Focus is on saving lives and livelihoods to sustain peace and tackle hunger

 

Photo credit: FAO

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission.

The African Union and FAO seek to boost joint efforts to end hunger in Africa

The African Union (AU) and FAO will seek to step up joint efforts to end hunger and sustain peace  in the continent say FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko .

In a meeting on Tuesday, Graziano da Silva and Commissioner Sacko underscored conflicts as a common denominator in areas facing food crises in the continent. “Conflict exacerbates hunger and in many cases hunger and food insecurity to intensify strife and social unrest,” the FAO Director-General said.

Protracted conflict in particular in northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and in Yemen, which is also a experiencing a hunger crisis, has left 30 million people, mostly children, in the throes of severe food insecurity, with 20 million potentially facing starvation.

Commissioner Correia Sacko and the FAO Director-General stressed the need for the AU, FAO, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the World Food Programme (WFP) to work closely together to strengthen the links between sustaining peace, livelihoods and sustainable development.

Read the full article: FAO

 

To be compared with the proteins of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan)

 

 

Dairy ‘excellent’ source of protein for children, new study deems

Date:

April 26, 2017

Source:

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

Summary:

Researchers are using pigs as a model to study the best way of evaluating protein quality in foods eaten by children.

Read the full article: Science Daily

Two decades ago we recommended container gardening as one of the best practices

 

Photo credit: FAO

The 156th session of the FAO Council runs from 24-28 April 2017.

Famine in the spotlight at FAO Council

Graziano da Silva: 20 million people could starve to death in next six months

Urgent action is needed to save the lives of people facing famine in northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, FAO Directory-General José Graziano da Silva said today at the opening of the UN agency’s Council.

“If nothing is done, some 20 million people could starve to death in the next six months,” the Director-General said in his opening address. “Famine does not just kill people, it contributes to social instability and also perpetuates a cycle of poverty and aid dependency that endures for decades.”

Council members will be briefed on the extent of the hunger crises, and the steps required to prevent catastrophe, during the week-long session.

Making funds go further

Council will also consider for approval FAO‘s Programme of Work and Budget 2018-2019. The budget prioritizes areas where FAO can deliver the greatest impact to Member countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable agriculture production, water scarcity management, and building the resilience of poor family farmers.

Food and agriculture are central to the sustainable development agenda, and FAO’s work is projected to contribute to the achievement of 40 targets across 15 of the 17 goals.

Voluntary contributions vital now more than ever

Council will also discuss a new scale of assessed contributions, which are the annual payments made by Member countries to FAO. Under the proposal, most countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will be required to pay less and other countries to pay more. The Director-General urged OECD countries to continue to contribute at the same level by making additional voluntary contributions.

If only they had some support for container gardening

 

Photo credit: FAO

Extreme hunger is hitting north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

UN food agencies warn against ignoring famine alarm

FAO and WFP urge swift action to prevent hunger deaths in four countries hit by conflict

The leaders of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have called on the international community to urgently step up action to prevent further hunger deaths in four countries stalked by famine: north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

“Many people have already died,” FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said at a briefing on the sidelines of FAO’s Council – the executive arm of FAO’s governing body.

“Peace is of course the key to ending these crises. But even in times of conflict, there is much we can do to fight hunger and avoid famine… I visited Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria and saw myself how powerful agricultural support can be in a humanitarian crisis,” he said.

A famine has been formally declared in parts of South Sudan, while north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen are on the brink of famine. Combined, 30 million people are grappling with finding enough food each day.

“We need to reach hungry people to prevent them from dying,” said WFP’s new Executive Director David Beasley.

“We have the strength, logistical capacity and technology to get the job done. What we need is access to the people who are on the brink of famine and resources, now not later. Without this support, we will have to make life-challenging decisions over who will receive food and who will not.”

The heads of FAO and WFP stressed that both agencies’ famine response operations are severely underfunded, and there must be an immediate and substantial increase in resources to save lives and livelihoods.

Conflict is the common thread across the four affected countries. FAO and WFP are working quickly and closely in these emergency zones to prevent famine spreading further.

Read the full article: FAO

Sensitisation forum on ways to combat desertification and land degradation

 

 

FAO, DoF Sensitise CRR TAC Members on Desertification

The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Department of Forestry recently convened a day’s sensitisation forum on ways to combat desertification and land degradation.

The event held at the Region 5 Educational Directorate Conference Hall, in CRR, attracted members of the Central River Region Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and its partners.

Speaking to the gathering, Alhagie Malang Saibou Camara, the acting Governor of Central River Region underscored the importance of forest to human existence, saying the absence of trees could adversely affect human existence.

He highlighted the effects of land degradation, positing that man depends on land for agriculture and other uses, thus the need for all to join forces to secure the country’s environment from desertification and land degradation.

Camara commended The Gambia Government for bringing such a laudable project to the people of CRR in a bid to address the harmful practises affecting the environment.

He expressed his team’s readiness to work with any agency in the implementation of this laudable initiative, affirming that TAC members are part and parcel of national development.

Read the full article: Daily Observer for The Gambia

Steps that can be taken to improve water sustainability

 

Photo credit: FAO

Photo: FAO/Giulio Napolitano

Sustainable agriculture, better-managed water supplies, vital to tackling water-food nexus – UN

Highlighting the challenges associated with the inextricable links between water and food – the so-called ‘water-food nexus’ – for food security, as well as for sustainable development, the United Nations agricultural agency today outlined steps that can be taken to improve water sustainability for current and future needs.

“The magnitude of the water-food nexus is underappreciated,” said Pasquale Steduto, UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Regional Strategic Programme Coordinator for the Near East and North Africa regions.

In his briefing during an event at UN Headquarters in New York, the FAO official also pointed to the fact that a person needs between two to four litres of water for daily consumption, and for domestic uses (washing, etc.) between 40 to 400 litres per family.

But for food and nutritional needs, the requirement is between 2,000 and 5,000 litres per person, depending on diet, or “roughly one litre per kilo-calorie” he explained.

He further emphasized that the nexus is particularly significant for strengthening food security given that the world population is estimated to cross the nine billion mark by 2050, another 50-60 per cent food would need to be produced over current levels to feed everyone.

Read the full article: FAO

Continued drought in the Horn of Africa

 

Photo credit: FAO

Farmers in the Horn of Africa need urgent support to recover from consecutive lost harvests and to keep their breeding livestock healthy and productive at a time that pastures are the driest in years.

With continued drought, Horn of Africa braces for another hunger season

Agricultural support critical now to protect livestock, equip families to plant in rainy season

Countries in the Horn of Africa are likely to see a rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, as farming families struggle with the knock-on effects of multiple droughts that hit the region this year, FAO warned today. Growing numbers of refugees in East Africa, meanwhile, are expected to place even more burden on already strained food and nutrition security.

Currently, close to 12 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in need of food assistance, as families in the region face limited access to food and income, together with rising debt, low cereal and seed stocks, and low milk and meat production. Terms of trade are particularly bad for livestock farmers, as food prices are increasing at the same time that market prices for livestock are low.

Farmers in the region need urgent support to recover from consecutive lost harvests and to keep their breeding livestock healthy and productive at a time that pastures are the driest in years. Production outputs in the three countries are grim.

Rapid intervention

“We’re dealing with a cyclical phenomenon in the Horn of Africa,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division. “But we also know from experience that timely support to farming families can significantly boost their ability to withstand the impacts of these droughts and soften the blow to their livelihoods,” he stressed.

For this reason, FAO has already begun disbursing emergency funds for rapid interventions in Kenya and Somalia.

Read the full article: FAO

Race Against Time to Regreen Africa’s Spreading Desert

 

Photo credit: VOA

A farmer shows his failed crops and farmland in the Megenta area of Afar, Ethiopia, Jan.26, 2016.

Sahel Countries in Race Against Time to Regreen Africa’s Spreading Desert

The areas surrounding the Sahara desert which decades ago were covered with forests, crops and grasslands, can be restored — a significant chunk of them by 2030 — agriculture experts said after viewing the results of a detailed survey of the region.

For the first time, the Sahel area straddling 27 countries has been mapped in painstaking detail showing where and how the work can be done — and just how big the job is to create what is called Africa’s Great Green Wall.

Home to some 232 million people, it stretches coast to coast, from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, and along Africa’s northern shores.

Some 166 million hectares of land have been identified for restoration in the survey — nearly three times the size of Kenya or France.

To halt and reverse the impact of decades of overgrazing and deforestation, around 10 million hectares will need to be restored each year, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which published the map.

A farmer in Senegal walks across parched land which used to be a riverbed. – http://gdb.voanews.com/4351E443-A528-4429-9C0C-F2DE45ED3AAF_w610_r0_s.jpg

‘Battle against time’

“It’s a battle against time, because dryland forests are disappearing and climate change is really happening — and more droughts and floods will not make the work easy,” said Nora Berrahmouni, forestry officer for drylands at FAO.

Read the full article: VOA News

More than half of the world population suffers from one or more forms of malnutrition, including hunger, micronutrient deficiency and obesity.

 

Photo credit: UN NEWS CENTRE

An abundant lettuce crop in Serbia. Photo: FAO/Oliver Bunic

Sustainable food systems vital to achieving nutrition-related targets of 2030 Agenda – UN Rome-based agencies

Opening its 43rd plenary session in Rome today in the wake of major global agreements on sustainable development and climate change, the main United Nations body focused on food security and nutrition, called for an urgent transformation of the world’s food system and nutrition to eradicate all forms of extreme poverty, hunger, and malnutrition by 2030.

In her opening remarks, Amira Gornass, the Chair of the Committee on World Food Security(CFS), stressed the importance of establishing a “sustainable food systems is in essence working to achieve the food security and nutrition-related targets of the 2030 Agenda.”

According to José Graziano da Silva, the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), who also addressed the meeting, “there is a clear failure of food systems to deliver healthy diets to people,” as more than half of the world population suffers from one or more forms of malnutrition, including hunger, micronutrient deficiency and obesity.

As such, Mr. Graziano da Silva encouraged people to turn to CFS for answers, stating, however, that efforts to tackle nutrition and food systems will require extended partnership, including action from diverse stakeholders, as noted by Elisabeth Rasmusson, the Assistant Executive Director of the UN’s World Food Program (WFP).

“We must renew our efforts to build more sustainable food systems, which are better able to withstand changing weather patterns and extreme events and respond to nutritional needs — building resilience into our food systems, mitigating the risks, and ensuring we are more prepared for climate shocks in the future,” she added.

The key goals of the food system transformation must be achieved in “an increasingly adverse context where population growth, a shrinking resource base, climate change and urbanization will challenge our ability to find new ways of working and interacting,” added Mr. Graziano da Silva.

Read the full article: UN NEWS CENTRE

Climate change, hunger and poverty must be addressed together

 

Photo credit: FAO

A farmer in Tanzania in a rice paddy which uses a climate-smart system to intensify production.

World Food Day highlights that climate is changing and that food and agriculture must too

Italian Prime Minister Renzi, Pope Francis and Princess Lalla Hasnaa of Morocco urge collective action

The resounding message from this year’s World Food Day celebrations in Rome and in many countries is that climate change, hunger and poverty must be addressed together in order to achieve the sustainable development goals set by the international community.

“Higher temperatures and erratic weather patterns are already undermining the health of soils, forests and oceans on which agricultural sectors and food security depend,” FAO Director-General José Graziano said at the global World Food Dayceremony here today.

Droughts and floods are more frequent and intense as are climate-related outbreaks of diseases and pests, he added, citing the terrible impact of El Nino in parts of Africa, Asia and Central American and more recently, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti.

“As usual the poorest and the hungry suffer the most and the vast majority of them are small family farmers that live in rural areas of developing countries,” the FAO Director-General said, noting how adaptation and mitigation to climate change is fundamental, and that this requires “much better access to appropriate technologies, knowledge, markets, information and investments.”

Recent international commitments for action, including the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, recognize the fundamental role of sustainable agriculture in addressing climate change, hunger and poverty.

The World Food Day 2016 slogan: Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too underscores the fact that to feed a global population expected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050, humanity needs to produce more food, but in ways that use up less natural resources and that drastically reduce loss and waste.

Political will

In his address, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stressed that the fight against hunger is essentially a political issue. “Italy maintains that the fight for food security is, at this point in history, a question of politics with a capital ‘P’,” he added.

Prime Minister Renzi said that the international community needs to urgently address the problems of inequality and injustice. Italy would strive to ensure that these themes are at the top of the international agenda, including at two important events in March next year: the G7 summit, which Italy will host and preside and a meeting of European Union leaders.

Read the full article: FAO

Access to farm machinery is key for agricultural productivity

 

Photo credit: FAO

A worker adjusts a plough attachment in Djibo, Burkina Faso. Spare parts must be available for tractors to be useful.

Sustainable mechanization has much to offer in sub-Saharan Africa

Feeding the burgeoning world population will require significant improvements in agricultural productivity, above all in Africa, and mechanization and appropriate mechanization strategies have a large role to play, according to a new report from FAO.

The opportunity must be guided in a way that meets smallholder farmers’ needs and that does not require a Green-Revolution type of approach with high levels of agrochemical inputs and destructive ploughing operations that threaten soil health and fertility, according to FAO’s new report.

(see also: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6167e.pdf)

Agricultural mechanization: A key input for sub-Saharan African smallholders underlines that agricultural mechanization in the twenty-first century should be environmentally compatible, economically viable, affordable, adapted to local conditions and, in view of current developments in weather patterns, climate-smart.

Mechanization covers all levels of farming and processing technologies, from simple and basic hand tools to more sophisticated and motorized equipment.

It extends far beyond ploughing and can contribute to productivity gains and new jobs in the post-harvest, processing and marketing stages of local and global food systems.

As things stand, two-thirds of the power used to prepare sub-Saharan African land for farming is provided by human muscle. Comparable rates are 30 percent for South Asia and even lower for Latin America.

Read the full article: FAO

IN MY DESERTIFICATION LIBRARY: BOOK NR. 36

 

Agriculture, food and nutrition for Africa (FAO 1997)

Posted by Prof. Dr. Willem VAN COTTHEM

Ghent University – Belgium

Having participated in all the meetings of the INCD (1992-1994) and all the meetings of the UNCCD-COP, the CST and the CRIC in 1994-2006, I had an opportunity to collect a lot of interesting books and publications on drought and desertification published in that period.

Book Nr. 36

Please click: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k9HOxwdFv-awCjpq1_QTGskYLYWV8V0NY5623Ob4G1g/edit?usp=sharing

or see agriculture-food-and-nutrition-for-africa-fao-1997