Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed with the Programme Committee of OFAB By Abdallah el-Kurebe Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed has assured that Nigeria was ready to deploy biotechnology to boost the economy of the country. She said this while answering questions by Journalists shortly the members of the Programme Committee of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Africa paid her courtesy visit to her office on Tuesday. The Minister explained that while Nigeria was blessed with experts in biotechnology, the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) was also there to ensure the safety application of the technology. “Biotechnology has…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal inspecting farm machinery at the Henan Haofeng Machinery Manufacturing Company in Henan Province, China Sokoto government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Henan Province of China for the establishment a demonstration farm and boosting of agriculture in the state. With this agreement, Sokoto has become one of the beneficiaries of the 100 agricultural projects to be sited in developing countries which was announced by the Chinese President, Ji Xinping during the South-South Cooperation meeting held in September 2015. The deal will see to the application of new technology for cultivation of crops such as corn,…
Gas Emission By Dele Oni Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth and is notably recognized within the frame of a number of attached identities, such as being the biggest producer of petroleum in Africa. While it is invariably advancing to become one of the top producers in the world, the country has really come a long way as a fossil fuel-based economy to achieving yet another identity as one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in Africa. The country is yet to find a place among the fully industrialized nations in the world that have…
By Abdallah el-Kurebe Abidjan, Cote d’IVoire – April 9, 2016: The FAO Regional Conference for Africa, which ended on Friday in Abidjan, Cote d’IVoire has unveiled new beneficiaries of the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF) to support their national agricultural priorities. Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director General and Coordinator of Natural Resources revealed that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Islamic Republic of Gambia and Swaziland would access $750,000, broken into $250,000 each. She added that while the funds for the DRC, would be used to complement and scale up successful FAO participatory interventions that promote rural women…
By Abdallah el-Kurebe Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire – April 8, 2016: Ministers of Agriculture from the countries of the African continent rose from the 29th FAO Regional Conference for Africa held between 4th and 8th April, 2016 in Abidjan, capital of Cote d’Ivoire with a collective declaration to take decisive action to fight food insecurity and climate change. The declaration encouraged countries, actors in the private sector, the civil society and international organisations to work with Africa to “enhance the capacity of our countries to improve national institutional governance for direct and international access to climate finance, and to develop transformational…
By Abdallah el-Kurebe April 8, 2016 – Abidjan: The government of Cote d’Ivoire has signed an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to commit $20 million for a five-year partnership programme to promote agricultural development in the country. It also signed an expanded partnership to establish a liaison office in Abidjan, capital of Cote d’Ivoire on Friday, April 8, 2016 at the headquarters of FAO, Cocody-Abidjan. The new FAO/Cote d’Ivoire Partnership Programme (FCPP), which will focus on national priorities as set out in the FAO Country Programming Framework for Cote d’Ivoire, will also foresee the possibility of…
By Tunde Oguntola of Leadership newspaper, Nigeria Federal government has assured that the use of Genetic Modified Foods (GMOs) do not pose any health risk to Nigerians. Speaking during a courtesy visit to LEADERSHIP corporate headquarters yesterday, the Director-General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Rufus Ebegba, said that highly reputed world regulatory agencies and organisations that study the safety of food supply, including World Health Organisation (WHO), US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and America Medical Association (AMA) have found genetically modified food ingredients safe with no negative health effects associated with their use. Ebegba stated that GMOs…
By Abdallah el-Kurebe Abidjan, Cote I’Voire – April 7, 2016: – The Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Jose Graziano da Silva has stated that although Africa had made great strides in tackling hunger by achieving a 30 percent drop in the proportion of its people that were facing hunger between the period of 1990-2015, climate change, conflict and social inequality continue to present major challenges in the continent’s quest for a future that would be free from hunger and want. Da Silva, speaking on Thursday at the opening ceremony of a Ministerial Roundtable of FAO’s…
It is with serious concern that our attention was drawn on a publication credited to some anti-GM groups published in the Guardian Newspaper entitled“Dangers of Genetically Modified Crops to Nigeria”-Part 1. The said publication appeared on the 22nd March, 2016. The sheer ignorance expressed by the authors necessitated our response on the issue. First of all the authors’ understanding of GM crops to mean invasive scientific manipulation of plant or animal genes at molecular level to withstand unhealthy doses of pesticides is not correct. But it is correct to say that the genes are sourced from bacteria or any biological source depending on desirability.…
Dr. Kormawa By Abdallah el-Kurebe Dr. Patrick Kormawa is the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO’s) Sub-regional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to the African Union (AU) and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). He spoke with elkurebedotcom.wordpress.com at the 29th FAO Regional Conference for Africa in Abidjan, Core de I’Voire on the role of PPP in strengthening agriculture in the sub-region.Excerpts: What is PPP in the context of the FAO? The PPP is a formal relationship between the private sector entity and the public sector. The public sector is defined as the government (local, state or federal), depending on the relationship…