Agriculture with Jimoh

Agri-tech can turn African Savannah into global food basket – African Development Bank Des Moines, Iowa, 24 October 2018 – The African Development Bank is championing a new regional and global effort to transform the African Savannah from a “Sleeping Giant” to the cradle of the continent’s green revolution. “This sleeping giant needs to wake up,” the Bank’s Vice-President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Jennifer Blanke, told an audience at a 2018 World Food Prize side event in Des Moines, Iowa last week. Blanke described Africa’s nearly 400 million hectares of Savannah zones as “the world’s largest agricultural frontier,” and if a small fraction of that cultivatable land – some 16 million hectares - is transformed, it could well set Africa up to decrease dependence on food imports, feed itself and contribute to feeding the world. Africa is host to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, but currently spends an estimated US$35 billion per year ...

“Stunted children today will lead to stunted economies tomorrow” – Adesina African Union endorses African Leaders for Nutrition Initiative By Jimoh Babatunde The President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has said that stunted children today will lead to stunted economies tomorrow, adding that the impact of stunting is irreversible but preventable. He spoke yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as African leaders made a landmark commitment to remove nutrition-related barriers that prevent children and societies from realising their full potential. The leaders made the commitments at the launch of African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) − an initiative championed by the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission – in Addis Ababa, where they agreed to jointly overcome malnutrition and elevate nutrition as the driver for economic growth and sustainable development. Adesina said poor nutrition is responsible for stunting children’s ...

Fish farmers in Delta have received N1.2 billion loans under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP). Mr Ambrose Nwabuzor, Loan Officer, Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Asaba, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency if Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba on Sunday. Nwabuzor said that the BOA secured the release of N1.2 billion to the fish farmers under the private window of the ABP. He said that the beneficiaries provided enough securities to guarantee the drawdown of the loan from the CBN. “Under the private window, we have secured the release of N1.2 billion to eight anchors that came together to form a fish farm. “Each of the anchors gave us an irrevocable post-dated cheque (security) and they profiled their farmers,” he said. He also said that the BOA was working to secure the release of another tranche of loan for the anchor off-taker in fisheries. The BOA loan officer said that the off-taker had also provided securi...

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has been granted a permit to carry out Confined Field Trials (CFT) of genetically modified cassava (AMY3 RNAi Transgenic lines). This is contained in a statement signed by IITA Head of Communication, Mrs Catherine Lopez, and made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ibadan. The statement said that the research, carried out in collaboration with ETHZ Plant Biotechnology Lab in Zurich, was aimed at reducing starch breakdown in storage roots of cassava after pruning the shoots, prior to harvest of the crop. It also said that the objective was to obtain storage roots with lower post-harvest physiological degradation, without any loss of the nutritious starch. It noted that cassava was an important starchy food crop in sub-Saharan Africa as well as other tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. The statement said that one of the challenges facing cassava farmers in the country was the high lev...

My father did not want me in agriculture because he was a poor farmer--- AfDB President, Adesina When he was ushered into the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa, last week, for the conferment of the 2017 World Food Prize award , Dr. Akinwumi Adesina received a standing ovation from international leaders, policy makers, farmers, executives from agribusiness , non-governmental organisations, and scientific. The award was an endorsement of his roles over the past two decades with the Rockefeller Foundation, at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and as Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria. Dr. Adesina, , now the President of the African Development Bank, has been at the forefront of galvanizing political will to transform African agriculture through initiatives to expand agricultural production, thwart corruption in the Nigerian fertilizer industry and exponentially increase the availability of credit for smallholder farmers across the African continent. T...

The Inequalities of Hunger: Global Hunger Index Spotlights Uneven Progress in Reducing Hunger · Report Rates Hunger “Serious”, “Alarming” or “Extremely Alarming” in 52 countries · 27 Percent Reduction in Global Hunger Index Scores Since 2000 October 12, 2017—Global hunger levels have fallen more than a quarter since 2000, but more recent rising hunger scores of several countries in the 2017 Global Hunger Index (GHI) underline how uneven this progress has been and how precarious it is to maintain. Famine has cast a shadow over four countries in the past year while conflict and climate change continue to hit the poorest the hardest. The Global Hunger Index this year indicates that beyond these acute crises, long term obstacles to reducing hunger in several countries may also be threatening efforts to reach zero hunger. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa south of the Sahara, where revised data place the Central African Republic in the “extremely alarming...

The Kwara Government said on Thursday that by November it would begin to harvest the rice cultivated by its small holder farmers under CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme. Mr Adegoke Bamidele, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources , disclosed this in Ilorin while receiving a Community Scorecard on smallholder farmers’ accessibility to Agriculture financing in Nigeria. The scorecard was presented by the Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), a partner of Actionaid Nigeria. Also speaking, Malam Ahmed Mohammed, the Director, Agricultural Engineering and Services in the ministry, said the government started programme with the cultivation of 50 hectares of rice at Tsada Tshonga in Edu Local Government Area of the state. Mohammed explained that the state keyed into the programme under the Hyst Global Business Limited/Anchor Borrower programme. Hyst is a rice milling company based in Abuja. He added that anoth...

Jigawa Government on Tuesday announced plans to distribute ultra-modern mini rice mills, harvesters and other implements to boost rice production in the state. Alhaji Jamilu Usaman-Danmalam, Special Adviser to the state governor on Rice Production and Value Chain said the implements would be distributed to youths under the government cluster farming scheme. The special adviser said in an interview on Tuesday in Dutse, that the items would be issued to the young farmers on loan. He listed the farming implements to include 100 mini rice milling machines, 100 single row planters, 100 double row planters, 100 mini thrashers, 300 handheld harvesters and 574 manual sprayers. “The government has concluded all arrangements for this exercise and all the items are on ground. “We are done with compiling the names of the beneficiaries and we will soon call them for distribution. “This is part of our plans to empower and encourage youths to go into farming. ...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday, called for a world without hunger in Africa through deliberate investment in infrastructure, research and development. Obasanjo made the call in his keynote address during the 50th anniversary celebration of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan. According to the former president, the current population growth has made it imperative to put the context of food security on the front burner, to avoid impending famine. “From time immemorial, man’s history has been dotted with bouts of hunger and famine; attempts have been made to explain the nexus between famine and population. “Current prognosis suggests that if current trends continue, the world’s population in 2050 will be in the neighborhood of 9.7 billion. “It is in this context that food security of the world for present and future generations need to be discussed,” he said. He said that Africa needed to embark on a path ...

The World Food Prize Foundation has explained why Dr Akinwumi Adesina won the 250,000 dollars 2017 World Food Prize Laureate prize on Monday. President of the Foundation, Amb. Kenneth Quinn said Adesina won the prize “for driving change in African agriculture for over 25 years and improving food security for millions across the continent”. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), was announced on Monday as the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate at a ceremony at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Quinn explained that the selection of Nigeria’s former Minister of Agriculture for the prize also “reflected both his breakthrough achievements as Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria”. He said Adesina “led a major expansion of commercial bank lending to farmers as Vice President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and as Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria, introduced the E-Wallet system”. Adesina also “introduced initia...

Two former heads of state of Nigeria, Dr Yakubu Gowon, and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo will be among dignitaries that would grace the 50th anniversary celebration (IITA@50) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan on 24 July. The two former heads of state will be addressing a gathering of more than 1000 staff including former and serving workers of the Institute and other dignitaries. Other confirmed participants include Dr Akin Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB); Dr Kanayo Nwanze, Former President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Chair of United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu; Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Burundi, Dr Deo-Guide Rurema; Former Prime Minister, Democratic Republic of Congo, H.E. Mapon Matata Mpoyo; IITA Alumni Representative, Mrs. Ayoka Lawani; Associate Vice President, IFAD, Dr. Perin Ange; the Representative of Bill & Me...

Washington, D.C. – The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) announced today the launch of the Ag-Incentives Consortium website, a user-friendly online database facilitated by IFPRI, that aggregates agricultural policy data into an interactive tool for guiding more informed policy. The Ag-Incentives Consortium brings together data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank. “Historically, global information and data on incentives for agricultural production have been widely scattered and not comparable,” said David Laborde, senior research fellow at IFPRI. “Ag-Incentives harmonizes fact-based analysis from several international organizations to provide policy makers a better understanding of the effects of their domestic policies on prices.” The interagency collaboration of the Consortium reduces duplication of efforts in ...

Why brutalising food vendors hits Africa’s growing cities where it hurts In January this year, the Harare City Council in Zimbabwe accused informal food vendors of spreading typhoid. The council then attempted to confiscate, and destroy, all perishable food items that were being hawked in the central business district. Many vendors   fought back , resulting in deadly clashes over a series of days in the opposition run capital city. Sadly, such violent treatment of workers in informal markets is   all too common   in African cities. Indeed, based on   calculations   from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Database, such treatment dramatically increased over the past decade. In 2015, there were more than 250 incidents of violence against informal workers in Africa   reported   in the media, a more than fourfold increase since 2005. Other examples of these so-called cleanup operations were carried out in Malawi in 2006 and 2015, in Nig...