Agric & Biotech

In a bid to promoting youth centre activities in raising awareness and mobilising public support for food security and livelihood protection, some 30 youths residing in the six states were recently selected to participate in an agriculture-based programme. The youths from various backgrounds were camped in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, under a programme tagged: “Young voices for small scale ...

Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan presented the 2013 proposal to the joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, where he submitted, among others, that the budget is one that gives priority to food security. However, the N81.41 billion budget provision for Agriculture and Rural Development has apparently not captured the recent flooding mishap nationwide, which has put the ...

On the occasion of the International Day Against Plantations and Monocultures that was observed recently, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has advised the Nigerian government to go beyond sloganeering by mustering the political will to adopt realistic and community-friendly approaches to fighting the climate change phenomenon instigated by unsustainable forest practices. ERA/FoEN also called on the ...

Nigeria, Cross River State and the United Nations sign Nigeria’s UN-REDD National Programme, with an innovative two-track approach, and gear up to implement it, says Josep A. Garí, Environmental Finance Specialist (UNDP) and Regional Advisor for Africa (UN-REDD), who is based at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, Kenya   Nigeria’s UN-REDD National Programme was signed on 28 August 2012, ...

The NGO Coalition for Environment (NGOCE), an environmental network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) with over 45 members based in Nigeria, has been selected as the new Africa observer organisation to the UN-REDD Policy Board. The Bank Information Centre (BIC), which made the disclosure on behalf of the UN-REDD Programme and the Independent Advisory Group on Forests, Rights and Climate ...

To increase the incomes of many of the billion forest-dependent people worldwide the current model for investment in forests must be turned on its head. An initiative of unprecedented scale, led by The Forests Dialogue (TFD), IUCN and  the Growing Forests Partnerships (GFP), has found that optimising the benefits and productivity of forests requires moving from a ‘resource-led’ model to ...

Tanzania will host the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF)) from  September 26 to 28, 2012, the country’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives, Christopher Chiza, and President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Jane Karuku, have disclosed. The meeting is said to be the next milestone in developing African-led food security solutions. At the recent G8 ...

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has decried the alarming rate of deforestation caused by the charcoal business in Ekiti State, even as it demanded prompt action on the part of the state government to stave off crisis between the charcoal merchants and the local communities. This call was made last week at capacity building/stakeholder forums on strategies ...

The implementation of the Nigeria REDD+ Readiness Programme has received the go-ahead, following a recent stakeholder-wide reassessment of the plan in Abuja. Having previously undergone an intensive check to incorporate the comments of the UN-REDD Policy Board, the approved national programme, in line with the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) management procedure, required a critical analytical review of its design ...

African governments have been accused of being complacent about the “covert” activities of the biotechnology industry to undermine food sovereignty on the continent. According to participants at a workshop held in Abuja, the policy frameworks for biotechnology in most African countries are either non-existent, weak or subject to manipulation by multinational corporations promoting genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), and acting in alliance ...