BOSCH, UNIDO partner on improving Cassava market profitability

NaijaAgroNet:

Global supplier of technology and services BOSCH has partnered with United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on improving Cassava market profitability in the Sub-Saharan Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking at the recently organized stakeholders consultative meeting in Lagos with farmers to discuss the prospect, challenges and marketing widows of cassava production in the country, the Managing Director of Robert Bosch West Africa, Mr. Ghislain Noumbessy, said it is imperative for farmers to take advantage of the technological tools and services that could help them proffer solutions to their food loss and perk up their profit.

Noumbessy also said that Bosch has been motivated by the search for ever-better technological solutions and fresh approaches that will help tackle the great challenges of today and deliver benefits to her customers.

“At Bosch, our work is guided and motivated to find solutions to even the most complex technological challenges while at the same time preserving natural resources and making a positive contribution to the society and that is why we decided to create a stakeholders consultative meeting to discuss about the market prospects, challenges and opportunities of agriculture especially in Cassava farming,” he said.

UNIDO representative from Austria, Dr. Yvonne Lokko told participants that they are working with Bosch in line with the United Nations agenda to reduce poverty, facilitate trade capacity building, agri-business and agro-industry development in Nigeria.

Speaking on the Bank of Industry (BoI) role in agric-business development in Nigeria, its Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, represented by Group Head, Agro Processing Unit of BOI, Mrs. Kadafa Lolo Ruth said that agriculture is one of the cardinal agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and the bank will continue to give adequate necessary supports and loans to farmers to grow their business.

Mr. Olaoluwa also said farming is a serious business and cassava is a profitable trade but there is a significant need for many farmers to improve on their skills and management structures to enable them improve their farming in 21st century.

 

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Breaking news: McGill researchers point to fossil fuels replacement

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Experts at the McGill University have disclosed that metal powders, produced using clean primary energy sources, could provide a more viable long-term replacement for fossil fuels than other widely discussed alternatives, such as hydrogen, biofuels or batteries, reports NaijaAgroNet.

A study in the December 15 issue of the journal Applied Energy made available to NaijaAgroNet showed that technologies to generate clean electricity, primarily solar and wind power are being developed rapidly.

Lead author of the new study by McGill University, Professor Jeffrey Bergthorson, pointed out that at present, people could not use electricity for many of the things that oil and gas are used for today, such as transportation and global energy trade.

“Biofuels can be part of the solution, but won’t be able to satisfy all the demand; hydrogen requires big, heavy fuel tanks and is explosive, and batteries are too bulky and don’t store enough energy for many applications,” Bergthorson, who is a mechanical engineering professor and Associate Director of the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design at McGill said.

“Using metal powders as recyclable fuels that store clean primary energy for later use is a very promising alternative solution,” he said.

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Breaking News: Climate agreement prioritises food security

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Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has hailed the breakthrough in the climate change agreement reached upon at the COP21 which held in Paris, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, applauded the promise to scale up funding for agriculture.

"For the first time ever, food security features in a global climate change accord," he said, stressing that the Paris Agreement often dubbed COP21, recognized "the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the impacts of climate change."

According to him, this underlines the need to "increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience … in a manner that does not threaten food production." 

He further said that this is a game changer for the 800 million people still suffering from chronic hunger, and for 80 per cent of the world's poor who live in rural areas and earn income and feed their families from agriculture sectors. 

“By including food security, the international community fully acknowledged that urgent attention is needed to preserve the well-being and future of those who are on the front line of climate change threats," Graziano da Silva said.

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Scientist describes Uber, Airbnb as new model for sustainable society

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An environmental social scientist at The University of Manchester, Dr Chris Martin, has described the duo of Uber and Airbnd as new model way of building a sustainable society, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He also said that this new form of consumption could be rolled out to bolster the sustainability of other day-to-day functions including production, education, banking and transport and further described the Silicon Valley success stories like Uber and Airbnb as paving the way to a more sustainable global society.

The ‘sharing economy’ model, he said, has seen a boom in the collaborative use of services, which has come under criticism for disrupting traditional and independent business activity.

Dr. Martin contended that it is bad for business in his new paper, The sharing economy: a pathway to sustainability or a nightmarish form of neoliberal capitalism? published online in the journal Ecological Economics this week, that radically decentralising economic activity and allowing people shared access to services and resources is more than just an economic opportunity for big business and an employment solution for governments.

“This decentralised, online model of economic activity has significant sustainability potential but it is currently being overlooked by big players who are focused on the commercial aspects,” he declared, explaining that the potential, and the appetite, for a sharing economy promotes social sustainability, in addition to environmental sustainability and economic growth. 

“The core ideas and technologies behind Airbnb and Uber could also be used to empower citizens and civic society to participate in previously centralised activities, be that more open education, car-pooling or microfinance models in place of traditional banking,” Martins said.

For him, the taxi giant Uber and holiday rental firm Airbnb are at the tip of the sharing economy iceberg, underscoring that policy-makers, innovators and entrepreneurs need to look beyond the idea of ‘sharing’ just service industries. Rather, they could focus on exploiting the potential of the sharing economy to reduce overall consumption and create a more equitable, sustainable economy and society.

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Prof Larkin faults first draft of Paris Climate Change agreement

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Professor of Climate Science & Energy Policy at The University of Manchester, Ms Alice Bows Larkin, has faulted the first draft statement at the on-going COP21 in Paris, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Prof. Larkin was responding to the first draft statement released Wednesday afternoon, saying that it does not specific how to reduce global emissions below 2°C.

She pointed out that the latest text from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro which includes a statement that the increase in global average temperatures will be held at least below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

“It says it will try to achieve this by either peaking global emissions as soon as possible or through a long-term global low emissions transformation over this century,” she quoted part of the draft statement.

According to Prof. Larkin, both options refer to the ‘best available science’ which she described as disappointing then that despite clarity from the science, in terms of a need for urgent and deep mitigation, and a limited carbon budget that has been quantified, there is no reference to this budget, stressing it appears that this agreement will not set legally binding CO2 limits.

“So, whilst it is encouraging to see the temperature goal, and even the potential for a more strict (1.5C) temperature goal remains in the text, I would question how mitigation to the extent necessary will be achieved, given the focus is on individual national pledges as opposed to a legally binding carbon budget, that fits with the scientific interpretation of the 2°C goal,” she said.
 
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