COVID-19: Innovation key to feeding the world says FAO DG - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General QU Dongyu has said that innovation is the key to feeding the world, especially in time of pandemic and climate change, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Addressing the Agriculture Ministers' Conference in Berlin Dongyu underscored the importance, in the wake of COVID-19, of continued global cooperation to find new ways to strengthen the sustainability of agri-food systems, and outlined FAO and its partners' role in this.

FAO joins forces to eliminate child labour - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today pledged to intensify efforts towards addressing child labour in agriculture through a dedicated work programme within FAO's Strategic Framework.

‘'This year, we will step-up our efforts to strengthen the capacities of a wide range of agricultural actors to include child labour prevention and youth employment in their work,'' the Director-General stressed during the virtual event launch of the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour 2021 organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

"Policies, programmes, and investments related to agri-food systems need to address the root causes of child labour, including household poverty," he added, as the global COVID-19 pandemic also places more pressure on poor and vulnerable families. The Director-General highlighted that "we need a breakthrough in agriculture where child labour is frequently found".

This year, FAO will organize a series of regional consultations, and a global event on Child Labour in Agriculture will be held in November to increase awareness and promote good practices, the Director-General said, while noting the outcomes from that event would make a significant contribution to the Fifth Global Conference on Child Labour in 2022.

Qu also emphasized that FAO would continue to play a central role in the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture, which was established by FAO and the ILO with other organizations in 2007.

The Director-General of the ILO, Guy Ryder, opened today's event noting there were 100 million fewer children in labour now than at the turn of the century while calling for greater commitments to wipe out child labour which he said often occurred in situations of conflict and fragility.

UNICEF's Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, indicated child labour had been exacerbated by rising poverty, weak protection laws and cultural practices in some countries even before the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the plight of vulnerable families.

Representatives of governments, worker and employer organizations, international organizations and civil society outlined how they intended to eradicate child labour by 2025.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi, and Amar Lal, a human rights lawyer and child labour survivor, also addressed the launch event.

2021: Year of healthcare worker - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

Frontline health workers, who are to be honoured during the World Health Organization’s international Year of the Healthcare Worker in 2021, must be better supported in their vital role to beat back the global COVID-19 pandemic on community level, according to global health technology experts, BroadReach Group.

Frontline health workers, and in particular Community Health Workers (CHWs) help educate communities, collect grassroots data and provide vital firstline health interventions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Herders, farmers clash: South-West, northern govs, Miyetti Allah leaders meet in Akure - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

Some governors from the South West and Northern parts of Nigeria, have held a meeting with the national leadership of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breaders Association of Nigeria and Head of Security Agency held at International Culture and Event Centre, Akure, over the recent herders and farmers clash in some parts of South West, especially Oyo and Ondo States respectively, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The governors included that of of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde and his counterparts in Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, Jigawa State Governor, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Ondo State Governor, Romiti Akeredolu and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi.

Speaking at the meeting, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said that his government would not try to solve the insecurity challenges in his state by backing those bent on taking laws into their hands or carrying out jungle justice against perceived wrongdoers.

He stated that instead of backing a venture that is capable of throwing the country into ethnic crisis, the end of which cannot be foreseen, his administration would rather continue to support the security agencies in the state to do their works effectively.

He added that his administration would promote good neighbourliness by encouraging the residents of the state to live together in peace and to face their common enemies, who are criminals of all shades and tribes.

The governor also stated that the administration will continue to do its best to provide opportunities for the people, as that is another way to reduce the tension in the land, saying: “One of the things we found out is that opportunities are very limited at the top. We will continue to do our best to strive to expand our economy and provide opportunities for a whole lot of our people. And we believe when we do that, the tension will definitely go down.”

The governor stated these in Akure, while addressing a meeting of South-West governors, national leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association (MACBAN) and heads of security agencies on the insecurity challenges in the South-West geopolitical zone, held at the International Culture and Event Centre, Akure.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, quoted the governor as saying that his government had foreclosed the option of backing anyone taking up arms against other ethnic nationalities resident in the state in the name of seeking justice as, according to him, such a step would have dire consequences for the society.

He stated that if government encourages residents to mete out justice through self-help to any ethnic nationality, due to the excesses of some of its people, it would amount to solving criminality with criminality.

The meeting had in attendance Governors Rotimi Akeredolu, Kayode Fayemi and Gboyega Oyetola of Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states, while Governors Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa), and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and the national leadership of MACBAN were also present.

According to Makinde, who maintained that a lot of people commenting on the security situation in Ibarapa had been displaying ignorance, his government would solve the insecurity challenge its own way by continuing to encourage residents of the state to work and live together and to face their common enemies, who are criminals, kidnappers, armed robbers and bandits from all tribes.

He added that all hands must be on deck to lawfully fight crimes, saying: “We will continue to promote good neighborliness among our people and we will ensure that all of us go after the criminals together.

“We will continue to support our security agencies because they are also trying to maintain law and order in an atmosphere of pandemic and economic challenges. We will continue to provide support for the security agencies for them to do their work.”

The governor equally warned Nigerians to deal with the menace of fake news and sieve information on social media properly, noting that the rate at which fake news is being circulated portends great danger to the society.

Makinde warned against some elements seeking political powers at all costs, who he said, have resorted to misinforming the public and causing division among them, calling on such persons to desist from the path, as it is capable of causing tension in the country.

He said: “I can tell you for a fact that when the Kisi area of Oyo State, which shares international border with Republic of Benin was invaded, all hands were on deck. MACBAN, Operation Burst, local hunters and the communities all worked together to clear the bush.

“During my electioneering, a major decision I was going to take was to scrap all the LCDAs in Oyo State and stick with only the LGAs that are known to the constitution of Nigeria. During the campaign, all the people I met at a particular LCDA (I think it is Oriire South) were Fulanis. And they told me I should not scrap the LCDA because it was the only LCDA dominated by the Fulani people.

“After I got elected, I decided I would not scrap the LCDAs again. I didn’t get such knowledge by sitting in the armchair in my house but by going out into the field and interacting with the people.

“So, when people talk, you wonder if they have done any kind of comparison with what has happened elsewhere in the world. What are we going to do moving forward in Oyo State? Well, the first thing I will say is to tell you the things that we will not do; we will not use criminality to solve another criminality, because of the unintended consequences of such an action; nobody can predict where it will end.

“Once you are drawn out to support criminality, you don’t know where it is going to end. So, what we are going to do is to continue to encourage our people to work together; to face our common enemies – the criminals, the kidnappers, the armed robbers and the bandits. Those are our common enemies.”

He equally charged his colleague governors and others in positions of leadership not to be tired or to relent, saying: “I want to end by saying that our leaders should not be tired. They will abuse us but we should continue to strive to provide the leadership that this country requires at this point in time.”

While speaking earlier, the MACBAN Secretary, Alhaji Baba Othman Ngelzarma, who noted that the Miyetti Allah was meeting the South-West governors on the escalating crisis between herders and farmers, said the body will continue to encourage herders in the Southern part of the country to live in peace and eschew criminality.

At the end of the meeting, it was resolved, among other things, that night grazing and grazing by underage children would stop henceforth.


Pic: From left, Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola; Jigawa State Governor, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar; Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu; Ondo State Governor, Romiti Akeredolu and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi during a meeting of South West Governors with the National Leadership of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breaders Association of Nigeria and Head of Security Agency held at International Culture and Event Centre, Akure. PHOTO: Oyo State Government.

Lunch box not under Ghana School feeding programme - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

The Lunch box, a school feed initiative of 

Food for All Africa has been affirmed to be a private-sector driven and is not under the Ghana School feeding programe, reports NaijaAgroNet.

School feeding programmes have been a key response to the recent food and economic crises and function to some degree in nearly every country in the world. School feeding is a multi-sectoral intervention with effects across education, health and nutrition, and with the potential for benefits across a life course.

Fayemi commissions multi-million naira integrated snail farm - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

The Ekiti State has commission a multi-million naira integrated snail farm, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Revealing this, the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi also said his administration plans to ease ways of doing business policy and other vital supports for investments attracted over a million dollar agribusiness investment into the State in the last two years, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Dr Fayemi stated this on Tuesday, during the commissioning of a multi-million naira integrated snail farm in Okemesi-Ekiti. The Egbeja Snail Farm is a private initiative of Farmkonnect Agribusiness Nigeria Limited.



The Governor said many investors prefer to invest in the state because of the ease of doing business policy of the administration and sundry support the government offers prospective investors, including land and tax holidays.

"You will recall that the State Government efforts on agriculture and agribusiness over the last two years had already attracted almost a hundred million dollars investment in the agricultural sector to Ekiti State via the Ikun Dairy Farm by Promasidor Nigeria; FMS Agro, JK Rice, Stallion Rice, Dangote rice, Promise Points and many more that are located in our special agricultural processing zone where all the facilities are being provided such as good roads, irrigation, schools etc.

"Our ease of doing business personnel would continue to work with all investors while intending investors will enjoy necessary support including ease of doing business registration, land allocation, issuance of C of O and tax holidays for certain category of business,” he said.

Commissioning the multi million naira Egbeja Farm, Governor Fayemi promised to continue to provide enabling environment and strengthen the ease of doing business policy to attract more investors into the State.

The Governor said the new snail farm, when completed, would produce a minimum of 2,600 metric tons of snail per annum and provide opportunity for the extraction of slime for use by beauty care and pharmaceutical companies across the world.

He said the project would not only place Ekiti in the world market for the exportation of snails and slime but would also complement the vision of his administration in providing job opportunities for the teeming youths as the project has the capacity to engage over a 2,000 thousand personnel across various sectors of the initiative.

Dr. Fayemi who undertook a guided tour of facilities on the farm, explained that the Egbeja snail village project was a demonstration and commitment of his administration’s quest for a complete agribusiness value chain ”from farm to fork where there will be value addition that would go beyond primary production to include processing, marketing and delivery to our various dining table.”

“Only last week, we flagged off the first phase of a 1000 kilometre rural access and Agricultural Marketing Project, our RAAMP initiative, which is a state wide rural road project. This is an addition to the ongoing road projects that cut across the three senatorial districts of Ekiti State.

"Our rural road project is strategically structured to link our farmstead and hinterland to the major road in order to enhance movement of farm produce to the market and by the time we complete all the ongoing road project particularly the ring road and the cargo airport, agribusiness in Ekiti State will experience unprecedented growth.

"We are busy laying the foundation for the projected economic growth and urged other investors to key into our innovative agenda."

Earlier, the initiator of the project and founder of Farmkonnect Agribusiness, Azeez Oluwole said the project was proposed to occupy a 100,000 square meter of land to make it the largest place of snail farms in Africa and the second in the world.

He said the construction of the structures of the farm which is massive would continue for the next two years and is going to be technologically driven.

According to him, the setting up of the snail project in Ekiti was informed by the friendly investment environment made possible by the ease of doing business policy of the Fayemi led administration.

Pix: L-R: Ajero of Ijero-Ekiti, HRM Oba Adebayo Adewole; Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Owa Ooye of Okemesi, HRM Oba Gbadebo Adedeji; Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Funminiyi Afuye; Founder, Farm Konnect Nigeria Limited; Lt Comdr Azeez Oluwole (rtd); during the official commissioning of  Agbeja Integrated Snail Farm in Okemesi Ekiti…on Tuesday

Genetic diversity: 3 funding mechanism to explore - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

The Project Africa GRADIENT comprises three funding mechanisms to support, including fellowships, investigator-sponsored research and seed-fund, reports NaijaAgroNet.

For the fellowships: A limited number of fellowships in academic institutions with a reputation for global excellence to collect and analyse data on determinants of drug response.

COVID-19 vaccines: 270m doses for Africa - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

The African Union has secured a provisional 270 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for Africa through its COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP), reports NaijaAgroNet.

AMSP made this acquisition on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and has commenced the COVID-19 vaccines pre-order programme for all African Union Member States. Afreximbank will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of the Member States.

GRADIENT attracts combined USD3.6m funding commitment - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet:

The Project Africa Genomic Research Approach for Diversity and Optimising Therapeutics (GRADIENT) has attracted a combined funding commitment worth USD3.6 million, reports NaijaAgroNet. Just as it calls on local researchers to submit proposals exploring the link between genetic diversity and response to malaria and tuberculosis drugs in African patients.

Elumelu acquires 45% stake in OML 17 from Shell et al - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 

The African strategic investor led by Tony Elumelu's Heirs Holdings has acquired the the 45 per cent interest in Nigerian oil licence OML 17 and related assets from Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and ENI, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The latest acquisition, NaijaAgroNet gathered was facilitated through TNOG Oil and Gas Limited, an affilaite of Heirs Holdings and Transcorp.

NaijaAgroNet in addition gathered that TNOG Oil and Gas Limited would have sole operatorship of the asset.