AAKNet says USD2bn flowing across Africa for environmental adaptation by 2020

NaijaAgroNet:

The Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet) has estimated USD 2 billion is flowing across the continent for adaptation through a variety of sources, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as AAKNet predicts that an estimated 15 billion United States dollars will be committed for cost of emission by year 2020.

AAKNet in a its latest issue of Africa Adaptation Newsletter made available to NaijaAgroNet, with the theme: Africa Adaptation Gap Report 2: Bridging the Gap – Mobilising Resources, noted that the first Africa Adaptation Gap Report demonstrated how delaying action would result in exponentially rising costs down the road, the second report now turns to possible solutions to respond to this urgency.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that past global emissions already commit Africa to adaptation costs of USD 7-15 billion per year by 2020.

The report, NaijaAgroNet gathered, builds on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2014 emissions gap report that showed global emission-reduction efforts are not yet at the level of what is required to put the world on track to hold global warming below 2°C.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet reports that by 2050, Africa’s adaptation costs could rise to USD 50 billion per year for a scenario holding global warming below 2°C, and up to USD 100 billion per year by 2050, if the world does not manage to turn away from the current path that could lead to more than 4°C warming by 2100.

To take a step back: this is not just a question of money, millions of people and their livelihoods are at stake. Africa’s population would be at an increasing risk of undernourishment due to increasing food demand and the detrimental effects of climate change on agriculture on the continent.

A warming of 2˚C globally, AAKNet pointed out, would put over 50 per cent of the African continent’s population at risk of undernourishment.

“Yet, right now, we are heading to 4˚C of warming,” AAKNet stated.

Further, NaijaAgroNet learnt that the report findings showed that sea level could rise by a metre above present-day levels, putting millions of people at risk of flooding in the large coastal cities across the continent.

“These are the striking impacts of climate change risk reversing Africa’s economic and development gains,” AAKNet warned.

+Naija AgroNet 
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

FAO: Sugar induces decline in food price index

 NaijaAgroNet

 

 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index has continued to decline in March by1.5 per cent from February and 18.7 percent (40 points) below its level a year earlier, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The FAO food price is a trade-weighted index that tracks prices of five major food commodity groups on international markets, namely cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that a sharp fall in the price index for sugar which reached its lowest level since February 2009 together with dipping prices for vegetable oils, cereals and meat, more than offset a rise in dairy prices and contributed to the lower index, which in March averaged 173.8 points.

The index, NaijaAgroNet gathered has been on a downward path since April 2014.

The FAO noted that the Sugar Price Index averaged 187.9 points in March, down a sharp 9.2 percent from February. Stressing this was mainly due to improved crop prospects but also the continued weakening of the Brazilian currency against the US dollar, which is supportive to exports, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

The cereal output estimate for 2014, on other hand, rose to 2 544 million tonnes mainly due to a larger than anticipated maize harvest in the European Union, which confirmed that the global cereal output in 2014 would outstrip the 2013 record by 1 per cent.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Mechanised farming solution to food insecurity says Ellen Sirleaf

NaijaAgroNet:

Mechanised farming has been identified as the solution to food insecurity in Liberia, according to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In a nation-wide address recently in Liberia and monitored by NaijaAgroNet, President Sirleaf noted that it is only through large scale mechanized farming operations and agro- industrial operations which focuses on emerging small and medium size entities is the only way Liberia can attain food security.

She observed that Liberia as an agrarian nation must increasingly shift to agriculture to ensure that the nation moves away from the old system of enclave extractive industries.

“We must aim at a higher potential for import and export diversification through stimulation of production in a select few of our traditional tree crops such as rubber, oil palm and cocoa, she said.

NaijaAgroNet also learnt that she reminded Liberians that the private sector must become the driving force of the economy with Liberia’s entrepreneurs playing their rightful role, adding, that this can only be achieved with the support of citizens by promoting and buying products made in Liberia as well as through the payment of rightful taxes.

President Sirleaf then pledged her government’s commitment in doing its part in establishing a peaceful and easy business environment by reducing the bureaucratic hurdles and at the same time ensuring that tax regimes are fair and allow businesses to expand.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
pix: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Cassava is foodstuff, industrial raw material

NaijaAgroNet:

Cassava has been identified as crucial to food security for millions of Africans, and now the shrub’s potential for industrial purposes is being considered, says a professor at the school of molecular and cell biology,Wits University South Africa. Prof. Chrissie Rey, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking on the versatility of the crop, Prof. Rey said its used in several products including flour, paper, textiles, food additives and animal feed.

"The main thrust of cassava in South Africa is for industrial purposes and the use of biotechnology to improve the crop for agro-processing," noted Prof. Rey who has been studying the shrub since the 1980s.

According to Rey,other countries on the continent have always been interested in cassava for food security but all cassava-growing countries are getting interested in its industrial potential.

Rey says herinterest on studying the plant was because its roots are a valuable source of starch. "The need for root-based starch will rise in the next 50 years. Cassava is a potentially valuable crop and the South African government is interested in exploring that potential for small-scale and commercial farmers," she says.

The crop is also used to produce bio-ethanol, which is used in small stoves instead of paraffin. The bio-ethanol produced from cassava is cleaner for the environment, she pointed out.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix: Cassava tubers

2015 Yara Prize up for grabs, USD 60,000 @stake

NaijaAgroNet:

The 2015 Yara Prize worth USD 60,000, about N11,943,000, is now up for grabs, according to the Chairman, Yara Prize Committee, Mr. Torgeir Kvidal, NaijaAgroNet reports.

A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet, by Svein Flatebø of Yara Prize Committee Secretariat, quoted Mr. Kvidal, who doubles as President & CEO of Yara International as saying that Yara Prize was established in 2005 as a direct response to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call for a green revolution in Africa in 2004. 

The Yara Prize, NaijaAgroNet reports, recognizes food and nutrition security and sustainable agricultural initiatives with a transformative power. 

“It serves as inspiration for action to scale up the African Green Revolution,” Kvidal said. 

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that the Yara Prize winner receives USD 60,000, a trophy and a diploma which will be awarded in Africa in October 2015.

Kvidal, therefore, invite nominations that deserves recognition for achievements in combating hunger and poverty as well as enhancing food security and sustainable agricultural development on the continent. 

In 2015, the Yara Prize will have a special focus on youth, women and agribusiness, hence, the prize will also consider strongly those individuals who have contributed towards catalyzing transformational change in support of an African Green Revolution.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

 

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Nigerian farmers demand compensation for loss of birds

NaijaAgroNet:

Poultry farmers in Plateau State are calling for government’s help to compensate them for the loss of birds and sales following recent avian influenza outbreaks, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Poultry farmers in Plateau State say that bird flu remains a serious threat to the nation’s economy and called on the Federal Government to tackle it, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The farmers also called on government and other relevant authorities to expedite action on the payment of compensation to those whose farms were quarantined. Alhaji Moshood Okanlawon, one of the poultry farmers, told NaijaAgroNet in Jos, Plateau State that the disease, which ravaged poultry farms recently, had resulted in unemployment.

Mr Okanlawon explained that the negative economic implications of bird flu on the nation’s economy had a wider impact on the lucrative poultry business.

Another farmer, Rebecca Okafor, NaijaAgroNet gathered said she had been into poultry farming in the last 18 years, describing it as a very “good business”. She said poultry farming has tremendous economic importance, adding that the avian influenza had destroyed the business. She explained that more than 700 of her birds were infected by the disease and her farm was quarantined.

“More than 75 crates of eggs and chickens being produced weekly had stopped and I cannot supply manure to local farmers,” she said.

Similarly, Alhaji Abdulazeez Qamarudeen said over 3,650 of his birds were infected with bird flu. He called on government to compensate farmers that were affected, saying poultry farming contributes largely to the GDP of the country due to generation of employment and business opportunities.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

2.5m Nigerians now have access to safe water in rural areas

NaijaAgroNet:

Estimated 2.3 billion Nigerians now have access to enhanced drinking water since 1990, according to the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) reports NaijaAgroNet. 

Also UNICEF said is coming as a result of the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) target of halving the percentage of the global population without access which is met in 2010. 

In the case of sanitation, nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide still do not have adequate toilets and among them, 1 billion defecate in the open. While some 70 million people without access to safe water and over 110 million people without access to improved sanitation, Nigeria is currently not on-track with regard to its attainment of Water and Sanitation targets. 

The poor bear the greatest brunt of this lack of access to water and sanitation. For women and girls, collecting water cuts into time they can spend caring for families and studying. In insecure areas, it also puts them at risk of violence and attack. UNICEF estimates that in Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking to collect water.  For children, lack of access to safe water can be tragic. On average, nearly 1,000 of them die globally every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, or poor hygiene. 

This year’s theme on World Water Day, which falls on 22^nd March, is “Water and Sustainable Development”. The theme aptly encapsulates the overarching role of water in our lives, be it for human consumption, food production, for health, for power generation, for industry and for the sustenance of nature as a whole, without which life would not exist.

This year’s theme highlights the importance of water to our existence and emphasizes the need to look at the holistic development of the water sector, reduce water wastage and prevent contamination of this increasingly scarce resources. “Everyone, be it the government, the civil society, international development partners and the citizens including children have a critical role to play in ensuring that water is sustainably used and is available for generations to come” said Kannan Nadar, Chief, Water and Sanitation, UNICEF.

UNICEF has been working with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources as well as the state governments to promote use of sustainable approaches and technologies for water abstraction and use. In the last two years nearly 2.5 million people gained access to safe water in rural areas through UNICEF support that also included funding from EU and UKAid. UNICEF-supported ‘WASH in Schools’ programming has also brought safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities to thousands of school children in Nigeria.

Isaac Oyima/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology