HarvestPlus says it is targeting 1.2 million households with vitamin A cassava and maize in Nigeria in 2018, with increased delivery activities in expansion states. Its Country Manager, Dr Paul Ilona who disclosed this to news men in an interview on Monday in Ibadan, said that the expansion states would include those in the Northeast, Northwest and North central. He added that HarvestPlus planned to deliver three million bundles of vitamin A cassava, 2,000 metric tonnes of vitamin A maize and bring over 50,000ha of land under cultivation to bio-fortified seeds. “This delivery target is in addition to the awareness…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Programme Director of Development Communications Network (DEVCOMS), Mr Akin Jimoh has disclosed that Lagos accounts for 24 percent of Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Nigeria. Jimoh who made the revelation when he visited the Lagos Operations of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at Iganmu, Lagos on Thursday, called for collaboration with the media for improved maternal and child health to reduce the high burden of maternal deaths in Nigeria. According to him, “It is regrettable that a large proportion of women still lose their lives to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. In Lagos State alone, statistics show that 555 women out…
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have disclosed that food insecurity or lack of access to enough food has continued to worsen in 16 countries torn by conflict, highlighting further that is was of “extremely critical importance for humanitarian support of the affected countries. The agencies listed the countries monitored to include Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. The others are Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. The countries are classified as most affected by acute hunger. Conflict…
Following a rigorous selection process, Dr Denis Chopera, Programme Executive Manager of the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE), based in Durban, South Africa, has been selected as an Aspen New Voices Fellow. The Aspen Institute announced the 2018 class of this ground-breaking programme on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018. It is designed to ensure experts from the developing world have a voice in the global development discussion. “I am so excited to join fellow global development experts from the developing world,” said Chopera. “What a great opportunity to contribute to dialogue on development issues affecting the African continent!”…
The CRU (www.CRUgroup.com) is bringing Phosphates 2018 (http://APO.af/ESWVFf), the global phosphates industry’s most important conference, to the Mövenpick Mansour Eddahbi Hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco on 12-14 March 2018. The event is organised in participation with International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) and will be hosted by OCP, Morocco’s national phosphate company (www.OCPgroup.ma). Now in its 11th year, the event attracts over 500 commercial and operational decision-makers from across the phosphates and fertilizer supply chain to explore the supply and demand dynamics and the latest mining and production technologies. Morocco is a hub for investment and innovation in phosphate mining and processing.…
By Abdallah el-Kurebe The Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century (GCP21) has called on policy makers, donors and the international community to support all efforts that would bring about cassava transformation in Africa. Made ahead of the international conference on cassava, the call is coming at a time when cassava is becoming central to food security of over 600 million people in the developing world and has become the fourth most important crop after maize, wheat and rice. Presenting the upcoming conference on cassava to donors and the international community in Cotonou on Thursday, the Director of GCP21, Dr…
Over 690,000 families totaling up to four million people living in six low-income countries stand to benefit from a new climate insurance programme launched by VisionFund International, World Vision’s microfinance arm and Global Parametrics, a new venture funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and by the InsuResilience Investment Fund, set up by German development bank KfW and managed by Swiss-based impact investment manager BlueOrchard Finance. Financing for the initial preparation and assessment required to implement the programme came from the Rockefeller Foundation and FMO, the Dutch development bank. The programme known as the African and Asian…
By Abdallah el-Kurebe Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has flagged off sales of organic fertilizer produced by a local firm, Sokoto-IML Company Ltd. The company was established in 2017 as a joint-venture entity between the Sokoto state government and IML Industries Ltd. Speaking at the flag-off ceremony, Tambuwal said the event is a clear testimony of his administration’s ongoing efforts to enhance the economic well-being of the people of the state. He said apart from the fertilizer company, other policies have been implemented in order to put the state economy in the right direction. “The micro and macroeconomic policies of both…
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committees on Agricultural Production and Services and Water Resources to collaborate with relevant agencies and other stakeholders to ensure that Nigeria became self-sufficient in fish production in the next two years. This followed the House’s unanimous adoption of a motion by Hon. Olawale Raji (Lagos-APC) at plenary on Wednesday. The house tasked the committees to ensure that enabling environment existed for increased private sector investments and development of a policy framework for implementation of a phased ban on importation of fish and fish products. The green chamber also mandated its Committee on Maritime…
The Coordinator of Nigeria Agribusiness Group, Mr Emmanuel Ijewere has stressed that embracing Genetically Modified (GM) foods would increase sufficiency, security and rescue the rural poor from the pangs of hunger. He said that in spite of criticisms that trails the introduction of GM crops in Nigeria’s foods and farming system, GMOs were not new crops invented by scientists, explaining that GMOs were the same conventional crops that were improved on to tackle persistent issues of food shortages and insect infestation on crops. He said that the foods would not only be produced in more quantity, but could also have…