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Monday, December 7, 2015

Technology for achieving CO2 reduction available - Utsumi

Chairman of the United States-based Global Systems Analysis and Simulation Association (GLOSAS/USA), Prof. Takeshi Utsumi has declared that the technology for achieving the pledged reduction to CO2 by world leaders, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Reacting to the pledges made since the beginning of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), which is holding in Paris, gathered delegates from 195 countries, even as 175 countries out of them pledged the reduction of CO2.

Utsumi also said he supposed these pledges were made out of their rigorous examination of their country’s system. 

“I then also suppose that such study were made with the use of their socio-economic-energy-environment simulation models, since otherwise, they should be just the ‘hopeful’ pledges.  Even so, news reports that the total sum of them all would not meet with the target of 2 degree Celsius limit on the temperature rise compared to the pre-industrial age,” he said.

Utsumi further said that then proposed creation of the “Electronic United Nations” as interlinking those simulation models through broadband Internet for the discussions of fair distribution of benefits and burdens of the global climate change.

He emphasized this was to follow the suit of MIT researchers and students who brought their computer to the UN in New York City and helped to enact the Law of Sea in the 1970s, which had 150 countries’ agreement so far, except the USA.

He insisted that “Technology for this is now available, including for real-time simulator cum trainer scheme.”

Utsumi further said his team has been working in this direction in the past four decades. 

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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Ailing economy: Aregbesola, Ajimobi identify agriculture as panacea


NaijaAgroNet:

The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his Oyo State counterpart, Senator Abiola Ajimobi have urged Nigerians to see agriculture as a better alternative to oil in the resuscitation of the country's ailing economy.

The Governors stated this in their separate speeches during the seventh Annual Lecture of Nigeria Association of Muslim Law Students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun.

The duo noted that agriculture remains the largest employer of labour hence the need for individuals and government at all levels to encourage agriculture in a bid to revamp the dwindling economic fortune of Nigeria.

Aregbesola said since oil has been selling for less than $40 for the past months, it is quite predictable that the figures for November, when it is ready, would have dropped again.

The Governor comparing the present situation when Osun collected N55.8 million to 2013 when the average  money distributed to states from the federation accounts was in excess of N800 billion, said Osun’s average allocation then was N3.6 billion.

According to him, "While our monthly wage bill is N3.6billion, the highest amount we have received this year alone was N2.1 billion. It went as low as N466 million in April while the figure for September was N55 million.

"Don’t think this is a problem for the states alone. The Federal Government under the last PDP administration had to borrow N476 billion from commercial banks to pay salaries of some of its workers (not all) for the last four months of that better forgotten tenure.”

Governor Ajimobi who was the Guest Speaker spoke on a topic titled "State Financing and Over-dependence on Oil: Issues and challenges"  identified a number of factors responsible for the on-going financial crisis in the country.

He called for true federalism as being practiced in advanced countries of the world, saying it is abnormal in any true federalism for any tier to be financially incapacitated as being experienced in the country.

Ajimobi stated that out of the 36 states in the federal structure, not as many as five could survive without federal allocation, saying apart from Rivers, Lagos, Enugu, Delta, Katsina, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and Bayelsa State, which have tried to balance their budgets since creation, all the other States have had to depend more on Federal Government for survival.

He said, "Ordinarily, states are supposed to make use of their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for recurrent expenditure while statutory allocations are to take care of capital expenditure; but the reverse is pathetically the case currently.

"The current scenario whereby IGR and statutory allocation combined are not sufficiently for states to meet their financial obligations is indeed unfortunate. This has resorted to a situation whereby most states cannot generate the required funds needed to pay workers' salaries.

"Government at the centre is currently assigned 52.68 percent of Federation Account revenues, including 7.5 percent of the account originally earmarked for "Special" projects like the development of the Federal Capital Territory and the amelioration of national ecological emergencies.

"The state and the localities, on the other hand, respectively get 26.72 and 20.60 percent of Federation Account revenues. Nonetheless, over-dependence on oil has made nonsense of this Allocation Formula and what is allocated to each tier except the Federal Government.

"The problem of this heavy dependence on the oil sector, started as far back as 1992 when global crude oil prices started fluctuating from $18.4 to $61 per barrel in 2006 and reached $115.05 per barrel by June 2014. Beyond these latent facts, bureaucratic and political corruption combined have crippled a number of states financially" he lamented.

Ajimobi said the agricultural sector that has been neglected for long on what he described as "black gold" should be revamped to enhance food security, reduce importation of food items and engage able-bodied citizens who are presently either out rightly unemployed or under-employed.

He implored the students to imbibe the spirit of positive leadership qualities by joining the train of development as they explore technology positively to advance in the current and future world.
  

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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

FAO honours AUC, Thai Ministry, National Geographic Society with awards



The African Union Commission (AUC), Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the National Geographic Society and the non-profit World Rural Forum have received awards from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for their outstanding efforts in supporting Zero Hunger, and improving nutrition as well as raising awareness of the challenges facing the world's food systems, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The awards ceremony, which took place at FAO headquarters at the start of the organization's governing council, is the last in a series of events this year marking the 70th anniversary of the UN agency's founding.

Former FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf attended the ceremony and presented an award named in his honor to Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC). The award recognizes the AUC's efforts to boost sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition through its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). 

NaijaAgroNet reports that FAO recognized CAADP was helpful in paving the way to the commitment at the 23rd AU summit in Malabo to eradicate hunger in Africa by 2025.

The AUC shares the award with the World Rural Forum, a globe-spanning network of rural organizations and researchers, which works to support dialogues among rural communities and its policy advocacy on behalf of family farmers. 

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in a video message congratulated the winners and said "Our mission now is to help countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal, and prepare a greater event in 2030 to celebrate the eradication of hunger and extreme poverty. We have the conditions for that. Let us be the first generation free from hunger. Let us all work together to make it a reality."

The awards ceremony featured a special musical performance by a well-known Rome-based musical group, the Piazza Vittorio Orchestra, and a young multi-ethnic band the Piccola Orchestra di Tor Pignattara.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 
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Sustainable development inseparable from peace, FAO DG



The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General, Mr. José Graziano Da Silva has said at the ongoing United Nations Climate Conference (COP21) has lamented the increasingly hard meted by hunger and appealed to world leaders to show courage and resilience by opting for changes that promote a safer, fairer and more inclusive world, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He also said that there will be no peace without sustainable development and there will never be sustainable development while people continue to be left behind and while people are suffering from extreme poverty and hunger, stressing "we must demonstrate that we are not afraid" of promoting the changes needed to achieve this.  

Addressing participants in a COP21 High Level Meeting on climate resilience and adaptation, Graziano da Silva pointed out that the launch of  the UN Secretary-General's new “Initiative on Resilience: Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape  (A2R)” aimed at boosting countries' disaster risk reduction efforts.

According to him, climate change "affects all of us, but especially the poorest and hungry people," underscoring how smallholders and family farmers are in the front line.

The most vulnerable, he said, must be helped to adapt to climate change, pointing out that in relation to the agricultural sectors, this requires environmentally sound initiatives that must go hand-in-hand with mitigating climate change impacts.
 

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Friday, November 27, 2015

SWAGEN wins ONE Africa award



The Kampala based forest advocacy group, Support for Women in Environment and Agriculture – SWAGEN has won the 8th ONE Annual ONE Africa Award  reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Award is bestowed upon civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations and other groups based in Africa that have  demonstrated a commitment and success in advocacy to promote the attainment of one or more of the Millennium Development Goals.

SWAGEN is a member based organization that uses indigenous knowledge to adapt to, mitigate and improve environmental and sustainable development policies that impact forest dependent communities. The work of SWAGEN is based in the Rwoho Natural Tropical Forest of Uganda. What began in 1992 as a small group 30 people/women responding to a national policy that restricted access to the Forest has grown to a 3,000 member organization with strategic partnerships across the continent and world. SWAGEN is part of the African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests, the Civil Society Coordinating Committee with UN FAO Committee on Food Security, and holds a Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC.

Congratulating the 2015 ONE Africa Award recipient, Nachilala Nkombo, ONE Africa Acting Executive Director (http://www.ONE.org), said “Today, we join SWAGEN in celebrating their success in ensuring that members of forest communities in Uganda have a chance at a better life that doesn’t compromise the needs of generations to come.”

SWAGEN’s impact in advocacy stood out from a pool of 252 impressive applications from 33 countries across Africa. SWAGEN is credited with negotiating a national policy reform on Forest Conservation in Uganda that recognizes the rights of the forest dependent communities. SWAGEN members built on that reform to secure and develop a Collaborative Forest Management Agreement with the National Forest Authority of Uganda. Their list of accomplishments include planting more than 2,000 hectares of the Rwoho National Forest buffer zone to work towards regenerating that portion of the forest and establishing sustainable beekeeping and honey production businesses.

Gertrude Kenyangi, Co-Founder and Chairperson of SWAGEN said, “We are incredibly humbled by the selection and honored to be recognized by ONE for our work. On behalf of our members, our board and our community, I thank the ONE Campaign and look forward to continuing to make a difference in the lives of those in forest dependent communities.”

“As the world grapples with agreeing on a climate deal that addresses the needs of the poor and future generations, SWAGEN has demonstrated what sheer commitment to securing systemic changes in natural resource management can do to benefit local communities in a way that lifts them out of poverty and also inspires similar achievements.  As the world prepares to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, it’s the foundation of MDG success laid by such groups as SWAGEN that will be the SDG game changer,” said Nkombo.
 

Isaac Oyimah/APO 

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FAO joins 40,000 delegates at Paris COP21 Climate Confab



 The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) would this weekend join some 40,000 delegates from 195 countries, to the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention Climate Change (COP21) holding in Paris, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari would join other heads of state and prominent figures to the Paris meeting in solidarity against climate change, slated to hold gather in Paris 30 November – 11 December.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Paris climate conference is aimed at producing a legally binding agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Climate change threatens to derail efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, with the heaviest effects being felt by the poor -- including millions of small-scale farmers -- who have contributed least to the problem.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries hold great potential to be a transformational force in the global response to climate change, provided that the international community initiates a shift towards food systems that are more resilient, more productive, and more sustainable.

Events listed for Paris confab include high-level FAO participation in addition to other FAO experts engagement on ground.
Louisa Effiong/GEE

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