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Friday, July 10, 2015

New farming methods sack workers in South Africa




The two new farming methods expected to revolutionize agriculture globally namely, Precision farming and Conservation, have succeeded in reducing jobs in South Africa’s agric sector, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Precision agriculture, experts say, taps into Global Positioning System (GPS) technology such thatfarmers could gather precise soil data to target exactly what inputs they need and where, while conservation involves trying to preserve South Africa’s erosion-prone soils.

Information reaching NaijaAgroNet said that samples are scooped from each hectare of a field, which is marked off into grids. The field map that emerges is colour-coded to denote exactly what needs to be applied in each square.

Analysts say this is at odds with policy proposals by the ruling African National Congress, which is seeking to limit farm size and create rural jobs. Technology, NaijaAgroNet gathered, is threatening to uproot such efforts.

South African farmer,Cobus van Coller, report said, usedthe technology to demonstrate “precision” farming for maximum profit. He scans the computer screen in the cab of his harvester. As the machine mows down corn stalks, numbers are updated on the screen, giving the precise moisture levels and yield in each section of his field. “This shows you if you’re going to make money,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Van Coller also uses the technology for planting. “The GPS tells the computer where you are, and the computer tells the seeder which product to apply and how much.”

“We need to build up our soils again because they have been so degraded,” said Hendrik Smith of industry group GrainSouth Africa.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Experts reject GMOs, opts for other Technologies





Tanzanian experts have dismissed the much touted benefits of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in crop production saying there are better options, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The benefits of GMOs include creating plants that are resistant to weeds, pest and other diseases, bigger yields, less uses of herbicides and other pesticides, foods with better texture, flavour and nutritional value and a longer shelf life for easier shipping. GM is also claimed to possess an essential sustainable way to feed the world.

Speaking to newsmen on the issue of GMOs, a lecturer at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT), Dr Noorali Jiwaji, said that so far Tanzania had not fully put all existing technologies into practice.

“There are various technologies and methods developed by our local scientists, but we have not utilized them to the extent of deciding to shift to GMO,” he said. Jiwaji, NaijaAgroNet gathered, drew attention to the wealth of knowledge that abounds in the country that was hardly disseminated to farmers which, to a greater part, might have better results than GMO.

Another expert, the District Agriculture Irrigation and Cooperative Officer (DAICO) in Sumbawanga, Mr Kwileluye Habona, argued that scientists should be given a chance instead of politicians.

“So far no country has benefited from GMO, this is a sign that we don’t need it here in Tanzania as we can decide to opt for other technologies which our scientists have proved,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet also learnt that in East Africa, Kenya and Uganda have commenced field trials of GMOs, but Tanzania is still on laboratory trials due to lack of a science-based and cost-effective regulatory system.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
 
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Tuesday, July 7, 2015

EU invests N251.1billion in West Africa



The European Union (EU) will pump about €1.15 billion (N251.1b) into peace, security and regional stability, including support to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its regional mandates, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Other aspects of interest covered by the fund include regional economic integration and trade, the private sector, regional integration and support for infrastructure.

The assistance made possible by the 11th European Development Fund, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was made public during the signing of a new regional funding for cooperation between European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimic and  representatives of regional organizations from West Africa.

 Mimica said, “Regional integration in West Africa is already bearing impressive fruits and today’s signing is the ambitious starting point for preparing new, concrete projects that will benefit the region and its countries. Having almost doubled our support from the last programming period, we will work with a wide range of partners to tackle the challenges that remain in West Africa, such as peace and security, economic integration and trade, as well as sustainable development,” NaijaAgroNet learnt.

The West Africa Regional Indicative Programme was co-signed by President Kadré Désiré Ouedraogo of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and President Cheikhe Hadjibou Soumaré of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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Saturday, July 4, 2015

Sierra Leone gears up to boost food, nutrition security


The Vice President of Sierra Leone, Victor Foh, has said that the Food and Nutrition Security Implementation Plan (FNSIP) will boost nutrition and food security in the country, reports NaijaAgroNet.

 NaijaAgroNet gathered that considerable efforts have been invested into the blueprint FNISP to ensure a collaborative approach to achieving the goal of food and nutrition security, as well as building a healthy nation.

According to Foh, FNSIP, which he launched on behalf of the President, Ernest Koroma at Aberdeen recently, “will serve to boost food and nutrition security issues in the National Development Agenda, especially in the fight against ebola and other infectious diseases and in the post-ebola recovery phase.”

He also pointed out that FNSIP will also serve as an advocacy tool for mobilizing resources on behalf of nutrition implementing agencies, and will broadly encourage and motivate nutrition stakeholders to use the strategy as a working document accepted by all.”

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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‘Buhari charged to implement youth-led projects’



The founder, YFarm Project, Nkiru Nnaemego, has called on the Buhari-led government to ensure the implementation of youth-led projects, especially for the agriculture sector, NaijaAgroNet reports.

She stated that the government can borrow a leaf from those of YFarm that aim to establish and promote at least 10,000 youth-led farms and agribusinesses across Nigeria and Africa by 2020, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

“Agriculture is not only profitable but a solution to problems of unemployment, insecurity, poverty, corruption, among several others,” she said, challenging youths to embrace agriculture by accessing land, finance, market, mentoring, farm inputs and equipment, to reap lots of benefits in the sector.

The government, Nnaemego said could implement youth-led projects by creating platforms to showcase African and national youth agriculture festivals and marketplace, schools camp on sustainable agriculture, e-platforms, community outreaches on agribusiness and climate smart agriculture as a means to capturing the attention of the youths to get involved in agriculture.

She also said that the benefits of YFarm Project, for instance include a platform for agricultural education, viable careers and businesses, improved livelihoods through jobs creation, entrepreneurial opportunities, among several others, describing mechanization as the solution to attract the attention of the Nigerian youths to agriculture, reports NaijaAgroNet.

She pointed out the need to ensure that the subsidized farm inputs are made available to youths in rural areas to further boost youth curiosity in the sector in order propel more investment in agricultural mechanization.

Cyriacus Nnaji with additional reports by Leadership/GEE

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Friday, July 3, 2015

Astronomers predict fireworks from close encounter of stellar kind



PR@ITRealms:
A team of Astronomers from the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics has predicted fireworks from close encounter of stellar kind, reports NaijaAgroNet.

They also said that the stellar remnant the size of a city and one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way, which is the small object, a pulsar, initially discovered by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. 
According to the university source, dedicated follow-up radio observations led by a team at The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, using the 76-m Lovell Radio Telescope, now show that the pulsar travels in an extreme orbit around a companion star. 

A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet stated that this orbit will, in early 2018, plunge the pulsar through a broad disk of gas and dust round its partner, generating a spectacular series of explosions which will create a range of emissions from radio waves to gamma rays. Scientists are planning a global campaign to watch the event, which could reveal important information about the formation of stars.

The pulsar, known as PSR J2032+4127, is a highly magnetized neutron star weighing nearly twice as much as the Sun. It spins 7 times a second, but is only about 20 kilometres across.  Following its discovery by Fermi in 2009, precision timing of its radio flashes indicates that it is falling rapidly under the gravitational pull of a massive young star known as MT91 213. The orbit derived from these observations has a period of about 25 years and shows that the pulsar will pass very close to the star in less than 3 years time.

MT91 213, a stellar type known as a Be star, is fifteen times the mass of the Sun and shines 10,000 times brighter.  Be stars are characterized by strong outflows, called stellar winds, and large encircling disks of material.  As the pulsar speeds around this inferno, astronomers will be able to use it as a probe to measure the star's gravity, magnetic field, the density of the wind flowing from the star and the structure of its disk.

Professor Andrew Lyne of The University of Manchester is lead author of a paper on the phenomenon, which has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. He said: “This is the longest-period binary system known to contain a radio pulsar and provides an excellent opportunity to study these massive stars, important progenitors for supernovae and sources of many of the heavy elements in the Galaxy.”

Dr Paul Ray of the Naval Research Laboratories, Washington, added: “When we discovered this pulsar in 2009, we noticed that it was in the same direction as this massive star in the constellation Cygnus, but our initial measurements did not give any evidence that either star was a member of a binary system. The only way to escape that conclusion was if the binary system had a very long orbital period, much longer than the longest known pulsar-massive star binary at the time, which seemed unlikely.”

It was only the long-term dedicated timing campaign at Jodrell Bank that revealed the true binary nature of the system.  It seems that the system just barely escaped being thrown apart in the violence of the supernova explosion that created the pulsar and placed it in this very long and eccentric orbit.

There are half a dozen other such systems with companion stars that are burning hydrogen, but none are apparently as extreme in mass, orbital period or proximity to the Earth as PSR J2032+4127.  Two of these are also known pulsar/Be-star systems and contain the pulsars B1259-63 and J1638-4725. High-energy observations of B1259-63 during a recent pass by its companion SS 2883 revealed intense flashes of high-energy gamma-ray and X-ray radiation as the pulsar dived through the star's disk.  Similar high-energy radiation is likely during J2032+4127's pass by MT91 213 and this event will offer an exciting opportunity to investigate close-up the properties of such a rare and extreme system.

Professor Ben Stappers of Manchester University said: “This forewarning of the energetic fireworks expected at closest approach in three years' time allows us to prepare to study the system across the entire electromagnetic spectrum with the largest telescopes.”

After the close encounter, the pulsar's speed will then carry it away from the star whose gravity will eventually drag it back for another roasting a quarter of a century later.
 
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Open letter: Why Water Resources ministry should stand alone




Dear Mr. President,

I consider this write-up a rare privilege to express my gratitude for your emergence as the President of this great nation. To top the gladness, your strong intent that craves for uncommon changes in every sector is another thing to be excited about. I, therefore, consider it necessary to quickly highlight and echo the age-long mistakes of myopic looks and impressions on water resources sector in the country.
“Water is Life”,
“Human body contains 70% Water”
“Water occupies 70% of world Space” - as popularly quoted. These quotes are not fallacies or mere illusion, but truth in its original state.

Having said that, I wish to state here that the attention given to the Water Sector by the various past governments in Nigeria had been so little and grossly inadequate. It has, so far, not been sufficient for a country which equally needs to undoubtedly survive and thrive on its water resources.

Mr. President, it is expedient to state that on the basis of experience, previous mergers, submerging or subsuming the Federal Ministry of Water Resources under any other ministry will not only cause deficiency to the water resources meant to be enjoyed. It will also stifle or kill its natural vision and consequently, cause many more hardships to the populace from abandoned water projects as was the case in the last merging of 2009-2011. At that period there were high cases of:

• Water related diseases which contribute immensely to the dwindling economic growth of the country;
• Scarcity of potable water - several water producers do fold up during merger periods;
• Acute Shortage of good quality drinking Water in Nigeria;
• Inadequacy in harnessing water resources in different geo-political zones of the country;
• Causes shortage or set-backs in providing job opportunities for Nigerian populace.
• The need to vigorously pursue our natural vision, our mandate and course to provide
water to meet social and economic needs of growing populace shall be shattered as
was the case in the last merging exercise.
• The set-back caused will require triple effort in terms of time, human and material resources; to reverse and get the vision back on track.

With the enormous challenges in the water sector, I strongly believe that charting a new course for the Ministry through its Departments, Agencies and stakeholders which was embodied in the Nigeria Water Sector Road Map would enhance the attainment of Nigeria’s vision 20:2020 targets, MDGs Agenda and Africa Water Vision 2025 which are paramount and not to be subsumed.

Also, I strongly advocate that topmost priority should be given to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for the speedy commitment to:
Water Sector:
Improving access to potable water,
Flood control,
Drought mitigation
Agriculture Sector:
Irrigation to support agriculture revolution
Food security program
Tourism Sector:
Tourism Development
Environment Sector:
Environmental Sustainability
Doused Ecological threat
Kashimbilla Dam as a major source of life and economic driver to benefit Nigeria and especially the host communities
Health Sector:
Provide Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ) to checkmate water quality that translate to health related issues,
Power Sector:
Hydropower generation

The Presidential Summit on Water convened in February 2013 achieved a lot of success and has widening the horizon of the water sector in the nation, thus subsuming it under any ministry now may most likely truncate the vision and cause another trend of setback.

Generally, the vision is to be the vehicle of the nations integrated water resources management, contributing optimally to the socio-economic activities of the nation through comprehensive planning. And provision of the enabling environment for integrated conservation, development and management of various water uses, for the preservation of the quality and quantity of fresh water ecosystems, leading to improved environmental protection, adequate access to safe water and sanitation, development of irrigated agriculture for food security and for sustainable livelihoods, as well as equitable allocation of all the aforementioned, amongst all riparian communities locally and internationally.

Its agencies and units carry out different responsibilities that are enormous and too important to cage and subsume under any ministry and parastatals. These responsibilities covers capacity building in the sector and large water projects that ensure food security, thereby empower Nigerians economically.

Mr. President Sir, the facts and the truth of the needs for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to be independent of any ministry can be verified and holistically taken into consideration. You will find out that merging the sector is like maiming the 70 per cent of one’s body, life and our world which may not likely bring a palatable reason for existence.

In other words, for this country to successfully grow, its pertinent that the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR) stand alone as a ministry and not be merged with any other ministry because it is an economic driver organization being the basis for development of many other sectors in the nation.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Yusuf Suleiman Lasun pointed out recently this importance when he recommended that the Federal Ministry of Water Resources should not be merged as published in the ‘National Mirror’ newspaper of June 26, 2015.

Again, with the global trend, water and sanitation is now taking pre-eminence as this sector safeguards the well-being of the populace health leading to increase in economic development of any nation.

Therefore, I humbly suggest that the Federal Ministry of Water Resources should not be merged with any other ministry, but the Ministry should rather be given its rightful premium.

Congratulations once again sir, and thank you for taking this issue into critical consideration and accept the assurance of my highest esteem.

Olaiya Ola-Bamidele, writes from Abuja.
 

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Thursday, July 2, 2015

100 young scientists thinker on feeding 9.6bn people






 About100 concerned young scientists are currently looking at ways of making food available to 9.6billion people in the world and another two billion people by 2050, NaijaAgroNet reports.

This information emerged from an interactive discussion designed to mark the 65th Lindau Nobel Lauraete Meeting this year. The meeting  which witnessed a record number of 65 laureates and over 650 young scientists meeting in Germany from June 28-July 3, is meant to discuss solutions to world food problem.

Mars’ Chief Agricultural Officer, Howard-Yana Shapiro, NaijaAgroNet gathered, spoke during the discussion about the need to look beyond calories: “undernourishment is really just the tip of the iceberg. Deficiencies in nutrients like iron, vitamin B12, folate, vitamin A, affect huge numbers of people around the world and lead to physical and cognitive stunting”, in a world where an estimated 2 billion people are anaemic.

Report says that over six decades after the Green Revolution, malnutrition still stares vast majority of the world in the face; meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, had said that almost 800 million people worldwide are undernourished. With the global population predicted to rise to between 9 and 10 billion by 2050, NaijaAgroNet learnt, the world faces an increasingly uncertain future that demands a coordinated response from all sectors and disciplines.

According to Steven Chu who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1997 and served as the US Secretary of Energy in the first Obama administration, “the food system is one of the greatest contributors to climate change and will also be one its greatest victims. But agriculture can mitigate worsening climatic stresses if sustainable practices are adopted at scale.” Chu currently teaches at Stanford University, where he is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology.

Once every year, NaijaAgroNet reports, some dozens of Nobel Laureates convene at Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists: undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings foster the exchange among scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines. The 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting is dedicated to interdisciplinary scientific exchange.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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