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All-time low produce affects livestock says experts

NaijaAgroNet:

Agriculturists have said that the increasing all-time low food production in the war-torn Syria has affected livestock, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Experts from both World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) made this known in a latest joint report, saying that livestock producers are equally feeling the effects of the crisis.

“With the upkeep of their animals becoming ever more difficult and costly, many herding families have been forced to sell or slaughter their sheep, goats and poultry,” they said.

Equally, they said that ongoing fighting and widespread insecurity continues to limit access to grazing land and water sources, while animal feed has become unaffordable for many pastoralists.

This, they stressed as particularly true in areas with large numbers of internally displaced people who brought their livestock with them when fleeing their homes. The country's veterinary service, meanwhile, is rapidly running out of animal vaccines and routine drugs, making it harder for herders to keep their animals healthy and productive.

“As a result, Syria - once an exporter in livestock - has seen its herds and flock shrink significantly since the beginning of the crisis. Today, there are 30 percent fewer cattle, 40 percent fewer sheep and goats, and a staggering 60 percent less poultry − traditionally the most affordable source of animal protein in the country,” they said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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FAO, WFP lament Syria food production at all-time low

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) have raised alarm over the all-time low of food production in the war-torn Syria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The duo in a joint press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet at the weekend, both FAO and WFP, said the food production in Syria has hit a record low as widespread insecurity and unfavourable weather conditions in parts of the country continued to hamper access to land, farming supplies and markets.

These, NaijaAgroNet gathered, have made it ever more difficult for farmers to maintain their livelihoods and feed the war-torn country.

According to the latest Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) showed that after five years of conflict, many farmers have lost the ability to cope.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that rising prices and scarcity of essential inputs such as fertilizers and seeds mean they will have no other option than to abandon food production if they do not receive immediate support.

In addition, this, they said, will likely have grave consequences not only for the food security of farming households but also on food availability in the country, and may ultimately lead to further displacements.

Further, NaijaAgroNet reports that cereals top the list at an all-time low production in Syria, even as the area planted with cereals in the 2015-16 cropping season is the smallest ever, according to the report, based on field visits and surveys across the country.

Part of the reports read “Farmers planted an estimated 900,000 hectares of wheat in the last year, compared to 1.5 million hectares planted before the crisis. Production, meanwhile, shows an even more drastic decline, from an average 3.4 million tonnes of wheat harvested before the war to 1.5 million tonnes this year - a decrease of 55 percent.”

The FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, because the ongoing crisis and associated sanctions have disrupted trade and markets, access to quality seeds, fertilizers, machinery and fuel needed to operate pumps and tractors is limited.

“Those inputs that are available on local markets are frequently overpriced and of dubious quality,” he observed.

Stressing that poor rainfall and the destruction of valuable irrigation infrastructure has made matters worse for growers trying to continue to produce food under adverse circumstances. In some instances, this has led farmers to switch from cultivating valuable and nutritious crops to hardier but less nutritious ones.

He pointed out that at the same time, the assessment showed vast differences among the governorates in terms of access to land and agricultural inputs − a sign of possible opportunities to intensify support to producers in areas that are relatively accessible.

"Today, we see almost 80 per cent of households across Syria struggling with a lack of food or money to buy food - and the situation is only going to become worse if we fail to support farmers so they can maintain their lands and livelihoods. Agriculture was the main source of livelihood for rural households before the crisis and it is still producing to a certain extent, but it is stretched to the maximum and farmers have largely exhausted their capacity to cope," he declared.

For Muhannad Hadi, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and East Europe, the food security situation of millions of people inside Syria continues to deteriorate with more than seven million people classified as food insecure across the country having exhausted their life savings and no longer able to put food on the table for their families.

"WFP and FAO are working together to invest in more livelihood projects in agriculture as the most effective way to address food insecurity in the long term," he said.

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Agriculture contributes 20% greenhouse gas emissions

NaijaAgroNet:

Agriculture has been identified to contribute to close to 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Disclosing this, FAO said, it has become a fundamental part of the solution to boost resilience and combat climate change impacts, especially in developing countries where agriculture is often the backbone of the economy.

Boosting agriculture, FAO said, could reduce malnutrition and poverty, create economic opportunities, and generate faster, fairer growth especially for young people.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva pointed out that sustainable agriculture also improves the management of natural resources such as water; conserves biodiversity and ecosystem services; and increases carbon sequestration while easing the pressures that drive deforestation.

"We have to transform agriculture to make it more productive and more resilient at the same time. This transformation will help to address, at the same time, the triple threat of hunger, poverty and climate change," he said. 

Countries, NaijaAgroNet gathered, are recognizing this potential with unprecedented commitments, hence, FAO harped on scaling up international flows of climate finance and unlocking additional investment in adaptation in agricultural sectors is needed to give traction to the action.

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Fight against malaria: FG partners Dangote Foundation

NaijaAgroNet:

The Federal Government and Dangote Foundation have joined forces against the fight on malaria in the country, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The partnership on malaria, NaijaAgroNet gathered would pave the way to explore resources from private investors towards eradicating malaria in the country.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, while inaugurating the private sector initiative tagged: “Engaging the private sector to eliminate malaria in Nigeria”, in Lagos said that the present administration was determined to work with private sector not only in malaria control but also in the other health challenges in Nigeria.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that malaria has been described as one of the major causes of death of women and children in the country, which accounts for 60 per cent of out-patients visits and 30 per cent of hospital admissions in Nigeria. Just as an estimated $1.1 Billion US Dollar is lost annually in the country, due to malaria treatment cost. It is the major cause of absenteeism in the work place.

“Working with you today to launch this important document is a welcome development, it is important that we embark on this initiative, it would increase efficiency and ensure that we deliver” Adewole said.

He expressed worry that despite the large volume of mosquito nets distributed in the country; the prevalence of malaria is still high which clearly indicated that most of those who received the nets declined to use it.

Speaking on local production of mosquito nets, Adewole urged private investors to consider the possibilities of producing mosquito nets in the country. 

“We cannot afford to be importing net, this net can be produced in Nigeria and the market is huge. We need about 30 million nets every year in Nigeria. A net has a life span of about 3years and if you compute on the bases of 1 net for two people Nigerian would need 90 million nets over 3 years so every year we need to replace 30 million nets, so there is a huge market apart from opportunities for export,” Minister said.

In his remarks, the Chairman Dangote Foundation who is also the Malaria Ambassador in Nigeria, Alhaji Aliko Dangote said that Private sector had an important role to play in mobilizing resources towards Malaria Elimination Programme in Nigeria.

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Aisha Buhari leads walk on malnutrition @IDP camps

NaijaAgroNet:

Nigeria's First Lady, Aisha Buhari has led many Nigerians to a walk to draw attention to the increasing rate of malnutrition in Internally Displaced Persons camps in the North East, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The event, NaijaAgroNet gathered was attended by some victims from selected IDPs camps in Abuja, with the theme: "Charity Walk Against Malnutrition: Serve a meal to save a soul", was jointly organised by Victims of Violence Charity Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation; World Medical Relief, Detroit, USA; Society of Petroleum Engineers and supported by SUNTrust Bank.

Apart from Aisha Buhari, other personalities who participated in the walk include the Managing Director of SUNTrust Bank, Muhammad Jibrin; wife of Governor of Zamfara State, Hajia Asmau Abdullaziz Yari; chairman/CEO of Victims of Violence Charity Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation, Sulaiman Gumi; West Africa Coordinator, World Medical Relief, Detroit, USA, Dr. Isa Abubakar Saddiq and FCT section chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Salau Tahir. 

The First Lady who was represented by wife of Nasarawa State governor, Hajia Miriam Al-Makura, said the walk would have a great impact on the fight against malnutrition in the country, particularly in the North East.

She said, "This is an awareness walk; for people who don’t know, when they see us walking, they will ask what is happening. And people will tell them this is an awareness walk for people with malnutrition in the IDP camps. I think it  will go a long way in uplifting the life of people living in the IDP camps.

"The First Lady has asked me to represent her in this very laudable project. Like you know she (Aisha Buhari) has a passion for women, children and the youths of this country and her program “Future Assured”, has done a lot in collaboration with other organisations to uplift the living standard of people living in the IDP camps in Maiduguri, Yola and other places. 

"That is why she has asked me personally to be here to represent her and she has asked me to call on well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of the people living in the IDP camps. That is why we have an organization like this, the Federal Government cannot do it alone. We need people and philanthropists to come out and assist in whichever way they can."

The wife of Governor of Zamfara State, Hajia Asmau Abdullaziz Yari, said anything that has to do with malnutrition campaign for children and the less-privileged would be interesting to wives of Governors.

"Wives of Governors will play a passionate role in that and I think we are all aware of what the First Lady Hajia Aisha Buhari has done about malnutrition and we have all keyed into this programme. As wives of governors, this is something like creating awareness for Nigerians to see where the problem is, how to tackle it and how to go about it. So, really this is charity walk and it is really worth coming out, it is really worth doing. I am proud of the organisers of this walk", she stressed.

According to her, although Zamfara State "is a very conservative state", she would convene a women's forum and other stakeholders that would show them the extent of malnutrition, adding "but not necessary a walk."        

Gumi recalled that before he went to Bama it was between five to six children dying of malnutrition almost everyday, adding that after about two months with intervention from VoVCF and other INGOs, "we stopped seeing death rates and people started recovering."

He said, "The malnutrition is there but it only gets exposed when diseases like cholera and diarrhoea comes into play and start claiming children. At that time, dysentery and was claiming the children but after sometime, it got better. The beauty of what we are trying to advocate for is that we have the local ingredient that was used to solve the issue of malnutrition. 

"We have sava meal which is produced locally, we have been giving the IDPs, we keep it as part of the drugs in all our mobile clinics, we give the child what to eat so the drugs can work and that work wonders. The next step is to teach the IDPs what to use to make the sava meal. It is very easy, you can source it from local ingredients: sorghum, soya beans and groundnut which is readily available instead of feeding the children with rice and spaghetti being donated to them to help the children grow better and survive any kind of disease."

Also speaking, Saddiq suggested the use of local nutrition to check malnutrition in the IDPs camps.

"We can replicate the effects like soya beans. It is not expensive; we have given the formula to victims of violence and they are handling it. When victims of violence went to Bama, the death rate was 40 children per day. But within two to three weeks when they started using local diet as food nutrition, the death rate reduced to zero per cent."

The Vice chairman of Majiji IDPs camp in Abuja, Bello Mohammaed, said VoVCF have been providing all the medical facilities, food items and schools for the camp.

He said, "We have people from Adamawa, Yobe and Borno stated in our camp, I am from Borno state. We are very much eager to go, we are not comfortable, its only NGOs that help us, government does not even recognise us as a camp.

"We are about 250 in Karon Majiji IDPs camp along Airport Road. Apart from malnutrition, we still have issues of food security, beddings, clothing and toiletries. We have about two critical cases of malnutrition but they were able to rescue them. We did not witness food diversion in our camp but there are others who have been complaining of this but things are In order now."

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FOA calls for scaling up climate change action

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for the scaling up climate change action rooted in agriculture and food security, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva made this call to delegates at the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP22) in Morocco.

Speaking at the high-level action day on agriculture and food security, Graziano da Silva noted that climate change impacts on agriculture - including crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries, land and water - are already undermining global efforts to assure food security and nutrition.

With over 90 percent of countries referring to the important role of agriculture in their national plans to adapt to and mitigate climate change, Graziano da Silva stressed that

"it is time to invest in sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture as a fundamental part of the climate solution," he said. 

Last year's conference in Paris led to the world's first legally binding global climate deal. The current summit in Marrakech, Morocco is geared to implementation of the pledges all signatory countries made. Echoing the prevalent spirit at the COP, the Paris Agreement is irreversible and inaction would be a disaster for the world.

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Pix: FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva

Niger Delta Environment: A 3-point agenda for President Buhari...

Niger Delta Environment: A 3-point agenda for President Buhari...: Commentary@ITRealms: SETTING THE NIGER DELTA AGENDA R ecently confirmed by Nigeria's minister of state for petroleum resources...

300m children exposed to toxic air says UNICEF

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed that an estimated 300 million children globally are exposed to toxic air through living in areas with outdoor air contaminated in excess of six times over international pollution guidelines, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This was contained in the latest UNICEF report tagged ‘Clear the air for children’  which also indicated  could cause serious health damage, including harming their developing brains.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake told NaijaAgroNet that pollutants do not only harm children’s developing lungs  as they could actually cross the blood-brain barrier and permanently damage their developing brains, thus, their futures.

“Air pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths of around 600,000 children under five every year – and it threatens the lives and futures of millions more every day,” he added. “No society can afford to ignore air pollution,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet reports that these findings came a week ahead of the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Marrakesh, Morocco, where UNICEF is calling on world leaders to take urgent action to cut air pollution in their countries.

Further, NaijaAgroNet reports that using satellite imagery, the report further shows that around two billion children live in areas where outdoor air pollution, caused by factors such as vehicle emissions, heavy use of fossil fuels, dust and burning of waste, exceeds minimum air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

South Asia has the largest number of children living in these areas, at 620 million, with Africa following with 520 million children, and the East Asia and Pacific region with 450 million children living in areas that exceed guideline limits.

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Agro experts to seek adoptive solution for Africa @COP22

NaijaAgroNet:

A set of high-level experts in African agriculture and climate change issues would be converging at the city of Marrakech, Morroco to proffer solution as part of the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Discussions, NaijaAgroNet gathered will centre on how to implement an ambitious new initiative launched by the Moroccan government that seeks to mobilise some $30 billion for Africa to transform and adapt its agriculture to a changing climate.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that the event would showcase the most promising climate adaptation strategies for the continent, which could deliver food security to the 230 million people still suffering from chronic hunger in the region.

The high-level experts, NaijaAgroNet gathered would include representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Morocco and Senegal, members of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mohamed Badraoui, Deputy Director General, INRA-Morocco, Richard Mrabet, Member of the Scientific Committee of the AAA initiative (INRA), Mohamed Ait Kadi, President, General Council of Agricultural Development (CGDA) , Olga Speckhardt, Head of Global Insurance Solutions, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, Bruce Campbell, Director, CCAFS, and Sonja Vermeulen, Head of Research, CCAFS among others.

NaijaAgroNet recollects that some 100 per cent of African countries have included agriculture in their climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), highlighting the grave risk that climate change poses both to food security and economic growth on the continent. Yet African nations remain underequipped to act on these pledges.

Key policy recommendations from each session will be captured and developed into a framework for implementation for the Moroccan Adaptation of African Agriculture initiative.

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