Global production to drop by10 per cent

NaijaAgroNet:

Latest evidence has revealed that from 2070 onward, severe shocks, which could see global production drop by 10 per cent, may be happening in seven out of every ten years, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

An author from the UK's Met Office,  Kirsty Lewis, said, "It is very difficult to characterize these extreme events and their frequency, but what we do see quite clearly is that events that are very rare in the present day are becoming more frequent in the future.

“The most extreme events of the future are likely to become more intense, so potentially larger shocks and more frequent shocks."

Researchers, NaijaAgroNet reports, say an over reliance on global trade may make these production shocks worse especially in Africa and the Middle East.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says that increasing population will drive demand for food up by 60 per cent by 2050 in any case, so there is going to be significant pressure on food production.

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Pix: Kirsty Lewis

Agriculture, food security, prudent management vital in SADC region

NaijaAgroNet

The Director of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the Southern African Development Community ( SADC), Ms Margaret Nyirenda, said agriculture, food security and prudent management of natural resources are vital in SADC region, NaijaAgroNet reports.

She said that food production in most parts of the region was hampered by unfavourable climatic conditions, increase in population, poor health and sanitation, adding that SADC is facing a cereal deficit of over six million tonnes emanating from the poor rainfall and floods that befell the region in the 2014/2015 season.

Nyirenda was addressing the 35th Ordinary Summit of Heads of States and Government in Gaborone. She said the 2014/2015 rainfall season was poor in most parts of the region with prolonged dry spells in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, southern Angola and Zimbabwe,  gathered NaijaAgroNet.

She added that Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique experienced both floods and prolonged dry spells and that the poor rainfall led to an unsatisfactory regional food security situation for the 2015/2016 year.

Ms Nyirenda, NaijaAgroNet learnt,  said the deficit of 6.33 million tonnes of cereal include the five most consumed cereals in the region such as maize, wheat, rice, millet and sorghum compared to a surplus of 1.21 million tonnes in the 2014/15 year .

She said the regional cereal availability for the 2015/16 was estimated at 40.23 million tonnes representing a drop of 22 per cent from 45.62 million tonnes last year. Ms Nyirenda added that the requirement for the region this year was estimated at 32.93 million tonnes, reflecting an overall maize deficit of 1.20 million tonnes.

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Africa’s 200m youth population predicted to double by 2045

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 Africa’s youth population, those between the age of 15 and 24 which is currently put at about 200 million, has been predicted to double by the year 2045.

NaijaAgroNet reports that the African Development Bank (ADB) is therefore working on providing the youth with the skills, education and jobs they need to secure their future.

This was coming as part of effort to mark this year’s International Youth Day, August 12, even as the AfDB celebrates and recognizes the importance of African youth.

The former President, ADB, Dr. Donald Kaberuka recently said, "Population growth in regions such as the Sahel remains very high, as high as 3.9 per cent, while internal migration has accelerated with up to 40 per cent of people now living in unplanned, poorly equipped cities and towns, amidst squalor and unemployment. As a result, young people - around 15 million of who enter the labour market each year - cannot find jobs, either because few are available, or because their skills do not match the needs."

"And in some regions, as they cannot find jobs or see hope for the future, they become easy victims to terrorist groups, or human traffickers promising them imaginary El Dorados, only for them to perish in the Mediterranean," Kaberuka added.

A proposed project, ENABLE Youth (Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment for Youth in African Agriculture), is another initiative through which the AfDB seeks to reach out to close to 800,000 youth in 20 countries in southern, eastern and western Africa regions. The programme will be designed to appeal to disenfranchised young African adults through a comprehensive outreach approach that will see them receive life-skills education (effective and functional job training) and information on proven technologies and opportunities.

The programme will also come with 20,000 internships, 10,000 agribusiness startups, and 30,000 new jobs in rural and urban areas, leading to incomes of at least US $450 about N96, 750 per month.

In addition to supporting agriculture, the Bank is offering assistance to initiatives aimed at improving the education sector to provide skills required in the labour market. The AfDB and its development partners also recognize the role of the informal sector in providing jobs and livelihoods for the most vulnerable populations, including youth.

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 Pix: Dr. Donald Kaberuka

Efficiency key to enhanced fish trade in Africa

NaijaAgroNet

Expert said increased efficiency will reduce wastage, boost trade as well as enhance confidence in Africa’s fish trade, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The Director General, WorldFish, Stephen Hall, took this stand during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between his company and the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO) .

“Given the cross border nature of the trade, it is important that we achieve a level of alignment. This agreement will enhance the fisheries sector and improve livelihoods for the 12 million Africans that rely on the business”, Hall maintained.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the MoU will allow the two organizations to work together on standards that will provide an Africa-wide framework for producers, distributors and sellers to ensure safety and quality at all stages of the value chain, from catch to the plate. The MoU was also aimed at promoting consumer confidence in African fish for domestic and export markets.

According to the agreement, priority will be given to the sustainability of fisheries, hygiene and storage requirements as well as traceability aspects. The end goal is a continent-wide alignment of standards and certification schemes that will boost the market for fish

Experts, NaijaAgroNet learnt, say a focus on fisheries sustainability is key to opening up global markets with few exports being made from the continent without compliance to standards in this field even as the  MoU is the duo’s  contribution to the commitments for a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) made at the January 2015 African Union Heads of State meeting. The two organizations hope that this expansion of trade will most benefit small and medium scale enterprises.

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 Pix Stephen Hall

China seeks cooperation for sustainable agriculture in Africa

NaijaAgroNet

China said it is charting grounds of cooperation with African countries in order to ensure sustainable agricultural development, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

This was made known recently when the Chinese Embassy in Sudan hosted a workshop on China's experiences in agricultural development and its role in achieving food security in Africa.

“China is a traditional agricultural country, with only six per cent of fresh water and nine per cent of arable land of the world, yet it has managed to provide food for 20 per cent of the world population," the Chinese Sudan Ambassador, Li Lianhe.

He reiterated that the experience exchange and mutual cooperation in agriculture and food security area between China and Africa would make essential contribution to the stability and development of the world, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The two-day workshop was attended by Sudan's State Minister for Agriculture Yaqoub Mohamed Al-Tayeb, the Chinese Ambassador and researchers from China and nine African countries.

"Sudan is keen to achieve food security and it has initiatives in this respect," said Al-Tayeb when addressing the workshop.

Sudan government, he said, is committed in fully adopting the outcome of the workshop and transforming its recommendations into work programmes to promote food security in Africa, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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 Pix: Li Lianhe

Experts urge Africa to embrace climate-smart agriculture

NaijaAgroNet

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Deputy Country Representative, Mr. Massimo Castiello said the climate-smart agriculture concept which tackles climate change in an integrated manner should be embraced by Africa.

NaijaAgroNet reports that climate smart agriculture is an approach to developing the technical policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under climate change.

The CSA platform was launched in Kampala at a two-day workshop hosted by FAO Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa and the Uganda Climate-Smart Agriculture Task Force with support from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in Kampala.

The Ugandan Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Hon. Tress Bucyanayandi while addressing climate change expert at the occasion, stated that there is need for far-reaching and inventive measures to help the East African countries and Uganda at large to adapt climate change smart Agriculture, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

"Climate change is already affecting food production systems and therefore the livelihoods and food security of millions of people, especially women who depend on agriculture for a living are to suffer the consequences associated with climate change if no Innovation has been developed," he said.

NaijaAgroNet learnt also that the platform will support East African countries to address sub-regional issues related to Climate-smart agriculture scale up and will contribute to continental initiatives such as the Africa Climate-Smart Agriculture Alliance and the AU/NEPAD goal of having 25 million farming households in Africa practicing climate-smart agriculture by 2025.

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Aggressive agric investment needed in rural areas

NaijaAgroNet:

Government at all levels have been called upon to embark on aggressive investment in the agriculture sector if the youth could be made to settle down in the rural areas for livelihood, reports NaijaAgroNet.

A social entrepreneur in the education, youth and business development sectors, Olukayode Ajayi-Smith said that the government can get young people to love farming if it commits enough resources to make it attractive. "I think the government has to invest in rural areas and ensure that such investments are lucrative to young people. The major reason young people leave rural areas is to pursue better opportunities."

An agricultural entrepreneur, Abdullah Yusuf, NaijaAgroNet gathered, said rural urban migration has been most pronounced in the country's north, Nigeria's agricultural hub. He said Kano, once popular for its groundnut pyramids in the 1950s, has suffered a similar fate.

"I blame this on a number of factors that include a lack of basic social amenities, poor funding of the agro-allied sectors by the government and a lack of sound agricultural policies and incentives for farmers," Yusuf said, adding that the Boko Haram insurgency in the north only worsened the crisis.

Another concerned citizen, an educational instructor with the north-central Kogi State government, Ademoyo Philips, NaijaAgroNet was informed, said official records indicate that three out of every five school leavers in the state do not enroll in secondary education within the largely agricultural state.

Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, NaijaAgroNet reports, receives an average of 30 people a day from the countryside who never return home. The government's hope of using agriculture to arrest the poverty rate, now at 35 per cent, and high unemployment rate, officially seven per cent with those between 15 and 24 being worst hit, is in jeopardy by young people abandoning farming.

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 Pix: Arc. Sonny S.T. Echono, Perm Sec. Federal Ministry of Agriculture

MVAC says N7.4b needed to avert hunger in Malawi

NaijaAgroNet:

The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) responsible for annual food security assessment has raised alarm that over 2 million Malawians are in critical hunger list saying that about N7.4billion as relief is required, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The investigation has it that over two million out of 16 million people (representing 17 per cent of the population) will not be able to meet their annual food requirement during the 2015/16 consumption period, requiring an estimated 124,000 metric tonnes of maize worth $37.2 million about N7.4 billion

The Secretary to the Treasury, Ronald Mangani said recently that there has been an increase of 116 per cent in the number of affected people during the period compared to over 1million during the 2014/15 period, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

“This increase has been as a result of weather-related hazards ranging from late onset of rains, floods and dry spells to early cessation of rains, all of which affected crop production during the 2014/15 agriculture season,” he stated.

According to him,  the government in collaboration with its development partners will be implementing response interventions to assist the affected populations.

This report, NaijaAgroNet learnt, was carried out by MVAC from June 8 to July 2, 2015 to assess food security situations in the country and determining the number of people who are likely to be food insecure.

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AUC commends FAO resilience policies on humanity, resources, income

NaijaAgroNet

The African Union Commission (AUC’s) Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture Ms. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, has commended the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO’s) commitment in promoting resilience policies and strategies, NaijaAgroNET reports.

She said that such policies have the prospect of addressing the different needs and experiences of men, women, boys and girls, and equal access to and control over resources and incomes.

The Commissioner, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and African Union Commission (AUC), on the implementation of the Regional Initiative on Resilience in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

In a statement from the FAO and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the initiative would establish effective knowledge platforms between Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member-states, as well as strengthen the capacity of institutions to scale up proven cost-effective resilience enhancing good practices.

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is a trade bloc in Africa, established in 1986, with a focus on development and environmental control, NaijaAgroNet learnt

It said in the Horn of Africa, the focus would be on supporting IGAD and member-states (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan), to enhance knowledge on practical means for resilience building, as well as heighten the awareness of dynamics of resilience programming.

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 Pix: Ms. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime,

Minister makes case for African scientists, technologists

NaijaAgroNet

The Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, said  family farms need technology propelled by African scientists for increased productivity, reports NaijaAgroNet.

 Alhassan said this while speaking at the Fourth Planning and General Meeting of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) in Accra, adding that “the era of despair, timidity and sometimes outright cynicism of African agriculture must give way to confidence, mutual trust and co-operation among stakeholders.” He said that this has become paramount in the light of eroding natural resources and dwindling potential for exploitation.

He reiterated the need for indigenous knowledge of the African farmer to be enhanced, to achieve food security and sovereignty, adding that Africa had the needed trained human resources in scientific research to contribute to that knowledge or technology development, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

The three-day meeting with the theme "Building on International Year of Soils, Strengthening Family Farming,” had over 30 participants from the continent in attendance. AFSA is a Pan-African platform of 21 networks and farmer organizations championing small African Family Farming/Production Systems based on agro-ecological and indigenous approaches that sustain food sovereignty and the livelihoods of communities.

Mr Bernard Guri, Chairman of AFSA, NaijaAgroNet learnt, said their concern was to save African seeds, land and African agro-ecological farming practices that had fed Africa, and would continue to feed Africa and its ecology, while enhancing African cultural integrity.

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Pix: Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan,