Africa can feed on small fish - Study

NaijaAgroNet:

There is a burgeoning small, fast growing wild fish sector with capabilities to feed the continent of Africa, says the latest study of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) especially from drylands, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The new FAO report on fisheries in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa, its crucial to look towards these allies in the race to end hunger in some of the world's most chronically poor and underfed regions.

Lead author of the study, Jeppe Kolding, a professor of biology at the University of Bergen in Norway, noted that in order to get fish in a dryland their eggs could be boosted.

"Fish are incredibly productive when conditions are right. Their egg-laying capacities made them, more like insects than other vertebrates," he said.

Although the study recognized water as an ephemeral resource in Africa's dryland regions, which could be formed and disappearing relatively in a short period of time could not be surprising.

Kolding noted that despite this, fish some of which weigh as little as a few grams at maturity could survive and thrive in these environments, meaning the continent's dryland fisheries are in fact highly productive and resilient.

Pointing out that output from dryland fisheries fluctuates due to climate trends - mainly low and above all uncertain rainfall -but productive potential is very high in smaller water bodies, some of which appear only once a decade but could produce up to 150 kilograms of fish per hectare per year. Together, these small water bodies cover a much larger area than the sub-Saharan region's lakes and reservoirs.

This, the study said, if properly managed, these bodies in southern Africa alone could produce 1.25 million tonnes of fish, which is half the total recorded inland fisheries yield of the entire continent.

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Cote d’Ivoire reduces poverty rate by 7% - Minister Sangafowa

NaijaAgroNet:

The Honourable Minister in charge of Agriculture in Cote d’Ivoire, Mr. Mamadou Coulibaly Sangafowa has revealed that the country reduced poverty rate by seven per cent in recent times, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Experts at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined poverty rate as the ratio of the number of people in a given age group whose income falls below the poverty line; taken as half the median household income of the total population.

Speaking to group of African journalists drawn from over 20 countries, participating in the on-going weeklong workshop organized by the African Media Initiative (AMI) in collaboration with the World Bank in Abidjan, the Minister made this disclosure.

He also said that women are the bedrock of the successful farming output of the country lately.

According to him, in Cote d’Ivoire, the government has a programme that encourages less government involvement in business and investment, thereby spurring private sector to come in so that businesses and investment, especially in the country could thrive.

Sangafowa, maintained that his country, Cote d’Ivoire has reduced poverty rate from 62 per cent a few years ago to about 55 per cent, even as efforts are geared towards improving on this achievement.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that Cote d'Ivoire is a developing nation in the Sub-Saharan Africa with the income level as ‘Lower middle income’ with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at 2014 stood at $34.25 billion whereas, current population, according to the World Bank is about  22.70 million 2015.

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pix: L-r World Bank Country Director for Cote d'Ivioire, Mr. Pierre Laporte, Agric Minister, Mamadou Sangafowa, CEO, AMI, Eric Chinje and Mr. Sarwat Hussain of WorldBank.

AMI, World Bank three-day workshop on media on agriculture opens

NaijaAgroNet:

 A three-day workshop on media on agriculture opened Monday in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire by the country’s Minister of Agriculture, Mamadou Coulibaly Sangafowa, who was represented by a director in the ministry, with over 50 media practitioners in attendance across Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The meeting expected to last till Thursday, June 16 seeks indepth and informative media coverage on development themes was notably uninformed.

NaijaAgroNet reports that in addition, there have suspected superficial, perfunctory or lacking altogether in media across most of Africa, according to the organisers, the World Bank Group and the African Media Initiative (AMI).

They also said that the objective is to expand and deepen media understanding as well as coverage of agriculture and related issues by media on the continent.

The Chief executive, AIM, Mr. Eric Chinje, said the mission is to support the media to play a more decisive role in promoting democratic governance, economic growth, social development and citizen empowerment in Africa.

“It seeks to narrow the gap that currently exists between media content and national development agendas,”

He also said that AMI has two strategic pillars namely strengthening African media houses through viable business, models, technology use, effective audience measurement, and improved ethics, and improving media content by reinforcing the capacity of reporters to cover development stories, establishing platforms for program exchange and cross-fertilization, and identifying incentives for writers and other content producers. Its strategic goal is to reduce the gap between media content and the development agenda of countries on the continent.

Chinje also said that the organization supports the emergence of a media sector that is professionally proficient, financially sustainable, technologically efficient, and socially responsible so that it can best serve the public interest and informs the Africa narrative.

Thus, AMI seeks to engage, empower and strengthen the capacities of African media owners and operators by tackling key constraints to media action, and to drive the development content agenda through a programme of specialization among journalists in the critical sectors of the economy in Africa.

On the collaboration with the World Bank Group, he said, AMI look out to mainstream media coverage and promote content that enriches the continental dialogue on agriculture and its related issues. Both will work together with other relevant partners to develop training packages and generate the resources necessary to build a critical mass of media specialists to focus on agriculture, a sector that is critical to growth in national economies.

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Exclusive: Nigeria, 36 other countries need external food assistance

NaijaAgroNet:

Some 37 countries globally including Nigeria are in need of external food assistance, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisaton (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Other countries comprised of Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, and Kenya.

Equally affected based on FAO outline include Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Also, FAO raised its forecast for global cereal production in 2016 to 2,539 million tonnes, up 17.3 million tonnes from its previous May projection and up 0.6 percent from last year's harvest. 

Aggregate cereal production in Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) is also forecast to increase to 420 million tonnes in 2016, led by a recovery in rice and wheat production in India after last year reduction due to El Niño-related drought.  That would be a 2.5 percent increase from last year's "sharply reduced" level.

NaijaAgroNet, in spite of the improved world production prospects in 2016, output would still fall slightly short of the projected demand in 2016/17, meaning global stocks would need to be drawn down from their near-record level.

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G20 Ministers of agriculture affirm importance of ICT

NaijaAgroNet:

The G20 Ministers of Agriculture have affirmed the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the end of their meeting, reports NaijaAgroNet.

A communique from the meeting made available to NaijaAgroNet, the ministers affirmed the importance of ICT in agriculture, calling it “essential to human, social and economic development,” and stressing “the potential to reach farmers --including smallholders and family farmers-- with timely and accessible content on markets, sustainable and efficient farming practices and new technologies

The partnership structured at the G20 meeting, NaijaAgroNet gathered is part of a larger digital strategy Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is developing  to integrate a wide range of technologies, ranging from satellite data to mobile phones and social platforms, with the agency’s work to support the most vulnerable with access to information and bottom-up learning.

“We have to bear in mind that small farmers in developing countries are often constrained in their access to inputs, technology, and markets. In order to ensure that farmers fully leverage the ICT opportunities, it is essential to provide digital tailored access, foster capacity development and facilitate the exchange of experiences,” he said.

The FAO Director-General, José Graziano da, highlighted joint work between FAO and G20 countries on such projects as the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) and the G20 Technical Platform for the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste.

He also underlined the ongoing international efforts to address Antimicrobial Resistance in partnership with the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health and called on G20 countries to support FAO in this endeavour. 

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Conflicts, droughts exacerbate food insecurity

NaijaAgoNet:

Drought linked to El Niño and civil conflict has pushed the number of countries currently in need of external food assistance up to 37 from 34 in March, according to a new FAO report.

The new edition of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation report sighted by NaijaAgoNet, adds that Papua New Guinea, Haiti and Nigeria to the list of countries requiring outside help to feed their own populations or communities of refugees they are hosting.

In Haiti, NaijaAgoNet gathered the output of cereals and starchy roots in 2015 dropped to its lowest level in 12 years. Around 3.6 million people, more than one-third of the population, are food insecure, almost half of them "severely", while at least 200 000 are in an extreme food emergency situation.

According to the report, Haiti's woes are largely due to El Niño, which has also exacerbated the worst drought in decades in Central America's dry corridor.

In Southern Africa, El Niño impacts have significantly worsened food security and the 2016 cereal harvest currently underway is expected to drop by 26 percent from the already reduced level of the previous year, triggering a "substantial rise" in maize prices and import requirements in the coming marketing year.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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ICT helps to monitor crop growth – FAO

NaijaAgroNet:

The Director General José Graziano da Silva has said at a meeting of agriculture ministers of the G20 in China that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) helps in monitor of crop growth, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He also said that this would promoting sustainable agriculture requires a renewed focus on innovation and investment in research, technology and capacity development,

"ICT helps in the monitoring of crop growth, utilization of new techniques, field management and harvests,” the FAO Director-General said, stressing that it has also become an essential tool for improving people’s livelihoods and welfare while advancing social justice and ensure equal access to opportunities, particularly in rural areas.

Telecommunication tools, he told NaijaAgroNet, have the potential to provide Internet access for millions of people and connect farmers with digital agriculture. This includes the use of mobile phones to report animal disease outbreaks, which is one area FAO has been supporting in recent years.

Among the innovative ways FAO is using ICT, Graziano da Silva highlighted a new partnership with Google, whose satellite data and processing power will usher in an unprecedented level of environmental literacy, especially on forestry and fisheries, he said.

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‘Etisalat committed to environmental protection’

NaijaAgroNet:

Acclaimed most innovative telecommunications company, Etisalat Nigeria, has reiterated commitment to environmental conservation in Nigeria by continually doing its business responsibly in conformity with international best practices, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Head, Environmental Compliance & Public Relations, Etisalat Nigeria, Oluseyi Osunsedo, revealed this at an event organised by the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) in partnership with the United Nations Information Centre and Etisalat Nigeria to commemorate the 2016 World Environment Day in Lagos.

While underlining the importance of a healthy ecosystem to environmental sustainability and socio-economic growth, Osunsedo said Etisalat would continue to promote responsible environmental conservation in and around all its operations across Nigeria.

“At Etisalat Nigeria, we are passionate about the environment. This is why we have environment as part of our three core CSR platforms, the other two being education and health. We take environmental protection seriously because we are aware of the negative impacts that can occur from improper management of natural resources and its effect on the environment”, she said.

Osunsedo further assured the gathering that Etisalat would continue to take significant and positive steps in ensuring protection of the environment in which it operates, whilst pledging its support for initiatives such as the NES awareness program to ensure that majority of Nigerians understand the messages and call to action because everyone regardless of who they are, have a role to play in sustainable development.

Also speaking, Director, Environment Services, Lagos State Ministry of The Environment, Dr. Iyabo Philips, who represented the Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, commended Etisalat Nigeria and other partners for their collaborative effort on environmental sustainability.

“Environmental conservation is our collective responsibility. Our existence depends on how well we can keep our environment because we are all connected: human, plant and the earth,” she said.

In his remarks, Chairman, Nigerian Environmental Society (NES), Dr. Eugene Itua, said that Nigeria was blessed with a very rich wildlife, however decried the harmful practices that have put wildlife into near extinction.

“We must not allow greed and personal gains push us to decimate and destroy the earth’s irreplaceable treasure. As the dominant specie, it is our responsibility to take care of the earth”, he said.

   

National Information Officer, United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos, Oluseyi Soremekun, said ‘Go Wild for Life’, the theme for this year's World Environment Day, was informed by the need to raise awareness on the wider implications of increase in illegal trade in wildlife. “Individuals involved are motivated solely by short-term gains at the expense of long-term benefits to communities and habitats.”

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Agrotech on edge of second green revolution - Weilbach

NaijaAgroNet:

Agribusiness industry leader at PwC Africa, FransWeilbach, has said that agriculture is currently standing on the edge of a second green revolution with the aid of technology, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Speaking on desperate need for food security, Weilbach said that as the global population is growing rapidly, innovative technology and advancements in productivity are becoming increasingly important as pressure mounts on food systems.

“It is predicted that technological innovation will act as a catalyst in lifting agribusiness to the next level in Africa. The winners will be those agribusinesses that seize the opportunity to create new opportunities through technology – they will be able to reach their strategic goals faster and more efficiently,” he said.

Also commenting, the PwC Director in Kenya, Edward Kerich, said “Kenya relies heavily on the agricultural sector as the mainstay of its economy, with agriculture contributing 29 per cent of GDP. Kenya is SSA’s leading tea exporter and one of the world’s largest black tea producers. A significant development in the agricultural sector is growth in the number of privately owned tea factories outside of those owned by the KTDA and the large multinationals in the country, and the benefits realized is expected to increase as some factories move to cheaper renewable energy such as hydropower production.”

PwC Partner in Nigeria, Rasheed Rahji said “Agriculture contributed 24.18% to real GDP in Nigeria in Q4 2015 and this is mainly due to mechanised farming and to other activities in the agribusiness value chain.”

NaijaAgroNet gathered that human resources (HR) models and processes are beginning to evolve, with more emphasis being placed on technology to improve networks and data.

Though industry analysts observed that majority of agribusinesses view climate change as having significant impact on SSA agriculture in the future – 41.2 per cent indicated that there will be a significant impact in the short term, while 35.3 per cent said there will be an impact over the next 20 years.

Meanwhile, NaijaAgroNet reports that agribusiness leaders are considering investing in renewable energy, the main forms of energy being considered are solar energy and biogas.

Okoli Vincent/GEE

 

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Rwanda to host 7th AASW, FARA Assembly

NaijaAgroNet:

The city of Kigali in Rwanda would host the7th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW) and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) General Assembly, from June 13- June 16 2016, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The event is the prime forum for stakeholders in African agriculture science, technology and innovation to take stock of their collective achievements over the past three years and chart a common agenda along with modalities for achieving their collective targets over the next three years.
With the theme “Apply Science, Impact Livelihoods,” the event would feature activities such as plenary sessions, an exhibition, the Rwanda day, to showcase its achievements in agricultural research and innovation and a business session.

The Executive Director of FARA, DrYemiAkinbamijo, while briefing journalists in Accra, said that the content of the programme would be organised around five sub-themes: institutional systems and policies for making science work for African agriculture, sustainable productivity growth, value chains and profitable agribusinesses.

DrAkinbamijo explained that FARA is the apex continental organisation responsible for coordinating and advocating agricultural research for development and also serves as the technical arm of the Africa Union Commission on matters concerning agriculture science, technology and innovation. While speaking on the need to embrace technology in order to advance the sector, he added that African countries agriculture production is low because, it depends on old system of farming.

Co-organisers of the event alongside FARA, are: sub-regional Agricultural Research Organisations, African Union Commission and NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, Education Networks, The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation and the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture.

Okoli Vincent/GEE
 

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