monsoon region (India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam). Small-scale family farming is the main model in agriculture in these countries.

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Food security: FAO highlights need for strategic cooperation *43.7m undernourished in NENA region

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has highlighted need for strategic regional cooperation in the wake of conflicts, rapid population growth and urbanization, and a heavy reliance on food imports which are posing serious challenges for food security, NaijaAgroNet reports.

A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet by officials of FAO, indicates that three countries in the region Near East and North Africa (NENA), namely the Algeria, Jordan and Kuwait; have met the hunger component of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG1) by halving the proportion of their population experiencing chronic hunger.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that region-wide, the number of undernourished people remains high at nearly 43.7 million, or 10 per cent of the population, while 24.5 per cent of children under five are stunted due to chronic under-nutrition, according to an assessment presented at the start of the organization's  regional conference at the weekend.

Experts also said that micronutrient deficiencies are common in both affluent and less affluent countries, having a number of serious consequences for school enrollment, productivity and public health.

FAO further decried that conflicts and civil strife remained the driving factor for food insecurity in the region in recent years, just as the hotspots include Iraq, Sudan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Yemen.

In Syria alone, an estimated 6.3 million people are in need of sustained food and agricultural assistance.



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Dubai hosts World Food Security Summit

Expecting was high at the commencement of the World Food Security Summit in Dubaia with hundreds of international experts and government in attendance, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking on the summit, the Minister of Water and Environment Development, who will be speaking at the summit. Dr Rashid bin Fahad, confirmed to NaijaAgroNet that

 the region is entering a new period of economic growth, underpinned by a burgeoning population with a high dependence on imported food.

“Food security is an immediate priority,” Fahad said, stressing that execution of a core food security strategy is essential to provide a sustainable growth platform.

“More and more consistently over the last six to seven years, the GCC states are trying to develop a strategic intervention on food security,” said Zahra Babar, the associate director for research at the Centre for International and Regional Studies at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.

“Globally, when institutions talk about food security, largely, they’re identifying countries where access to food is something that is difficult. The most insecure part of the world tends to be in sub-Saharan Africa so, traditionally, you don’t think of Gulf states as insecure as they have some of the highest GDPs in the world and they can easily meet their food needs.”

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