UN warns of looming La Niña

NaijaAgroNet

The United Nations (UN) has warned of new phase of drought and flood known as La Nina in the Ethiopia’s region of Oromia and Somali, according to meteorological notice made available to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

As said by exprts, a La Niña event is 55 per cent likely for October to November and will have two major impacts on Ethiopia: flooding in the dominantly highland areas and additional drought in the lowland livestock-dependent areas of Oromia and Somali regions. FAO is supporting the Government to prepare a contingency plan to address the upcoming needs.

FAO said that with resources available, the organization has already provided agricultural inputs to 127 000 households (635 000 people) in drought-affected regions including Amhara, Afar, Oromia, Tigray, Somali and SNNP.

“So far, nearly 3 700 metric tons of seed and 5.8  million potato cuttings have been delivered to affected communities. Additional vegetable and late season crop seed are being purchased and will be distributed between August and September 2016,” FAO said.

The agency also said it has provided critical support to livestock-owning families, provided livestock feed, fodder seed to rejuvenate pasture, and rehabilitated water points for livestock.

FAO says it has supported the government to vaccinate and treat some 1.4 million animals, decrying that large numbers of animals has been weakened by the drought and are exposed to diseases as the result of the recent floods.

The UN organization revealed its planning to expand the vaccinations and treatment campaigns.

In order to increase the coverage of both on farmers and livestock keepers affected by the drought and current floods, FAO says it requires $10 million by the end of September 2016.  

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

LDRI director, Nyumba underscores importance of file extensions in open data

NaijaAgroNet:

The importance of file extensions in open data has been underscored by the Nairobi-based Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), reports NaijaAgroNet.

This importance was brought to the fore by the co-founding director at LDRI, Mr. Stephen Nyumba in his recent presentation in Nairobi-Kenya, during a workshop for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network held at the Hilton Hotel, recently.

According to TechTerms Computer Dictionary, a file extension or ‘simply extension’ is the ending of a file that helps identify the type of file in operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. In Microsoft Windows, the file extension is a period that is often followed by three characters, but may also be one, two, or four characters long. For example, the filename "myfile.txt" has an extension of ".txt", which is a file extension associated with text files.

Nyumba in his paper entitled “Open Data for Agriculture: An Overview, the Concept and Application” stressed the imperative of file extensions in exploration of the open data contents.

The LDRI director also highlighted some kinds of file formats open data content come with, such as the Comma Separated Values (CSV), the XLS file which is a spreadsheet extension file created by Microsoft Excel, and assumed the most widely-used spreadsheet programme and comes in either XLS or XLSX.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that XLSX file formats, are the extensions of Microsoft Excel versions created in 2007 and later.

Nyumba, equally said that open data comes as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, while DOC  an abbreviation of 'document') is a filename extension for Word Processing documents, most commonly Microsoft Word Binary File Format and have since been extended to even Word Perfect file format. Even as the DOCX file extension is a Microsoft Word Open XML Format Document file.

In addition, he highlighted that the Extensible Markup Language (XML) file formats do exist, while the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight data-interchange format.

Nyumba emphasized that datasets and Application Programming Interface (API) also come in XML which stands for Extensible Markup Language, pointing out that some of the extension file formats could sound like jargons, but it is crucial to know a little of some of these formats, mostly for media practitioners who stand in-between the data content and the populace who ought to understand the gist in the story, no matter how complicated the data may be or look.

He further said that LDRI focuses on supporting African Union (AU) member states in their efforts to end hunger, poverty and reduce inequality through data, even as with good datasets, good stories 
could emerge.

Remmy Nweke/ED. Ops
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix: Steve Nyumba

FAO warns of likely outbreak of crop, livestock diseases in Ethiopia

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Representative to Ethiopia, Amadou Allahoury, has warned that if the current floods in the country continues, it could lead to crop and livestock diseases, reports NaijaAgroNet.

"If floods worsen later this year, there could be outbreaks of crop and livestock diseases, further reducing agricultural productivity and complicating recovery,” Allahoury declared.

The situation, Allahoury said, is critical now and urged the world make sure that farmers will be able to plant between now and September and grow enough food to feed themselves and their families thus avoiding millions of people having to rely on food assistance for another year.

“Ethiopia needs urgent global support to respond to its humanitarian needs, we have no time to procrastinate," Allahoury said.

The FAO official described the meher season as Ethiopia's main agricultural season and produces up to 85 per cent of the nation's food supplies.

Also, Allahoury warned that if the farmers do not plant enough now, Ethiopia may face significant food shortages, which may further exacerbate food and nutrition insecurity in the country.

“To ensure the last remaining planting window of the year is met, an estimated $8.8 million is needed to provide root crop planting materials, legumes, vegetable and cereal seed to 530 000 households,” the representative said.

NaijaAgroNet reports that FAO estimated that households who lost small ruminants such as sheep may need at least two years to return to pre-drought levels, while cattle-owning households may need up to four years to recover. While animals that survived the recent drought are still weak and susceptible to diseases during the rainy periods; $36.2 million is required to undertake the necessary interventions to support 2.4 million livestock-dependent households or 12 million people.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

El Niño: Ethiopia needs $45m to scale over

NaijaAgroNet:

Following the starvation caused by the El Nino in Ethiopia with this year's main planting season winding down, the country needs $45 million in agricultural support, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This was contained in the newly released Mid-Year Review of the Ethiopia Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) developed jointly by the Government of Ethiopia and UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and other development partners and made available to NaijaAgroNet, indicated that 900 000 additional households need urgent agricultural support bringing the total number to 2.9 million in August.

The review, NaijaAgroNet gathered also showed there is still a small window of opportunity in September for farmers to plant the last set of crops this year and grow food for millions facing hunger, provided the necessary support arrives on time.

In order to meet additional agricultural sector needs HRD reviewed stated will require $45 million bringing the total requirement for the agriculture sector to $91.3 million for 2016.

“The overall food security situation has improved only slightly, with the number of people requiring emergency food assistance having decreased from 10.2 million to 9.7 since the beginning of the year,” part of the report read.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the El Niño-induced drought caused a wide-scale failure of crops and loss of livestock critical to the livelihoods of farmers and agropastoralists. Even as the drought is being followed by seasonal floods, which have already led to crop damage and the inundation of pastures and may be further exacerbated by a phenomenon called La Niña, expected from October onwards.
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Prioritise rural people in post-Ebola recovery plans - IFAD

NaijaAgroNet:

The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, has tasked the government and people of Sierra Leone and Liberia to prioritise rural people in the post-Ebola recovery plans, reports NaijaAgroNet.

IFAD president who was in the two West-African countries made this call during his visit to Sierra Leone (4-6 August) and in Liberia (6-8 August), where he met with presidents of both countries.

In Sierra Leone, Nwanze met President Ernest Bai Koroma, the Ministers of Agriculture, Finance and Gender and the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone. While in Liberia he met President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Minister of Agriculture and project implementation partners.

For him, Ebola has had an enormous impact on the lives of rural people – many of whom are small-scale farmers who could not grow food or earn a living during the epidemic.

“If we do not channel our investments to the rural areas now, these farmers may have to migrate in search of work. This could compromise the future food security of these countries,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that discussions were focused on how IFAD could further support the two countries post-Ebola recovery plans, particularly in rural areas.

Over 11,310 people, NaijaAgroNet recalls died from the Ebola virus between 2014 and 2016 in the three affected countries, namely Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix: Nwanze and labourers tilling the land for recovery

Open data concept, application for agriculture according to Steve Nyumba

 NaijaAgroNet:

The co-founding director at the Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), Mr. Stephen Nyumba has offered some insights on how open data concept could be leveraged through application for the agriculture sector by African media, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Nyumba, in a presentation at the recently concluded week-long training for CAADP Journalists Network in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, dwelt on “Open Data for Agriculture” said that in being open connotes a lot for different people and media practitioners must ensure whatever definition they are using is seemingly holistic.

According to him, for a data to be open means that the “Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose.”

On the concept and application overview to agriculture, Mr. Nyumba pointed out that open data and content is very often provided by the publisher with “explicit permission allowing for it’s use, re-use, re-distribution or re-purposing with little or no restriction.”

He canvassed that before reuse, it is important for the user which in this case could be a media outlet or practitioner, who wants to tell his or her story differently with infographics to check if the potential content is open or restricted.

This, Nyumba said, could be achieved by way of looking critically at the license of the publication, which very often comes as Creative Commons, otherwise, he advised that the publisher be asked for permission or clarification, so as to eschew any kind of legal bottleneck afterwards.

As said by him, taking most of these precautions would afford the user and precisely media practitioners the opportunity to make informed assumptions, citing for instance, the Gro Intelligence produces which was provided under an open license.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix: Mr. Stephen Nyumba

UN, Japan, Belgium, EU, CERF raise $4.9m for Northeast farmers return to land

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations agency known as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has drummed fiscal support worth $4.9m, about N1,569,225,000 billion for its programme in northeast Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as FAO informed NaijaAgroNet that the fund so far was contributed from its internal special emergency fund alongside the Japan, Belgium, the European Commission (ECHO) and the United Nations Central Emergency Fund (CERF).

The agency also said its currently targeting an additional 85,000 people with horticulture packages to prepare for the upcoming irrigated season.

FAO's Emergency and Response Manager in Nigeria, Mr. Tim Vaessen, lamented that by growing their own healthy and nutritious food would reduce need for future external food assistance.

“Families who have access to land and are ready to farm can harvest in six to eight weeks," Vaessen said.

FAO's activities in Nigeria, he said, remained constrained by a serious lack of funding, but pointed out that till-date, FAO has received just $ 4.9 million, of which almost 20 per cent came from FAO's own Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities.

Whereas, FAO's programme in northeast Nigeria is also funded by Japan, Belgium, the European Commission (ECHO) and the United Nations Central Emergency Fund (CERF).

Ugo Nwocha/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

FMARD, IWMI launch ‘Wetin App’ for flood forecast, control

NaijaAgroNet:

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) have launched a smart phone application tagged “Wetin App” for flood forecast and control, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The app, NaijaAgroNet gathered is available on Google App Store, and would be focusing on forecasting flood reports especially along the Niger and Benue rivers.

FMARD officials informed NaijaAgroNet that the application, would assist Nigeria in management of flood and its associated exigencies.

Speaking at the launch in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Shehu Ahmed, represented by the Director of Agricultural Businesses, Processing and Marketing, Alhaji Azeez M. Olumuyiwa said Nigeria sought the help of the IWMI to develop the application following the devastating flood of 2012, which led to huge destruction of farms, houses and human lives.

He also said the country had decided to turn that bitter experience into a blessing by looking at the various ways farmers and government could take advantage of technology.

In his remark, the Regional Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Professor Timothy Olalekan Williams, said the application was developed using data from the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NHSA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NMA) and the satellite.

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Buhari’s FG launches ‘The Green Alternative’ 2016-2020

NaijaAgroNet:

The President Mohammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has launched a new agricultural sector roadmap known as The Green Alternative, for the projected promotion of agriculture for the year 2016 through 2020, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The launch which took place in Abuja, the nation’s capital, NaijaAgronet gathered was declared open by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on behalf of Mr. President on Monday.

He also said government would deploy 100,000 agriculture extension workers to assist farmers implement the policy, stressing that the move to diversify the economy through the agriculture sector had become necessary due to the huge food importation bill and the need to create jobs for the teeming population of youth in the country.

Osinbajo expressed optimism that the roadmap would address challenges in the sector and reposition it for economic growth and development

“The present administration came into office to meet an economy in a meltdown and we have to take difficult decisions on short, medium term in order to repair the huge damage done, especially by the dependence on oil, the worst not investing in infrastructure or deepening the diversification of our economy, or even building our reserves when oil sold at over a $100 per barrel.

“We knew that we had to set aright and put back the economy on a fast lane, inclusive growth, job creation for our huge population. One of the most critical components of that plan is to position agriculture, the arrowhead of our economic recovery efforts.

“There is no question at all that if we get agriculture right, we will get our economy right. The great clarity, ‘The Green Alternative, sets out strategies to resolve these challenges and particularly impressed that the roadmap does not dismiss the agric policies ‘building on the successes of the agricultural agenda’.

“This particular issue of alignment is crucial. For instance, there is no way we can encourage agriculture than to encourage food production when we allow unbridled importation of the same things we are trying to produce.

“Still on the issue of policy of alignment, as part of our 500,000 teacher corps that we will be engaging 100, 000 of them that will be trained as extension workers for our farms.

“I, hereby, launch the Agriculture Sector Roadmap: The Green Alternative; Agriculture Promotion Policy 2016-2020.”

Further, the Vice President said, the home-grown school feeding programme will have one meal a day for pupils and specifically the food will be from farms in each state. He also assured that the Bank of Agriculture would be recapitalised and repositioned to meet farmers’ financial need by giving them a single digit interest rate and low interest.

Equally speaking earlier, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said the roadmap for the sector was all encompassing and would salvage the economy from collapse.

“In this policy, you will see us navigating through the agricultural terrain, trucking on virtually every aspect. The emphasis on ‘Green’ is to capture the essence, spirit and orientation of this new policy/strategy document,” Ogbeh said.

Isaac Oyimah/Vanguard/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Pix: left, Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Mohammed Tahir Mongonu; Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed and Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige during the launch/public presentation of the Agricultureal Sector Roadmap, The Green Alternative Agriculture Promotion Policy 2016-2020, in Abuja, Monday.

Nigeria rice imports average 1.5m tonnes annually

NaijaAgroNet :

Investigations have revealed that between 2003 and 2013, Nigeria may have imported rice to the tune of 17,206,077 tonnes with an average import at 1,564,188 million, NaijaAgroNet can authoritatively report.

According to the Statistics Division of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), an intergovernmental organization of the United Nations with over 194 member nations, the division’s mission, NaijaAgroNet  gathered is to improve data collection and dissemination for development and the fight against global hunger and malnutrition.

These imports of 17,206,077 tonnes, NaijaAgroNet reports, came in the heels of against the total production of 114.3 million tonnes within the period under review including both calculated and official data as at the time of filing this report.

For the rice import in 2003, Nigeria recorded 1600701 tonnes, 1396692 in 2004, 1174071 in 2005, 974647 in 2006, 1215758 in 2007, 970787 in 2008, 1160671 in 2009 and 1882759 in 2010, while 2187419 was recorded in 2011 followed by 2455202 a year later, just as 2187370 was the tonnes of rice imported in 2013.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet  gathered that bulk of the data were unearthed from aggregation and includes the official, semi-official, estimated and or calculated data from the Nigerian government by FAO.

The imported tonnes of rice, NaijaAgroNet  investigations revealed may have been "rice in milled equivalent."

Market watchers believed that despite the decline recorded by IRERP that obviously what was gathered as official data, semi-official or even aggregated were crossly in adequate considering the number of smuggled tonnes and the nation’s craze for foreign products which is not alien to agriculture produce.

This is despite the fact that most foreign rice imported into Nigeria takes averagely three to five months to be shipped into the country, therefore fortified thus missing relevant vitamins.

This much was what kept the cost of ‘foreign rice’ as its fondly called locally high, even as there is allegations of such chemical used in preserving the rice to have become instrumental to certain kind of cancer.

Noteworthy is that the initiative on Increased Rice Production and Export Programme (IRPEP) report, released in 2013 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that it recorded some accomplishments.

These comprised of the discovery that both national and international research institutes working in Nigeria have developed over 52 rice varieties with potential yields of 28 tonnes of paddy per hectare and maturity periods ranging from 95 to 140 days.

IRPEP records also showed increase in the areas cultivated from 2.2 million hectare (ha) in 1999 to 2.8 million ha in 2006 and 3.2 million ha in 2007; while an increase was recorded in annual production from 3.3 million tonnes of milled rice in 2000 to 4.2 million tonnes in 2006, and 4.8 million tonnes in 2007. Although these represented significant increases in output, IRPEP equally highlighted that the targets of 6 million tonnes in 2005 and 9.8 million tonnes in 2007 were not achieved.

NaijaAgroNet  further quoted IRPEP as stating that increase in productivity per hectare as a result of the introduction of high-yielding NERICA rice variety and R-Box technology among others brought about the reduction in rice importation from 2.0 million tonnes in 2003 to less than 1.0 million tonnes in 2006 and 2007, thus, conserving foreign exchange.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pic: A graphic table of Nigeria's rice import between 2003 and 2013