Alternative investments on poverty, hunger, and environment

 

 

Exploring the impacts of alternative investments on poverty, hunger, and environment

The recent report Quantitative Foresight Modeling to Inform the CGIAR Research Portfolio released by the Global Futures and Strategic Foresight (GFSF) team (part of PIM’s research flagship 1) seeks to help the CGIAR centers and research programs, as well as donors and other decision makers to assess the overall impact and benefits of investing in international and national agricultural research programs.

The report provides a quantitative assessment of the impacts of alternative investment options in agricultural research, resource management, and infrastructure on the CGIAR’s System Level Outcomes relating to poverty (SLO1), food and nutrition security (SLO2), and natural resources and ecosystem services (SLO3). Impacts to 2050 are analyzed in the context of changes in population, income, technology, and climate.

Key messages from the analysis:

1. Demographic change and economic growth in the group of developing countries will result in significant increases in the demand for food in the coming decades
2. Food and nutrition security are projected to improve over the 2010-2050 period
3. Climate change reduces food and nutrition security
4. Climate change impacts vary geographically, with agricultural trade as an important buffer
5. The CGIAR research portfolio can make important differences to sustainable agricultural production systems, food security and nutrition, enhanced by increased investments in NARs agricultural research, improved water management, and infrastructure
6. Alternative investment options involve different synergies and tradeoffs
7. Other complementary investments will also be needed.

Read the full article: CGIAR

A broader, more ecological understanding of poverty can contribute to improved livelihoods for livestock keepers in Africa

 

Poor livestock keepers: ecosystem–poverty–health interactions.

Grace, D., Lindahl, J., Wanyoike, F., Bett, B., Randolph, T. and Rich, K. 2017.

Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B 372(1725): 20160166.

Permanent link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/81470

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0166

Abstract/Description

Humans have never been healthier, wealthier or more numerous. Yet, present success may be at the cost of future prosperity and in some places, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, poverty persists. Livestock keepers, especially pastoralists, are over-represented among the poor. Poverty has been mainly attributed to a lack of access, whether to goods, education or enabling institutions. More recent insights suggest ecosystems may influence poverty and the self-reinforcing mechanisms that constitute poverty traps in more subtle ways. The plausibility of zoonoses as poverty traps is strengthened by landmark studies on disease burden in recent years. While in theory, endemic zoonoses are best controlled in the animal host, in practice, communities are often left to manage disease themselves, with the focus on treatment rather than prevention. We illustrate this with results from a survey on health costs in a pastoral ecosystem. Epidemic zoonoses are more likely to elicit official responses, but these can have unintended consequences that deepen poverty traps. In this context, a systems understanding of disease control can lead to more effective and pro-poor disease management. We illustrate this with an example of how a system dynamics model can help optimize responses to Rift Valley fever outbreaks in Kenya by giving decision makers real-time access to the costs of the delay in vaccinating. In conclusion, a broader, more ecological understanding of poverty and of the appropriate responses to the diseases of poverty can contribute to improved livelihoods for livestock keepers in Africa. This article is part of the themed issue ‘One Health for a changing world: zoonoses, ecosystems and human well-being’.

 

Read: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/81470

Call for critical investments in agriculture and addressing climate change in Lake Chad Basin

 

Photo credit: FAO

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva last week visited some of the worst affected areas in Chad and northeastern Nigeria.

Lake Chad Basin: a crisis rooted in hunger, poverty and lack of rural development

The crisis afflicting the strife-torn Lake Chad Basin is rooted in decades of neglect, lack of rural development and the impact of climate change, and the only way to ensure a lasting solution is to address these including through investments in sustainable agriculture, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, said today.

“This is not only a humanitarian crisis, but it is also an ecological one,” Graziano da Silva said at a media briefing in Rome on his visit last week to some of the worst affected areas in Chad and northeastern Nigeria.

“This conflict cannot be solved only with arms. This is a war against hunger and poverty in the rural areas of the Lake Chad Basin,” the FAO Director-General stressed.

“Peace is a prerequisite” to resolve the crisis in the region, but this is not enough, the FAO Director-General said. “Agriculture including livestock and fisheries can no longer be an afterthought. It is what produces food and what sustains the livelihoods of about 90 percent of the region’s population.”

Some 7 million people risk suffering from severe hunger in the Lake Chad Basin, which incorporates parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and northeastern Nigeria.  In the latter, some 50,000 people are facing famine.

While fighting and violence have caused much of the suffering, the impact of environmental degradation and climate change including repeated droughts, are exacerbating the situation, the FAO Director-General said.

He noted how, since 1963, Lake Chad has lost some 90 percent of its water mass with devastating consequences on the food security and livelihoods of people depending on fishing and irrigation-based agricultural activities. And while Lake Chad has been shrinking, the population has been growing, including millions of displaced people from the worst conflict areas.

Food assistance and production support urgently needed

FAO together with its partners including other UN agencies is calling on the international community for urgent support – a combination of immediate food assistance and food production support is the only way to make dent in the scale of hunger in the region.

Graziano da Silva reiterated the call he made last week during his visit to Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria: if farmers miss the coming May/June planting season, they will see no substantial harvests until 2018. Failure to restore food production now will lead to the worsening of widespread and severe hunger and prolonged dependency on external assistance further into the future.

Gender equality to end hunger and poverty

 

Photo credit: FAO

Empowering rural women is a crucial ingredient in the fight against hunger, poverty and malnutrition. Women farmers walking through a field in Kaga-Bandoro, Central African Republic.

UN agencies in Rome step up on gender equality to end hunger and poverty

Empowerment of rural women is fundamental for achieving 2030 Agenda

FAO/IFAD/WFP Joint News Release 

8 March 2017, Rome – Leaders from the three UN Rome-based agencies today marked International Women’s Day  by reinforcing their commitments to step up efforts to invest in the capacities of rural women as key agents of change in building a world without hunger.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) reminded the world that women and girls play a crucial role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular, the goal of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty.

“Women play a critical role in agriculture and food systems – not just as farmers, but also as food producers, traders and managers,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva on the occasion of the Day. “However, women still face major constraints in rural labour markets and in agricultural value chains. They are more likely to be in poorly paid jobs, without legal or social protection. This limits women’s capacity to advance their skills, earn incomes and access employment opportunities.”

Graziano da Silva noted that the future of global food security depends on unleashing women’s potential. “Achieving gender equality and empowering women are crucial ingredients in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition which is strongly recognized by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” he said.

Read the full article: FAO

Desertification, poverty and global stability

 

 

Strengthening the Partnership with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification: Combating desertification toward the eradication of poverty and global stability

On February 8, Monique Barbut, the United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) [1], and Noriko Suzuki, Senior Vice President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) met at JICA Headquarters in Tokyo and made a joint announcement that they would accelerate efforts to eradicate poverty in Africa and achieve global stability through the “African Initiative for Combating Desertification to Strengthen Resilience Climate Change in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa” [2].

JICA and the UNCCD Secretariat will work together to build a network in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa [3], promote the sharing of good practices and lessons learned in combating desertification, and facilitate support to countries in the regions for obtaining development funding to use for measures against desertification.

The countries in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa face many development challenges, including poverty, civil war, conflict, refugees, starvation due to drought and HIV/AIDS.

When areas with growing poverty are hit by desertification, the poverty is exacerbated further due to factors such as agricultural productivity that falls from bad to worse. Climate change in recent years is said to have made desertification worse. Poverty is a root cause of terrorism, violent radicalism and growing refugeeism, and combating desertification through efforts such as forest recovery and preventing soil degradation, is, along with fighting poverty in the regions through improved agricultural productivity, a priority for global stabilization and is one of the Sustainable Development Goals [4]. Nevertheless, desertification is not always of high concern for the international community and so the regions do not receive adequate support.

Read the full article: SAT PRESS RELEASES

Need to increase agricultural productivity

 

Photo credit: FAO

A farmer taking cuttings from cassava plants. The FAO report stresses the need to increase production and productivity of staple food crops.

Food insecurity and poverty pose major challenge to goal of ending hunger by 2030 in sub-Saharan Africa

Some 153 million people, representing about 26 percent of the population above 15 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa, suffered from severe food insecurity in 2014-15, according to a new FAO report.

The second edition of the Regional Overview of Food Insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa (2016) underscores how severe food insecurity and poverty pose a major challenge to the region’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030.

“What it means is that, around one out of four individuals above 15 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa was hungry,  meaning they did not eat or went without eating for a whole day for lack of money or other resources for food,” Bukar Tijani, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, said commenting on the findings of the report.

“This assessment underlines the significance of the challenge facing the region in meeting SDGs’ target 2.1 and the relevance of sustainable and substantial support to food security and nutrition policies and programmes in the region,” he added.

At the aggregate level, sub-Saharan Africa achieved adequate food availability, in terms od dietary energy supply, over the 2014-2016 period. However, several countries in the region remain highly dependent on food imports to ensure adequate food supplies, with some sub-regions depending on imports for up to a third of their cereal needs.

This indicates that substantial demand for food exists for these countries, and there is a need to increase agricultural productivity, food production and value addition, among other things.

Read the full article: FAO

Trees overlooked as a source of income for farmers

 

Photo credit: Science Daily

Farms near forests tend to have more trees, which provide income and other benefits for local people, such as these farmers in the buffer zone of W National Park, Benin.

Credit: Daniel Miller

Trees supplement income for rural farmers in Africa

Date:

January 23, 2017

Source:

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

Summary:

Trees may be easy to spot on the plains of Africa but they are often overlooked as a source of income for farmers. A new study shows trees on farms may help reduce rural poverty and maintain biodiversity. The study used satellite images showing forest cover and nationally representative household-level data gathered from in-person interviews in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda.

 

Read the full article: Science Daily

Deforestation and economy

 

 

Poor nations’ economies grow with rising deforestation

by Baraka Rateng’

Speed read

• Researchers assessed the link between economic growth and deforestation
• They found that in poor countries, increased deforestation leads to growth
• An expert says the study is useful for formulating policies

Poor countries’ economic growth increases with deforestation rates but the effect disappears in wealthier economies, a study says.

According to researchers, climatic factors and inadequate data make it difficult to establish the link between economic development and overexploitation of natural resources.

But using satellite data, researchers were able to assess the link between deforestation rates and economic factors across countries.

“Our results quantify the potential costs that such policies could potentially have in terms of forest cover loss.”

Jesús Crespo Cuaresma, Vienna University of Economics and Business

The study published this month (16 January) in the journal Scientific Reports found that as developing countries become richer, a decrease in forest cover occurs, but such a relationship disappears at higher levels of income per capita.

“This implies that increases in deforestation, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa, are expected as poorer economies converge in income per capita to that of developed countries,” says Jesús Crespo Cuaresma, a research scholar and professor of economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, who led the study.

Read the full article: SciDevNet

$265 billion annually !

 

Photo credit: UN NEWS CENTRE

Rural development and youth employment are strongly connected to migration. Photo: FAO/Riccardo Gangale

Global Goals on poverty and hunger require $265 billion annually – UN conference told

The world must take urgent action to mobilise the estimated $265 billion a year needed to achieve the first two Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty and hunger by 2030, the head of the United Nations agency for financing rural development projects has told an international conference.

“The need is urgent,” Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said at last night’s opening of a conference, titled “Investing in inclusive rural transformation: innovative approaches to financing,” held in Rome, Italy on 26-27 January.

“Despite decades of commitments and considerable effort to end poverty and hunger, nearly 800 million children, women and men still go hungry every day, and an almost equal number live in extreme poverty,” he added, stressing the need to be more creative in using public resources and mobilise financing.

He also emphasized the need to make it easier for the private sector and philanthropists to invest in rural areas, where rates of poverty and hunger are highest.

Speakers agreed it cannot be left up to governments alone. In 2015, Official Development Assistance (ODA) was approximately $192 billion and only $9 billion of that was earmarked for agriculture.

Read the full story: UN NEWS CENTRE

=========================

TIMES 5 = 1325 BILLION (MY COMMENT: Willem VAN COTTHEM)

Just one question and I rest my case:

“Take you have 1325 billion dollars to spend over 5 years, how many kitchen gardens with containers for hungry families can you build in that period of time and what would be the sustainable effect of such an action (program) on malnutrition, hunger and poverty?”.

 

Enabling farmers to enhance their incomes.

 

Photo credit: ICRISAT

Demonstration of pigeonpea inter-cultivation. Photo: H Mane, ICRISAT

ENHANCING TRIBAL FARMERS’ INCOMES THROUGH VALUE ADDITION

A dal mill (pigeonpea processing unit) and a sorghum processing unit has been set up to enable farmers in tribal areas of Telangana, India, enhance their incomes. The dal mill will fetch farmers a premium price of around INR 86 per kg instead of the farm gate price of INR 45 per kg as received by farmers during the previous season.

The aim is to eliminate intermediaries and step up farmers in the value chain by enabling them to process their own produce. By establishing direct linkages with retail and corporate actors, an incremental price benefit can be realized in comparison with the traditional market prices. This would also groom the entrepreneurial skills of the tribal farmers in the region.

The dal mill will process around 80 tons of pigeonpea estimated to be harvested in January. The market facilitation would be done by ICRISAT. With an investment of less than USD 10,000 per mill, it is a viable solution for rural areas.

During kharif (rainy) season of 2016, 2 tons of high yielding pigeonpea (ICPH 2740) seeds were distributed to 2000 farmers. These farmers were trained on best practices for pigeonpea cultivation. In addition exposure visits to ICRISAT were organized to address farmers’ queries on the challenges of cultivating pigeonpea. The crop production training at ICRISAT and in their respective mandals (smallest administrative area), ensured that farmers have a better understanding of the newly introduced pigeonpea hybrid in the region. Field visits were taken up by experts to provide timely support on fertilizer and pesticide usage as per field conditions.

Read the full article: ICRISAT

Poverty, low water availability, deforestation and land degradation are fuelling conflicts, but Kenya greens drylands.

 

Photo credit: IPS News

A Kenya Forestry Research Institute technician pruning an acacia tree at a drylands research site in Tiva, Kitui County. Credit: Justus Wanzala/IPS

Kenya Greens Drylands to Combat Land Degradation

By Justus Wanzala

High levels of poverty, low water availability, deforestation and land degradation are fuelling conflicts among communities in East Africa.

Faced with growing degradation that is swallowing large swathes of land in arid and semiarid areas, Kenya is heavily investing in rehabilitation efforts to stave off the threat of desertification.

Charles Sunkuli, secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, says a programme targeting 5.1 million hectares of degraded and deforested land for restoration by 2030 was launched in September 2016. He added that Kenya is increasing its forest cover from the current seven percent to a minimum of 10 percent.

“We have introduced an equalisation fund to help communities living in dry and degraded lands eke out at a living and participate in rehabilitation initiatives,” said Sunkuli.

He was speaking in Nairobi during the Fifteenth Session of the Committee of Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which concluded last week.

Afforestration, he noted, will mainly be done in the country’s arid and semiarid areas which make up 80 percent of Kenya’s land cover, although other areas of the country to are being targeted too.

To succeed in its ambitious endeavour, Sunkuli said Kenya is implementing a programme to promote drought-tolerant tree species such Melia volkensii (locally known as Mukau) in the country’s vast drylands to increase forest cover.

Indeed, Kenya is heavily investing in research into drought resistant trees to enhance afforestration of dry lands and improve livelihoods. At Tiva in the dry Kitui County, eastern Kenya, the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) has established a research centre to breed tree species ideal for planting in arid and semiarid areas. The centre is supported by the government in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Read the full article: IPS News

Poverty and Desertification in Sudan

 

Photo credit: Sudan Vision Daily

Khartoum-Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Physical Development

Dr. Hassan Abdulgadir Hilal

Plan to Combat Poverty and Desertification: Hilal

by Mona Alihimir

Khartoum-Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Physical Development Dr. Hassan Abdulgadir Hilal has participated as a main speaker in the International

Forum on Natural Habitat by presenting a paper entitled “Managing Arid Lands in Sudan”. The forum was organized by a number of international organizations including the World Bank and the United Nations’ Environment Programme.

The paper reviewed the environmental condition in Sudan with a focus on the problem of desertification and the arid lands as well as extreme rains and temperature degrees.
Hilal outlined the effects of desertification on the lands productivity of crops as well as winds and water and their impact on soil deterioration and hence the agricultural crops noting that managing the problem of desertification and combating it. It requires laying down a programme of an integrated national plan and linking it with the programme of combating poverty with the participation of all the related agencies.

Read the full article: Sudan Vision Daily