The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has distributed fertilisers and seeds to 790,000 farmers to accelerate crop production.

The benefiting farmers are those displaced by Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.

FAO, in its October Situation Report, said that the fertilisers and inputs were provided to the benefiting farmers during the 2018 cropping season.

The fact sheet indicated that 112,000 households, with a projected population of 790,000 farmers benefited from the exercise in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

It said: “in northeast farmers have begun harvesting cereal, vegetable and cash crops such as cowpea, groundnut and sesame; following provision of seed and fertilisers to 112,000 households under the 2018 rainy season programme.

“The season appears to have been effective for numerous farming households, lessening the need for food assistance in some areas.”

FAO noted with satisfaction that the number of people facing acute food insecurity in the region dropped to 2.9 million (June to August 2018); as against 5.2 million (June to August 2017).

However, the fact sheet showed that the northeast region faced severe climate variability negatively affecting production system, which resulted to low yields and livestock production as well as attendant consequences on agricultural livelihoods.

The UN agency noted that due to increased influx of displaced persons and tense security situation, host communities were facing reduced access to lands and other resources needed for production.

It explained that the trend resulted to high level poverty and malnutrition in the war-ravaged region.

The document further gave a highlight of priority response by the organisation between October and December.

These included the distribution of fertilisers and seeds to 61,300 households, provision of goats, poultry kits and veterinary services to 10,589 households.

Other key interventions include distribution of micro-gardening kits to 7,500 deserving families and fuel-efficient stoves to 6,000 households, while 2,500 families would receive emergency safe kits.

According to the document, the organisation faces a funding gap of $13.9 million to facilitate implementation of its agriculture production for the 2018/2019 dry season activities, as well as all year-round livelihood support programme.

“Under the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), FAO is seeking for $31.5 million to assist 1.7 million people. So far, FAO has mobilised $17.6 million, which included a carry-over from 2017.

“Resource partners include the European Union Directorate for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO); the governments of Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland, Kuwait, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.”

By Rabiu Sani

Rice farmers in Auyo Local Government Area of Jigawa State in Nigeria have called on the state government to take urgent action to check the menace of a rice pest, popularly known as “blast”, destroying rice farms in the area.

Chairman of the Rice Farmers Apex Association, Malam Mohammed Garba, made the call when the Country Director, Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000), Prof. Sani Ahmed-Miko, visited the association in Auyo on Friday, October 26, 2018.

He said the pest and Quelea birds coming from Baturiya wetland in Guri had destroyed several rice farms in the area.

He stressed the need for both the state and federal governments to address the problem in view of their devastating effect on rice production.

“We are calling on the government to do something urgently in addressing the problem before the commencement of dry season farming activities.

“This year has been a challenging one to farmers especially rice growers in the area due to the devastation caused by flood, blast and Quelea birds.

“The pest destroys rice seed by making the pod to shrink thereby preventing it from growing fully,” he said.

In his remarks, an official of the SG 2000, Malam Idris Garko, advised the farmers to stop buying seeds from unregistered seed dealers and companies, and to use variety of seeds every year to avoid possible infection by the pest.

“If you find out that the seed is infected with the disease, change the seed next year and destroy the stock to prevent the spread of the pest,” he said.

Also speaking, Prof. Ahmed-Miko of Sasakawa Global 2000 advised the farmers to embrace new farming technologies to boost their agricultural production.

By Tukur Muntari

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is championing a new regional and global effort to transform the African Savannah from a “Sleeping Giant” to the cradle of the continent’s green revolution.

“This sleeping giant needs to wake up,” the bank’s Vice-President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Jennifer Blanke, told an audience at a 2018 World Food Prize side event in Des Moines, Iowa recently.

Blanke described Africa’s nearly 400 million hectares of Savannah zones as “the world’s largest agricultural frontier,” and if a small fraction of that cultivatable land – some 16 million hectares – is transformed, it could well set Africa up to decrease dependence on food imports, feed itself and contribute to feeding the world.

Africa is said to be host to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, but currently spends an estimated $35 billion per year on importing food. The figure is projected to shoot up to $110 billion by 2025.

Africa is also said to be importing what it should be producing: 22 million metric tons of maize, two million metric tons of soybean, one million metric tons of broiler meat and 10 million metric tons of milk product each year. Experts say ths situation is made worse when African countries export raw goods outside the continent to be processed into consumer products imported back into Africa for purchase.

Africa is thus presumably reportedly exporting jobs outside the continent and contributing to its own poverty challenges.

The AfDB has determined that the African Savannah can support the production of maize, soybean, and livestock, and transform the continent into a net exporter of these commodities. Only 10 percent of the African Savannah is under cultivation – better utilised, small sections of Africa’s grasslands could provide direct jobs for tens of millions of young people and indirect jobs for many more.

Blanke, who spoke on behalf of AfDB president, Akinwumi Adesina, noted that all of Africa’s Savannah is more than twice as large as Brazil’s “Cerrados” that launched that country’s farming economy success. She said transforming a small part of Africa’s mixed woodland grasslands, in a smart and sustainable way, can produce enough to supply all the continent’s maize, soybean, and livestock requirements.

Brazil transformed its tropical Cerrados into a $54 billion food industry within two decades through skillful development of production technologies for new crop and livestock varieties; innovative soil and crop management programs adapted to the tropics; wide-scale dissemination of new agricultural technologies; low interest loans, and ambitious rural development programmes.

The bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation for the Savannahs (TAAT-S) initiative seeks to transform 16 million hectares (ha) out of Africa’s 400 million ha of Savannah into an agribusiness hive to produce maize, soybean, and livestock. That is just about four percent of the continent’s mixed woodland and grassland areas. It is said that if African countries can harness the available technologies with the right policies, they will rapidly raise agricultural productivity and incomes for farmers, as well as assure lower food prices for consumers.

Vice President Blanke led a bank delegation selling the merits of its TAAT-S initiative at the World Food Prize gathering. The Bank’s TAAT-S session discussed training, innovation, entrepreneurship, and policy support for transformation of African Savannahs.

To ensure effective implementation, the Bank has looked to Brazil’s agri-business success story to engage with organizations with proven track record in tropical and conservation agriculture. These include the Brazilian Research Corporation and the Agricultural Corporation of Brazil, the Argentine Association of Zero-tillage, and the Argentine Agricultural Research Institute – all part of a systematic effort at technology introduction and adaptation.

TAAT-S was launched in October 2017 in Ghana and has since been operating in Zambia, Guinea and Gabon. The bank expects to launch TAAT-S in Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Mozambique next year.

When TAAT-S is fully implemented, Africa can expect to double its maize production from a current 50 million metric tons per annum to 100 million metric tons, to triple soybean production from less than three million metric tons to nine million metric tons, and to double livestock production from 8.5 million metric tons to 16 million metric tons by 2025, according to the AfDB.

The TAAT-S session was part of Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium, held in conjunction with the World Food Prize Laureate Ceremony. The $250,000 World Food Prize recognises accomplishments of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Adesina is the 2017 World Food Prize laureate.