2/3 countries improve on food security - EIU

NaijaAgroNet:

World leader in global business intelligence, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in its Global Food Security Index (GFSI) annual update,Expo Milan 2015, revealed that two-thirds of 109 countries have improved in food security, reportsNaijaAgroNet.

The GFSI overall results, NaijaAgroNet gathered was unveiled at the DuPoint Forum on Food and Agriculture tagged; Rural and Urban Innovations, showed that sustained economic expansion in most regions and rapid growth in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, combined with lower global food prices provided the necessary food security improvement in almost every region of the world over the past year.

It further revealed that food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)improved in 28 countries in the region, with 82 percent recorded score increases between 2014 and 2015, and the region as a whole saw a score improvement of 1.5 points.

Also it pointed out that Sub-Saharan Africa saw impressive gains in food Quality & Safety, with Burkina Faso and Mali leading the way, driven by improved access to quality protein, a measure of the average consumption of essential amino acids in a country’s diet. Burkina Faso also made significant strides in the diet diversification indicator, with a 25% increase (87% score increase) in the amount of non-starchy foods consumed in the average diet.

Dr Richard Okine,Regional Director for DuPont Sub-Saharan Africa, speaking on the report said that,“Developing countries often lack basic infrastructure, including storage, road and port facilities, while smaller incomes inhibit access to and affordability of nutritious food. Political risk and corruption frequently compound structural difficulties in these countries. Investment in infrastructure and food systems in low-income and lower-middle income countries is the key to narrowing the gap.”

He also stressed that an overwhelmingly positive factor has been the fact that over the past few years, the overall economic growth in the developing world has led to improvements in the structural areas that are essential to improving people’s access to a wider range of affordable, nutritious foods.

“This, according to Dr. Okine, includes more extensive food safety-net programmes, expanded crop storage capacity and dietary diversity.”

With such progress notwithstanding, global food insecurity remains a challenge. According to UN estimates,NaijaAgroNet learnt that the world population is projected to increase by 1 billion over the next 12 years and reach 9.6 billion by 2050, with growth coming mainly from developing countries, with more than half in Africa. As populations’ boom and incomes rise in developing countries, the FAO also estimates that food production will have to grow by 50% to meet demand.

The GFSI is an annual measure of food security across 109 countries, produced by the EIU and sponsored by DuPont.

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FAO to unveil report of hungry people

NaijaAgroNet

 

The annual State of Food Insecurity in the world report would be unveiled at the forthcoming World Food Summit in Rome with expectation it will provide new figures for the number of chronically hungry people globally, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The meeting, NaijaAgroNet  reports, would also take stock of progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG1) as it kicks off on Wednesday, May 27, 2015.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that United Nations (UN) bodies slated to present their reports include the three Rome-based food agencies, namely the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN World Food Program (WFP).

The new hunger report, NaijaAgroNet gathered, would be presented jointly at FAO’s headquarters by its Director-General José Graziano da Silva, IFAD Associate Vice-President, Josefina Stubbs and Stanlake Samkange, Director of WFP's Policy and Programme Division.

In addition, Maurizio Martina Italy's Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, NaijaAgroNet learnt, would participate via videolink from EXPO 2015 in Milan.

This year’s edition of State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) contains updated estimates of the number and proportion of hungry people in the world in 2015, the target year of the Millennium Development Goals.

It also offers analysis into what drives successful anti-hunger programs, such as agricultural investments, in addition to the growing importance of social protection schemes and the new challenges presented by the increasingly protracted nature of crises, NaijaAgroNet also gathered.

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FG commissions 12.5m capacity Sugarcane bio-factory

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The Federal Government has commissioned her first Sugarcane Bio-factory in Zaria, Kaduna, estimated at 12.5 million cane seedlings per annum,n line with the implementation of her Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Declaring the Sugarcane Bio-factory open for operations, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, NaijaAgroNet gathered, said the factory is one-million seedlings per annum capacity.

“The provision of high grade and quality seedlings of sugarcane is essential for the attainment of the set goals of the National Sugar Master Plan.This facility is designed to address a critical constraint facing Nigeria’s sugar industry – timely provision of high quality and clean seeds to sugar estates and farmers across Nigeria.” He said.

Aganga also stressed that the expectation in four years, is that five of this kind of facility would have been established across Nigeria with capacities of between 2million and 2.5million seedlings per annum each.

The NSMP whichis one of the major sectorial policies under the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, enunciated by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment was launched by the President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014, with an ultimate goal to make Nigeria’s manufacturing sector highly competitive and dynamic.

It is believed that the efficiency in the cultivation and supply of sugarcane will enhance the efficient milling and production of sugar and associated by-products like ethanol and electricity.

The bio-factory would serve as a facility where disease-free crop seedlings would be rapidly micro-propagated under controlled laboratory environment for planting in the fields, as NaijaAgroNet learnt, and the NSMP projects that at least 250,000 hectares of sugarcane fields would be required for processing in about 28 mills of varying capacities to produce 1.79 metric tonnes of sugar in the first phase of the master plan.

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Amb Patrick says books veritable for social re-engineering … Opara-Anyiam unveils Short Stories with Morals

NaijaAgroNet 

The CEO of Meljenstin Youth Empowerment Initiative and Reviewer of the book, Ambassador Chibuzor Patrick, has said that books are a veritable tool for social reengineering and nation building, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Speaking at the unveiling of a book, Short Stories with Morals by Vivian Opara-Anyiam, at the weekend, declared that there is nothing one can do without books.

“Books are the only tool that can change this generation. Reading is a skill whereby you get information for your life to be illuminated. Knowledge is the principal thing. It comes with wisdom because a closed book is a closed life. I have essay competition in Meljenstin just to encourage reading culture. Without books no generation can stand, because in reading we find solution to our problems”, she stated.

Short Stories with Morals, she informed NaijaAgroNet, is designed to touch every aspect of our lives. “It is simple in language, unique in its own way because the book deals on: respect, honesty, kindness, impatience, obedience, humility, forgiveness, anger, conscience, jealousy, wickedness, quarelling, greed, stealing and envy among other themes and these are issues we need to deal with in our society. As the reviewer of the book I recommend it for everyone: the parents for their children, the church for their members. A life will be changed positively after reading this book”. She advised the young ones to write instead of depending on uncles which in most cases do not work. She said there is no perfect book yet. “Put down that thing you call nonsense because tomorrow it may make sense to some people some day,” she concluded.

According to the writer of the book in an exclusive interview with NaijaAgroNet, her aim of writing the book is to impact morals in the life of Nigerian youths, children and young adults who love reading literature books. “When you look around, a lot has gone wrong with our morals .This book is written to serve as a corrective measure towards this direction, it will impact morals in the life of people after reading it, you will feel the impact of what you are reading and you will learn a lot, not just moral but other aspects of life. 

She admitted to NaijaAgroNet that the first obstacle she faced as a young writer was the issue of finance. “You have good intention or inspiration but when it comes to financial aspect you have to run up and down to look for money to implement it. But I give God the glory that I did not just write the book and abandon it, God gave  me the grace I was able to publish it which is what we are about to unveil today”.

She however dropped a word of advice to other upcoming writers, “if you know that you have the gift or the inspiration to write, you can start by putting those ideas down one day you can put those ideas of yours together to form a book”, adding that by the special grace of God by the end of next year her poem collections and short plays will be out.

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University don invents yam tubers growth regulators

NaijaAgroNet

A senior lecturer, Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, at the University of Ibadan (UI) Dr. Monrufat Balogun, has invented a technology for the production of Dormancy-Controlled Yam Seed Tubers reports NaijaAgroNet.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the technology is not a genetic modification and had no zero detection of plant-growth regulator, which would ensure increased availability of yam seedlings to all yam farmers to allow them, cultivate yams for more than one cycle.

"We want to see how yams can be grown anytime in the year and not necessarily only at the season.This technology would yield more income for farmers,” she said.

The expert speaking on assurance of the technology to the growth of the agricultural sector also said the research started in November 2014 and took two years to perfect it.

“We soak the tubers in some substances that are called ‘Growth Regulators’. After this, we check whether there is difference in sprouting between the ones soaked and the ones not soaked. After checking the tubers at the lab we found out that zero amounts of the substances were detected, so it is safe and people should not fear.” Balogun said.

She also said they are planning on training all stakeholders in yam production and consumption on this new technology.

The invention, NaijaAgroNet learnt, was in collaboration with Prof. Wayne Curtis of the Pennsylvania State University, under the United States National Academies-partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and would be fully out by 2016.

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Climate change mars coffee production in Tanzania

 NaijaAgroNet

Farmers in Tanzania have abandoned the production of coffee and cotton due  mainly to changes in local climate and resorted to the planting of more lucrative vegetables and flowers as temperatures rise and rainfall becomes less predictable, reports NaijaAgroNet

Ludovick Meela, a farmer from Tanzania’s northern Kilimanjaro region told reporters that “Coffee beans are no longer as profitable, as my harvests keep on falling, I need fast-growing crops I can sell for a quick income,” he stated.

"When my children were growing up, coffee was everything to me," he told journalists "I got a lot of income from it, which enabled me to gain economically, but all that is history." 

Information reaching NaijaAgroNet showed that in Tanzania, scientists have attributed the drop in arabica coffee yields to a rise in nighttime temperatures in recent decades.

The strain to Tanzania’s cash crops is the latest sign that climate change is altering how and where food is produced around the world.

In Honduras, banana farmers are seeing yields decline amid fierce cold snaps and erratic rain patterns. India’s wheat and rice crops are suffering from hotter weather, and in the U.S. West, enduring drought has caused the beef-cattle herd to shrink to its lowest level in more than 60 years, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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E-commerce to attract more entrepreneurial talents

  NaijaAgroNet

The China’s Agriculture Ministry has invested hugely on e-commerce with the hope of boosting more entrepreneurial talents to the local communities, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The new e-commerce scheme which NaijaAgroNet learnt, is having a major beneficial impact on the countryside is designed to help farmers collectively sell their products to larger markets.

"Before, it wasn't really worth me coming here to cultivate the Tea Oil. We'd maybe come five or six times a year. Now we're replanting all the time, and we come every month," said Zhu Qianhuang, a local farmer. Mr Zhu stated that he could not keep up with the demand for the Tea Oil.

 Qianhuang, NaijaAgroNet gathered, explained the benefits of the scheme further to reporters,  “this Camellia wood in Southeast China was once overgrown and unused. The tree produces Tea-Oil. Since 2011, the wood has been brought back to life, by local farmers. The revival is mainly because of rural e-commerce schemes, introduced by the local government.

 
Under the scheme, farmers in the area sell their products collectively, through larger agents. Wholesale orders are placed online from across the country.

"Rural poverty is caused by three factors - lack of skills, lack of information, and lack of incentive. If people group together, skills and resources can be shared. Right now, we have over 120 companies within our E-Commerce zone. That, NaijaAgroNet learnt, includes over eighty families, either employed or running their own businesses," said Ning Weisheng, Ningdu County Commerce Bureau.

Cyriacus Nnaji, GEE

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