by admin | May 22, 2020 | News And Events
As East African countries seek funds to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on its vulnerable populations, governments have racked up loans to deal with other threats like chronic diseases and natural disasters.
This week, the World Bank approved $500 million in grants and low-interest loans to combat the natural threat of a locust invasion in East Africa and some parts of the Middle East. Four of the hardest-hit countries—Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda—will receive $160 million immediately, to tackle the region’s worst invasion in 70 years.
Some of the money is earmarked for direct cash transfers to affected farmers for seed and animal fodder to help preserve food security in the coming years, World Bank officials said.
Other countries can apply for locust-prevention funding, even if they are not currently affected.
“Locust swarms present a double crisis for countries that are also battling the Covid-19 pandemic,” said World Bank Group president David Malpass while announcing the package on Thursday
“This food supply emergency combined with the pandemic and economic shutdown in advanced economies places some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people at even greater risk.”
Kenya will receive Ksh4.6 billion ($46 million) to finance grants to an estimated 70,000 pastoral households and 20,000 farmers to quickly rehabilitate crop and livestock production systems disrupted by the locust swarms. Uganda will receive Ush5.1 billion ($1.35 million) to finance surveillance and control measures.
The World Bank has pledged $6 million to help Djibouti strengthen its regulatory framework and institutional capacity for early warning preparedness and response against future locust outbreaks, as well as provide cash transfers to affected households.
In addition to the scale-up of surveillance and control measures, Ethiopia will receive $63 million to provide seed and fertiliser packages to more than 150,000 farmers to ensure planting during the upcoming cropping season and, in pastoralist areas, emergency fodder to more than 113,000 households to safeguard their productive assets.
It will also finance interventions to protect and rehabilitate livelihoods through temporary employment programmes and activities that boost resilience, such as water and soil conservation, the adoption of agroforestry technologies and practices, and the build-out of market infrastructure.
Locust swarms have infested 23 countries across East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. It threatens food supplies in East Africa where nearly 23 million people are facing shortages.
The World Bank estimates the Horn of Africa region could suffer up to $8.5 billion in damage to crop and livestock production by year-end without broad measures to reduce locust populations and prevent their spread.
Mr Malpass said that 22.5 million people in the area already faced severe food insecurity and the locust infestations could put several more million people in danger.
The money from the World Bank, consisting of loans and grants, is intended to help countries mitigate the economic impact and prepare for future locust swarms.
Source: theeastafrican.co.ke
by admin | May 13, 2020 | News And Events
The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) worked with a total of 41,300 lead farmers in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia who conveyed technologies, innovations, and management practices to their fellow farmers in their respective communities benefiting more than 750,000 households.
Launched in 2013, APPSA was a six-year project supported by the World Bank to promote a regional approach to agricultural technology generation and dissemination in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) coordinated implementation of the project. The project in the three countries ended in January 2020, but it is active in Angola and Lesotho for six years, commencing 2020.
APPSA generates and disseminates technologies to farmers within and among participating countries in southern Africa. APPSA builds capacity of host national research and development (R&D) systems and enhances regional collaboration.
The major challenge facing agriculture is how to ensure that newly developed technologies and management practices reach farmers to improve productivity and production on their farms. To address this challenge, APPSA facilitated the public research and extension systems of the participating countries to work with the lead farmers who are a link to the general farming community on promoting technologies generated by the project.
A Lead Farmer is an innovative and successful farmer, normally selected by the community to lead on various agriculture-related activities including hosting trainings for fellow farmers on agriculture methods and technologies. S/he is in constant touch with research and extension agents to update themselves on the new technologies for demonstration to the farming community.
Under APPSA the lead farmers established more than of 5,000 demonstration plots on various technologies and management practices and hosted more than 3,000 field days during the 6-year project period. The objectives of the field days were to showcase the improved technologies or techniques and the results generated based on the demonstrations promoted with APPSA support. A total of 7,968 seed and food fairs were conducted. Food fairs focused at value addition to legumes, maize and rice grain and APPSA promoted seed varieties among the farming communities and the private sector for seed multiplication so that they can be readily available and accessible to the farmers.
For more details please click the following link to download and read the success story regarding this topic: ccardesa.org
Source: ccardesa.org
by admin | Apr 21, 2020 | News And Events
Rome, 20 April 2020 – With the COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown threatening the lives and livelihoods of the world’s most vulnerable people, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today committed US$40 million, and launched an urgent appeal for additional funds, to support farmers and rural communities to continue growing and selling food.
IFAD’s new multi-donor fund, the COVID-19 Rural Poor Stimulus Facility, will mitigate the effects of the pandemic on food production, market access and rural employment. As part of the broader UN socio-economic response framework, the Facility will ensure that farmers in the most vulnerable countries have timely access to inputs, information, markets and liquidity. On top of its own contribution, IFAD aims to raise at least $200 million more from Member States, foundations and the private sector.
“We need to act now to stop this health crisis transforming into a food crisis,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD. “The fallout from COVID-19 may push rural families even deeper into poverty, hunger and desperation, which is a real threat to global prosperity and stability. With immediate action, we can provide rural people with the tools to adapt and ensure a quicker recovery, averting an even bigger humanitarian crisis.”
With their movements restricted to contain further spread of the virus, many small-scale farmers are unable to access markets to sell produce or to buy inputs, such as seeds or fertilizer. Closures of major transport routes and export bans are also likely to affect food systems adversely. As entire production chains are disrupted and unemployment rises, the most vulnerable include daily labourers, small businesses and informal workers, who are very often women and young people. The return of workers from cities affected by lockdowns will put further strain on rural households, which will also stop receiving much needed remittances.
About 80 percent of the world’s poorest and most food insecure people live in rural areas. Even before the outbreak, more than 820 million people were going hungry every day. A recent United Nations University study warned that in a worst-case scenario, the economic impact of the pandemic could push a further half-billion people into poverty.
“This pandemic is threatening the gains we have made in reducing poverty over the past years. To avoid serious disruption to rural economies, it is essential to ensure agriculture, food chains, markets and trade continue to function,” said Houngbo.
“A majority of the world’s most impoverished people are already suffering the consequences of climate change and conflict. An economic downturn in rural areas could compound these effects, generating more hunger and increasing instability, especially in fragile states.”
The Rural Poor Stimulus Facility will focus on the following activities:
- Provide inputs for production of crops, livestock and fisheries to small-scale producers so that they can weather the immediate effects of the economic crisis.
- Facilitate access to markets to support small-scale farmers to sell their products in conditions where restricted movement is interrupting the functioning of markets, including providing logistics and storage support.
- Provide targeted funds for rural financial services to ensure sufficient liquidity is available and to ease immediate loan repayment requirements to maintain services, markets and jobs for poor rural people.
- Use digital services to share key information on production, weather, finance and markets.
IFAD has significant experience in working in fragile situations improving the resilience of rural populations. For example, in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak, IFAD-supported banks were the sole providers of banking and financial services in affected areas. They provided timely assistance during the outbreak and supported the renewal of the rural economy after the crisis passed.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, IFAD was already stepping up its programmes and calling on member states to increase investments in rural development to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 – ending hunger.
“A timely response to the pandemic is an opportunity to rebuild the world’s food systems along more sustainable and inclusive lines and build the resilience of rural populations to crisis, whether related to health, climate or conflict,” said Houngbo.
IFAD has received requests from governments in more than 65 countries to help respond to the impact of the pandemic. It has already adapted its projects and diverted funds to support this.
Source: IFAD
by admin | Apr 17, 2020 | News And Events
Regional body and UN agency join forces to minimize lockdown’s impact on the continent where one in five goes hungry
16 April 2020, Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Union (AU) and international partners today described the food and agriculture system as “an essential service that must continue to operate during periods of lockdown, emergency, curfew and other containment measures”.
In a joint declaration, they committed to supporting access to food and nutrition for Africa’s most vulnerable; providing Africans with social safety nets; minimizing disruptions to the safe movement and transport of essential people, and to the transport and marketing of goods and services; and keeping borders open on the continent for the food and agriculture trade.
The document was adopted at a gathering co-organized by the AU and FAO and convened virtually. All 55 AU member states were represented, 45 at minister level. The debate was moderated by the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Sacko.
In his opening remarks, Director-General QU Dongyu said quick, strategic action was needed to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security in Africa. “Border closures restrict trade and limit food availability in many countries, particularly those dependent on food imports,” he said. He expressed support for measures that do not lead to disruptions in food supply chains: these must be “kept alive,” he stressed.
Angela Thoko Didiza, Minister for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development of South Africa, joined Qu in opening the debate. The Minister, whose country currently chairs the AU, cautioned against any moves to weaken inter-regional trade. Both officials highlighted the toll taken by lockdowns in a continent where informal markets, rather than supermarkets, provide a lifeline for most consumers.
FAO’s Chief Economist, Maximo Torero, pointed to growing evidence of logistical strains in food markets – strains which Qu suggested should be mitigated by “shortening the chain”: producing more, better, and locally if possible.
Minister after minister intervened to outline the challenges posed by the pandemic, in a region of the world where a fifth of the population is undernourished. The CEO of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Ibrahim Mayaki, warned of risks to social stability if food and cash were to run low among Africa’s urban residents. Many government representatives described strenuous efforts to bolster welfare benefits, often at great cost to national budgets.
Echoing these concerns, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, outlined an EU support package for Africa that should eventually exceed $20 billion. The World Bank’s Simeon Ehui also detailed support initiatives, including the possibility of re-purposing $3.2 billion in uncommitted funding. Speaking for the African Development Bank, Martin Fregene concluded with details of a COVID-19 response programme that includes targeted technical and financial support.
Contact
FAO Media Relations Office (+39) 06 570 53625 [email protected]
Source: fao.org
by admin | Mar 8, 2020 | News And Events
On the occasion of the 2020 International Women’s Day, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) joins the global community to celebrate the highly adaptable women of science, farmers, agri-preneurs, researchers, leaders, policy makers and many more, who have greatly contributed to advancing AR4D in Africa and beyond.
This IWD marks important milestones in Agricultural Research for Development on the continent, through the launch of the CAADP XP4 with gender mainstreaming at the heart of FARA’s activities. In an effort to maintain momentum and scale-up actions towards empowering women on the continent, FARA launched the Agricultural Research Innovation Fellowship in Africa (ARIFA) targeting 50% participation of younger women. This will provide a platform to promote investment in Science, Technology and Innovations (STI) as well as expand access to education, apprenticeships, finance, business and employment opportunities for young women and young men in Agricultural Research for Development across the continent.
Furthermore, FARA believes that the youth are the key to unlocking Africa’s potential through creative disruption. Through its gender mainstreaming efforts, and in partnership with global youth initiatives such as Young Professionals in Agricultural Research & Development (YPARD) we wish to acknowledge that the roles played individually and collectively by women at various life stages, in the workplaces, households, marketplaces, universities, laboratories, board rooms and government agencies, have helped towards making Africa food and nutrition secure over the years. Women constitute 70% of the work force in the agricultural sector in Africa and 10% in basic food processing. They also carry out 60 to 90% of the total rural marketing, which is mostly through informal channels.
It is therefore imperative that we work hard to create a market space and engagement strategy towards achieving gender parity and to ensure that women and men have access to equal opportunities within Africa’s food system.
Today, we call all of us to work together towards enhancing the rights and opportunities of women and girls to attain their full potentials. During the 8th Africa Agricultural Science Week in Accra in June 2020, we shall further explore the prospects of gender mainstreaming into the Science Agenda for Africa’s agriculture.
As core stakeholders in the match towards realising the vision of the Africa we want, FARA celebrates African women in AR4D and will continue to mainstream gender by strengthening its engagement with women and girls across the Africa’s AR4D fraternity.
by admin | Feb 21, 2020 | News And Events
The Communications Specialists in the CAADP XP4 institutions have set in motion collaborative working plans towards the implementation of the visibility and communications strategy of the EU-funded project.
The CAADP-XP4 aims at strengthening the implementing organisations to collectively support African countries to contribute to the delivery of CAADP results through inclusive regional and international partnerships; production and exchange of climate-relevant agricultural knowledge; effective communication, monitoring and evaluation; promotion and effective use of science, knowledge and innovation; and representation of the sub-regional and national, regional at continental levels.
In the two-day consultative meeting, Communications persons in the CAADP XP4 implementing organisations; FARA, AFASS, ASARECA, CCARDESA AND CORAF, familiarised themselves with the technical components of CAADP XP4 and got a deeper understanding of the communications and visibility expectations of the project.
The team also developed a joint communication and visibility strategy that will assure coherence and alignment in coordinating and disseminating, tracking and evaluating the communication and visibility of the CAADP XP4 project. A joint action plan for implementing the CAADP XP4 communication and visibility strategy has also been developed where areas of common interest have been identified in each organisation’s communications and visibility work plan.
AFAAS, ASARECA, CCARDESA, CORAF and FARA are co-implementing the Ex- Pillar 4 Africa Regional and Sub-regional Organizations for Agricultural Research and Innovation (CAADP-XP4) Project. The project which aims at strengthening these institutions to carry out their mandates is financially supported by the European Union (EU), and administered by International Fund for Agricultural Development for a period of four years, 2019-2023.
