Courtesy of the Benin City, Edo State-based Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), representatives of communities that are being impacted by the Superhighway Project of the Cross Rivers State Government brainstormed for three days last week (from Thursday to Saturday) on challenges concerning the controversial scheme.
Participants at the Dialogue
The meeting built the capacity of community stakeholders on issues related to their forests as well as the overall impact of 10km right-of-way to be acquired on either side of the proposed road. Threats to their biodiversity rich forest and its resources, the environment and livelihoods they depend on for daily survival were of great concern at the gathering, which drew participants from Okokori and Edondon in Obubra Local Government area; Old Ekuri and New Ekuri from Akamkpa Local government area; and civil society groups and community based organisations.
Officials of HOMEF at the event
At the close of the interactive community dialogue and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) training, participants and community stakeholders from Edondon, Okokori, Old and New Ekuri resolved thus:
Need good roads but do not want their cultural heritage destroyed.
Insist on active engagement of communities in the EIA process with adequate compensation paid where necessary.
Will write to Government to register their concerns relating to the proposed super highway project.
Call on NGOs and International agencies support to build a stronger alliance against the super highway project especially with regard to threats to forests.
Community’s free prior informed consent (FPIC) must be sought in all projects before implementation.
Protest and resist any unsustainable forest management practices in the forest rich region.
Will reduce every activity that promotes deforestation.
Promote forest conservation and regeneration of indigenous trees in degraded areas.
Minimise poaching, unregulated hunting and stop to illegal wild life trade.
Reject use of forest lands for large scale plantations.
Campaign against water pollution and the indiscriminate use of chemicals.
Strengthen the Community Forest Watch for effective community forest monitoring.
Form a community health monitoring group to ensure sustainable forest management practices.
Help to protect, preserve and conserve their forest which provides them with social, economic, spiritual benefits.
Besides HOMEF, other CSOs involved in the initiative include Rural Action for Green Environment (RAGE), Green Concern for Development (GREENCODE), Peace Point Action (PPA), Lokiaka Development Centre (LDC), Rainforest Research and Development Centre (RRDC) and NGO Coalition on Environment (NGOCE).
Residents of Igbologun Community, popularly known as Snake Island, in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, have cried out to government to provide them a functional hospital to check an alarming death rate there, especially among children and women of reproductive age.
Igbologun community in Lagos is characterised by an alarming death rate among children and women of reproductive age
They made the call recently when journalists on an investigative trip visited the area.
Igbologun can only be accessed through water transportation, from Coconut end of the Tin Can Island area in Apapa. The boat trip on a bearing of about 250 degrees South West takes roughly nine minutes and, by trekking, another 21 minutes.
The growing population is as a result of the presence of a company, Nigerdock located in the community, which attracts job seekers to the area. The company has about six shipping companies operating under it.
The first image that attracts the visitor’s attention while on shore is the sandy nature of the road, which makes it difficult for commercial motorcyclists conveying passengers to maneuver their way to residential areas in the community.
It was gathered that this situation is aggravated whenever there is heavy downpour, which give the roads a mud-spattered look. Coupled with this is the lack of drainage system to channel run-off water away from the road.
When translated, Igbologun, means Forest of Warriors.
Indeed, the name is a true reflection of its current state, as life in the island community which is said to be over 400 years old, came likened to one in the jungle.
According to Dr. Silas Wilson and Prince Ggenga Shosany, two of the few enlightened people there, due to neglect by government, about 36 communities in the different Island settlements in the state grapple with so many challenges, with lack of health care services on the top of the list.
“We lack government presence here. We do not even enjoy the dividends of democracy here in terms of health, water and electricity. We enjoy nothing in this community. Immediately after election, they forget the riverine areas.
“In the area of health care, it is zero here. Talk of government, it is absolutely zero. Few years ago, they gave us one health centre that serves about 13 communities, but no doctor and no nurse. Just two weeks ago, we lost a pregnant woman. She was in labour at night. Immediately she started bleeding, she was taken to the health centre. They said the nurse was coming. They waited till a whole night. And the woman bled to death just like that,” they disclosed.
Looking around in Igbologun, one notices many tombs, which speak volume on the high mortality rate in the community with population in the region of 20,000 people.
Another striking thing is that most female inhabitants from adolescent age upwards were either pregnant or nursing a babies.
The government maternal centre inaugurated on 3 February, 1988 by the then military governor of Lagos State, Captain Mike Akhigbe, to provide services to pregnant women, appears to be in poor state with no facility, no doctor and no qualified nurse.
Residents said many of the women die with their pregnancies, while death rate especially among children is very high due to no effective health care services.
However, succour appeared to come the way of Igbologun people recently, when a medical doctor, Shodipo Gbolahan, moved with the passion to save lives established a hospital in the community.
But the private hospital which has treated thousands of people for free is facing hard times as it has virtually been converted into a charity home, because residents do not have money to pay after receiving treatment.
Dr. Gbolahan explains: “My coming here was a long story. Then, I was working in a very big hospital in Ajegunle and I was earning huge. There, I was fond of pregnant women. They were two of them that I was very close to because they were always looking good. Then one of the women died. I asked her friend what happened, she said it was in the middle of the night that the woman started bleeding and they could not come to the hospital. I asked why? You people could have called me to bring an ambulance. She said, ambulance could not reach the place. I asked, is there a place in this Lagos that ambulance cannot reach? I decided to go and see such a place. That was in September 2009.
“So that evening after work, I took a bike and asked for the address. They said Snake Island. I took a boat to Snake island and, around 3 pm, I reached the place. When I arrived, I was just looking around for a hospital. I walked round the whole community and there was not a single hospital. So, luckily, I asked for a health centre which is down there. I got there and found out that it was already closed. I asked why should a hospital close by 3pm? I then found out that it was a primary health centre, and what they do was only labour and things like that. After six months, I said, what if I go to the place and start a hospital? But I didn’t know how to convince my wife. How could I tell her that I was not going to America or England, but to one local village? She was pregnant then. She was planning to go abroad to deliver. Immediately she left Nigeria, I just resigned and came to this place. I started with a two-room apartment. So, I put a notice, ‘Qualified doctor around now, 24-hour service’. So, I started in one small room.
“My salary for that month, I used it to rent a room for one year. Then there was no bed. Soon, there was an emergency. I treated the guy, he got well. He was the one that started doing the advert. Within a month, people started coming. I thought to myself, I could turn this into a hospital. Then I got a bigger place and moved into this place.
“On the average we have 180 pregnant women annually. Their common issues are bleeding, some have eclampsia, some have obstructed labour. I charge for my service but, in many cases, they lacked the means to pay. For instance, you can see this woman with a convulsing baby, they came with no money. Should I say because they do not have money, they should go and die? No. I don’t think it is the best.”
Dr. Gbolahan said the reason for the high mortality rate especially among pregnant women is because the people had the mindset that hospitals are only for the rich, and as such took their wives and daughters to local birth attendants with no formal training.
Charity Felix was among the lucky pregnant women who survived the delivery process by the whiskers.
She was in a comma when she was rushed to the hospital after being in labour for more than a day at the place of a traditional birth attendant.
Charity and her baby were saved through a caesarian operation, but she is in tears because her unemployed husband has no money to pay the medical bill.
Her words: “I did not go to hospital because we had no money. To even eat two square meals a day is impossible. If not for this doctor, I would have been dead. My husband does not have work. Since two weeks, I have been here, my husband does not have one naira to give the doctor. God used this doctor to save my life. I do not have any other person; my mother left me 11 years ago. Before this, I had two children, one 10 years the other six years old. Things are too rough for us; we don’t even have property to sell. Even to pay house rent, we cannot. I was not taking medication during pregnancy.
“I registered with Iya Ijaw, a local midwife. That night that I fell into labour, I had no food to eat. I was at Iya Ijaw’s house. She was the one that brought me here because I was in comma. When the woman checked me, she said I will deliver through operation. My husband said he did not have any money for operation. But God used this doctor to save me. He did not even collect deposit. Even up till now, we have not given him any money.”
While in the hospital, a two-year-old boy Pasca Kapo with serious convulsion was rushed to the hospital and, after examination, it was confirmed that his blood level had dropped to below 10 percent.
The boy’s father, John Kapo, a 32-year-old unemployed who had divorced four wives and now living with the fifth one, said he lacked the means to pay his son’s hospital bill.
“Some of our children die. When the child became sick, since there was no money, he was afraid of taking the child to the hospital. At a point, he took the child to a woman herbalist. The woman tried her best. After some days, she said she could no longer cure him, that we should take the child to the hospital. When we came here, doctor examined him and said the baby did not have blood again. He said the malaria has drained all his blood.”
Mr. Kapo is said to have watched his previous children die without taking them to hospital because of financial issues.
Reacting, Dr. Gbolahan said transportation difficulty has led to countless deaths, because when emergency cases arose at odd hours, people could not easily take their sick ones to hospital.
“Most of the pregnant women register in Ajegunle, across the ocean. There are indeed good hospitals there. But when problems arise at night, they cannot get a boat to cross. Like Charity here, she was brought here around 2am. Sometimes, like people in remote Islands, they will be in labour throughout the night. By morning, the women are already weak and they die with the baby. Some of them are lucky; we manage to save the women, but their babies would have died.”
On the part of the children, he said the most common ailment causing death is malaria, which is blamed on heavy mosquito attacks there. When it is untreated, the children become anemic like the case of little Pascal.
All the pregnant women interviewed said they did not go for anti-natal services because the maternal centre was not working.
Throughout the about five hours the team of journalists was in the community, no patient was seen at the government maternal centre.
A young woman seen at the hospital, who claimed to be an assistant nurse, said the midwife in-charge of the centre was not around for interview.
The Baale of Igbologun, Chief Amisu Alaso Gegeiyawo, seemed economical with the truth, apparently for fear of being sanctioned by state authorities.
One Chief Alawo, however, said he has been telling the authorities to provide them qualified doctor and nurse, as well as portable water and refuse disposal services, but that his plea seems to have fallen on deaf ears as nothing has been done.
It was observed that most of the women in Igbologun have many children in the belief that since there was no effective health care, many of the children could die and they still have some surviving.
Also, the ambition of most of the girls is to get married and make babies, with no thought about acquiring good education or learning skills.
Reacting, a Programme Officer of Development Communications (DevComs), Mrs. Biodun Owo, said if government cannot fund and equip its facilities, it should at least partner with the private health institution to save lives of the many pregnant women and their babies there.
“If government can help, maybe in donation of equipment to facilitate his job or by supplying commodities that he can be providing to the women at subsidised rates. Also individual and companies that have the means should come on board. You can see the roof of the health centre is falling off; they can help to refurbish the health centre. They can also donate commodities and equipment just to reduce the running cost for him.”
We were told that at least 30 communities in the different Islands in Lagos including Igbologun, Ibeshe and Sagbokoji face very bad living conditions with no power, health care, and drinking water, while their entire physical environment is highly polluted.
Although the government in Lagos State is said to have been in the forefront of health care provision to pregnant women, the state’s statistics in Child and Maternal Mortality is not an impressive one, with one in 40 women dying from pregnancy or delivery related causes in her life time, and just one in 15 children die before his or her 15th birthday.
Apparently moved by a publication on plight of residents of Kanti village, a community located west of Rigasa, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis, North-West Nigeria, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade, has constructed a borehole in the community.
Women of Unguwa Kanti community dancing round the bore hole in appreciation
This follows a story by Water Journalists Africa that reported on the plight of this community pitting emphasis on the lack of access to clean water.
Prior to the borehole being dug in the community, their only source of water was a pond covered with dried leaves and dirt.
Commissioning the borehole at the village that is about 20 kilometres away from Kaduna city, the Army GOC said he was touched by the news report about their plight.
General Oyebade assured the villagers of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration and other state governments’ effort to ensure welfare of all Nigerians, adding that the Army, having recognised that government cannot do it alone, will always reach out to the needy.
“I read recently about your community that your major problem is lack of portable drinking water, so, I told myself that my heart will not be at peace until I give you water. So, I asked one of my officers to locate this place, so that I can give you borehole.
“I want to assure you that President Muhammadu Buhari led administration and the respective state governments are working tirelessly to ensure welfare of all Nigerians, but government cannot do everything for everybody, so we can always support the government.
“Also, the Army is not just about fighting war, we also assist the civil populace, because the Army under the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Tukur Buratai, is very friendly with the civil populace.”
Responding on behalf of the community, the Village Head, Aliyu Bala, expressed appreciation to the GOC for giving the community life as he also appealed for more social amenities in the area.
Long before the global community ever decided to pursue the open defecation free (ODF) agenda of ensuring responsible defecation using household toilets, a small Ghanaian community was already practicing the principles of ODF. For the people of Kpale-Xorse in the Ho West District of the Volta region, it has been a taboo to defecate and leave faeces in the open.
A sign post displaying the ODF status of the community
To ease themselves, each community member would instinctively dig a hole, defecate in it and, afterwards, cover it up. The people of Kpale-Xorse have always consciously covered their shit not for health reasons, but for divine motivation. The guiding principle for this lifestyle was the biblical book of Deuteronomy 23:12 – 14.
“You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. You must have a spade among your other equipment and when you relieve yourself outside you must dig a hole with the spade and then turn and cover your excrement. For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat your enemies for you. Therefore, your camp should be holy, so that He does not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.” (Cited from the New English Translation Bible).
While, some communities would normally construct communal latrines, the Kpale-Xorse Community established by the Christ Apostolic Faith in 1931, has never constructed a communal toilet. Rather, defecation was in accordance with the biblical provision for the Israelites when they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, following their escape from Pharaoh and Egypt, according to the biblical book of Exodus.
Open defecation (OD), known as “free range,” in Ghana, is said to be the riskiest of all sanitation practices, posing the greatest danger to human health and can have fatal consequences – particularly for the most vulnerable, especially young children. The risk lies in the fact that human contact with human excreta can transmit many infectious diseases including cholera and typhoid. It also affects the growth of children under five leading to stunting – a condition that distorts the physical growth and intellectual abilities in children.
In Ghana, open defecation is deemed the greatest sanitation challenge. Therefore, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with its sponsors, is supporting the Government of Ghana to address the problem in Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta and Central regions as well as the Ashiaman district of the Greater Accra region, where the practice is said to be prevalent.
Members of the Kpale-Xorse community say they cherish a close commune with their maker, “God Almighty,” and therefore “covet His blessings such as sound health and long life, which He has generously bestowed on us.”
The Head of the Community, Pastor Henry Johnson, testified that “since we settled here, we hardly fall sick and the youngest person to have died among us three years ago, was 59.”
This is so unlike in other communities, where people are always falling sick and dying from preventable diseases that are common because open defecation is the norm.
The Kpale-Xorse community members quickly embraced the ODF concept through the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach, introduced to them by field officers from the Regional and District Environmental Health Offices in October 2012. The approach emphasises households having their own toilet facilities.
Within three months, the community become ODF and is now aspiring to become a sanitised community where every household has its own toilet facility. But Kpale-Xorse is not the only ODF community in Ghana.
A recent regional press tour in four of the five UNICEF supported regions, revealed that more communities are gradually abandoning the norm of open defecation and embracing the ODF concept.
The regions toured are Volta, Northern, Upper East and Upper West. The ODF communities visited included Kusale, Tubong, Kariyata and Lijobilibu.
But some challenges are threatening the ODF status of some of these communities. For instance, Lijobilibu in the Mion District of the Northern region is completely transformed now, in terms of sanitation and hygiene. Community members now happily share their stories of transformation from filth to cleanliness, from sickness to health, and from bad oduor to a refreshing breeze.
However, these gains made are being threatened by the lack of access to safe water. There is no water facility in the community. Its only source of water is the River Dakar, which community members say they share with their cattle. It is about four miles away and one has to trek through a rocky terrain and descend into the valley. This makes the return journey with water rather tedious, as the path is an ascent and can be very slippery at times.
The youth of the town are unhappy about this situation because, according to them, the district authorities who promised to help “are doing nothing about our plight.” A representative, Catechist Joshua said they have decided to protest by mounting a “NO WATER FACILITY, NO VOTE,” sign post in their community.
“Unless we get water, all our efforts at maintaining our ODF status and even becoming a sanitised community will be in vain,” he added.
For the 2016 farming season, the Steering Committee of the Cassava Weed Management Project, which is managed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA-CWMP) has approved the establishment of 58 on-farm trials across Nigeria.
A farmer using a mechanical weeder
The plan, accordingly to the decision that formed part of resolutions and recommendations of the 2016 Steering Committee meeting held in IITA, Ibadan 28-29 April 2016, “is to reach, through the on-farm trials, at least 11,000 farmers with a basket of weed control options, and offer farmers the opportunity to choose by themselves, weed control methods that best suit their locality and address their needs.”
Prof. John Ayoade, a Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Agriculture Makurdi, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the Executive Director of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, Dr Julius Okonkwo, said the on-farm trials would validate the two-year results obtained from research stations.
The on-farm trials will involve farmers from Benue, Abia, Oyo and Ogun states on different aspects of weed control including the use of motorised mechanical weeders, best-bet agronomic practices including correct spacing, improved variety, cassava/maize intercrop, use of fertilisers and tillage practices, and the use of environmentally friendly herbicides. Each on-farm trial is about one and half acres and will be researcher-managed.
Project Leader, IITA-CWMP, Dr Alfred Dixon, said the on-farm trials would provide opportunity for both researchers and farmers to work together on the path of discovery in a participatory manner.
“Our research approach is inclusive and farmers are important stakeholders in this equation,” he said.
Though Nigeria is a global leader in cassava production, the average yield on farmers’ fields is about 14 tons per hectare, representing half of those obtained on research stations. One of the limiting factors to increased productivity is poor weed control, and the IITA-CWMP is working with partners within and outside Nigeria to provide solutions to weed damage to crops.
The Steering Committee, which plays an oversight role on the project, is headed by the Executive Director of NRCRI, Dr Julius Okonkwo, and other 11 members drawn from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA), CropLife, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), University of Agriculture Makurdi (UAM), Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), a private consulting firm, IITA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mufutau Animashaun holds a Doctorate degree in horticulture with emphasis on Post-Harvest Pathology from Writtle College University of Essex in England. He is a consultant post-harvest horticulturist, and has been studying and teaching the preservation, disease control of fruits and vegetables for 40 years. He is erstwhile Lagos State Commissioner for Agricultural Coop and Rural Development during the Buba Marwa administration; former deputy Rector of Lagos State Polytechnic; Director, School of Agriculture, Ikorodu; EU Project Director, Lagos State Polytechnic; Sole Administrator, Lagos State Polytechnic Laspotech Farm; and Pioneer Principal, Agric. Training Institute, LASPOTECH.
He established the Agricultural Training Institute in Epe between 1989 and 1992 to train young school leavers who wanted to take up entrepreneurship in Agric farming. Dr Animashaun also holds HND and MSc. in Tropical and Sub-tropical Horticulture (Applied Science) from Writtle College University London, and a B.Sc Agriculture from Fargo, USA, Horticulture and many certificates on Horticulture. He spoke with Abdallah el-Kurebe on tomato and many more. Excerpts:
Dr. Mufutau Animashaun
Presently fruits and vegetable farms in Nigeria have the challenge of holocaust of Tuta Absoluta, locally known as tomato Ebola. From your profile, you have experience as a consultant on post-harvest pathology on fruits and vegetables. Can you explain in a simple language what Tuta Absoluta is, how it attacks vegetables and precautionary measures needed to stop its spread before the solution arrives?
Tuta Absoluta is an intelligent insect that has a distinctive survival instinct. It is a pest that destroys tomato crops and it has been prevalent in this country for 50 years, but which was just discovered a few years back. The attention is just coming up now because of the intensity of the attack that is being experienced. It is a soil born pest. Tuta Absoluta (Meyrick), is a micro lepidopteran moth belonging to the Gelechiidae family and is considered as one of the most devastating pest that feeds on tomatoes, garden egg, aubergine, potatoes, and tobacco plants. Tuta Absoluta pest spreads very quickly because it has a high reproductive potential and a life cycle that can take between 24 to 76 days, depending on the environmental conditions. Adults are silvery gray with black spots on the forewings. Their activity is concentrated in the early morning and dusk; during the rest of the day they remain hidden among the leaves. Adult lifespan ranges between 10 and 15 days for females and six to seven days for males. The female lays the eggs mainly on the leaves, although they can also be found on stems and sepals. Eggs are laid isolated, thus facilitating their distribution on the crop. The number of eggs per female is usually between 40 and 50 and may reach 260.
This is just a nominal description of Tuta Absoluta and I think we need to deploy different approaches to solving the problem. First is the approach of attacking the insects itself at the reproduction stages from the egg to adult. It’s not about attacking at the point of attack, but killing the egg before hatching – that is completely wiping it off from our farm land nationwide. We need an Entomologist report to identify the specie of the pest, because it’s possible that the specie that can survive in Kano and Kaduna might not survive in Jos and Yola because of the varied temperature. That means we have to develop many strategies and approaches. Another approach is to identify which stage of the lifecycle that attacks and infects the fruits either the larva, pupa or the adult state. Because I know that it’s a moth that reproduces twelve times a year and it can be terminated before it matures to age that attacks the fruit. The third is the pesticide method: though some experts have suggested the use of pesticides, we have to be very careful, some pesticides are systemic, you intend to control the insects but the tomatoes can take it up and when eaten fresh can be carcinogenic andcause harm to the human body.
What is the meaning of carcinogenic?
That means cancer; it causes cancer in the body – so we have to be very careful. An expert from the Ministry of Agriculture suggested that they use the protocol of insecticide, which means once you use one insecticide today, tomorrow you use another one. This is dangerous because it means the insect is developing a resistance to that protocol. Another approach is the biological approach – that is, finding parasites that feeds on the insects, Tuta Absoluta. We have to have a different approach to this rather than the normal insecticide approach.
If you are getting the parasites to feed on them, how then do you bring a contact?
You have to study the lifecycle of that insect and know the stage it attacks the fruits; send the parasite during this stage to kill it completely and study the parasites so that it would not be injurious to the plant. So, you can see it’s a two-way approach so as not to bring about another problem to the plant itself.
What in your view should the government do to have an all-encompassing proactive approach to protecting our food and crops?
One thing we lack most in crop harvest in this country is post-harvest technology, management and packaging. These are very essential and important in any nation’s agricultural growth. It is what gives the developed economy edge over us. They believe in technology a lot and they spend money on research. You cannot import a technology that was designed for a country with a different climate to a country that has a very strong climate. I am an ardent preacher of environmental reality. Any problem in this country has its own solution here and not a borrowed solution. Borrowed solutions might only solve the problem temporarily.
What do mean?
I am unequivocally saying that I can solve this Ebola tomatoes outbreak locally. This I can do in synergy with other indigenous plant protection experts. I did my Doctorate degree thesis on this post-harvest pathology. I spent every day of my life for six years doing research on different fruits and vegetables pathology. I don’t need to go to heaven with dollars or pounds to solve these outbreaks. We are blessed in this country with world class brains. As a Nigerian, I won the best oral presentation at the 2nd All African Horticulture Congress (AAHC) ‘Horticulture for Humanity’in Shukuza, South Africa. In January 2012, I was presented the Best Student Presenter where we had participants from all over the world. So, why should a foreigner import his country technology that has zero percent of my country’s environmental component? It cannot work. I think we should look at the post management of these crops, study the physiology of the crops and know when it is mature. Our own culture here is that we eat ripened products. The right practice is to harvest the crop that is physiologically matured and subsequently transferred to a cold room with a specific temperature suitable for the crop.
At what stage should that be?
For example, the tomato has six stages. It is harvested in the second stage, which is the green crop stage. Then it is put in the cold room at a temperature not more than 13 degrees centigrade or else the crop would have chilling damage. Every fruit contains a gas called endogenousethylene, (ethanol), which is injected too: it hastens ripeness in tomatoes and gives you a very good fresh tomato. Ethylene is a hydro carbon compound obtained from butane and or propane.
Has ethylene no side effects on humans?
No it doesn’t. It is a gas and is used for ripening process. It also increases the shelf life of fruits.
You said that your grand mission is to develop a value chain system for horticultural crops, fruits and vegetables in Nigeria. I believe it is important for our local food security. How do you intend to achieve this in this system?
We have a collaborative arrangement with a sister institution in the UK. We have a post-harvest unit that is very involved in researches and tests for most fruits and vegetables for supermarkets in the UK. These include Tessco, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer and other major big supermarkets. We carry out the palatability test, aroma, flavour and acceptability by consumers of all these products that come to UK and we send our analyses and results to them. However, I am now back to establish a similar thing in Nigeria where we have post-harvest unit in some of our institutions. In Lagos state especially where we have land constraint, there are areas where we can locate containerized cold rooms and offer post-harvest management and packaging of these crops. This will help them to retain their original freshness and increase their shelf lives and that is why we have the value chain from the farm to the table you have it fresh.
Thepeasant farmers who are the major producers of tomatoes in Nigeria how do think they can afford the cold room facility.
They can form a co-operative society and have a common cold room where companies can buy from there and do all the marketing and other necessary things like post-harvest treatment on their own. The farmers would bring their products, at that stage we call them contract farmers. You give specifications, at this stage you plant and harvest and you bring them to the warehouse not far from the farm.
In London where you studied and lived they practice mechanised farming, most of our farmers are peasant farmers. What do you think should be done here given our low technological level?
We have got to a situation where the world is now a global village. Now we practice rain-fed agriculture as well as open field crop production. Horticulture is not like that. You have greenhouses protecting horticultural products. For example, you can have three tomatoes growing under green houses.
So how can you develop these protective technology?
You have some companies that have greenhouses of short span. You can even drip feed them by using drip irrigation technology and putting the right amount of fertilizers in the solution with the right amount of water. Consequently, you get good yield from the crop.
Can you eradicate this menace totally, especially that the government is preaching patronage of indigenous companies to reduce the further depletion of our foreign reserve? What do you think you can do, realistically?
I read that the Honourable minister for Agriculture said that they have contacted Agronet over the issue and that they are going to provide chemicals to combat it. The long term approach is what I stated earlier – study the life cycle in all the entomologists. That is the long term plan to eradicate it totally. The immediate control is the use of chemicals, which I said is not a sure bet.
The five states affected by the outbreak include Kaduna, Katstina, Kano, Jigawa and Nassarawa. The disease has also spread to Lagos, Oyo and Ogun state. What is your proactive prevention control method to avert it from spreading to other states?
We have to do the right thing by being very professional and ethical. Let’s do an entomology test on the different species and use the right approach from the result; to contain it so that there won’t be another outbreak in future and so that we don’t engage in the usual fire brigade approach that is always palliative in nature.
Eight new public sector project proposals have been published ahead of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board’s 13th meeting scheduled to hold later this month.
Hela Cheikhrouhou, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund. Photo credit: gettyimages.com
The proposals amount to a total request for investment of $208 million from the Fund. They will be considered at the Board’s B.13 meeting which will take place from 28-30 June at GCF’s headquarters in Songdo, Republic of Korea.
In line with the Fund’s mission to address both emissions and resilience, five of the proposals will increase the capacity of countries to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, two are aimed at lowering emissions growth, and one proposal will support both objectives of adapting and reducing emissions.
Project proposals are drawn from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America & the Caribbean and Eastern Europe regions, and cover activities ranging from energy efficiency investments through to building coastal resilience in vulnerable areas.
The proposals are taken from GCF’s pipeline, which has now reached 41 proposals totalling funding requests for $2.4 billion, with a total project value of $6.6 billion.
Approval of this tranche of funding proposals would bring the Fund’s investment portfolio to a total GCF funding amount of $376 million, with a $943 million total project cost.
Wildlife crime: a poached elephant. Photo credit: kiregodal.com
The GWP is a global partnership established to address the growing poaching crisis and an international call to action. The value of illegal trade has been estimated at between $10 and $23 billion per year, making wildlife crime the fourth most lucrative illegal business after narcotics, human trafficking and weapons.
The new $131 million programme is expected to leverage $704 million in additional co-financing over seven years. The national projects aim to promote wildlife conservation, wildlife crime prevention, and sustainable development in order to reduce adverse impacts to known threatened species from poaching and illegal trade. Additionally, a global coordination grant from the GEF will strengthen cooperation and facilitate knowledge exchange between national governments, development agency partners, and leading practitioners.
“Poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking are reaching unprecedented levels, robbing the livelihoods of local communities and eroding the global commons,” said Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson. “In response, the GEF has launched a major international effort to help tackle the supply, trade and demand for wildlife products. Importantly, the project is not only about stopping the slaughter of animals in the forests and savannas of Africa; it also aims at reducing the demand in Asia.”
Combating the illegal trade in wildlife is a high priority for the GEF. Last month, at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, GEF joined other partners to support the launch of the Wild for Life campaign. This new UN-led campaign urges politicians, celebrities and business leaders to help bring global attention to the fight against the illegal wildlife trade.
“The GWP is a direct response to the rampant wildlife poaching and trafficking that are destroying countries’ natural capital, eroding the foundation of important economic sectors such as nature-based tourism, diminishing the rights of local communities and their access to livelihood options, and fuelling criminal activities. The World Bank, as lead implementing agency of the GWP, is collaborating with countries and partner agencies to increase capacity and knowledge sharing, and collectively ensure the real value of wildlife is realised,” said Ms. Paula Caballero, Senior Director, Environment & Natural Resources Global Practice, World Bank.
The GEF agencies contributing to the partnership include the Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank Group (WBG) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, said: “Wildlife poaching and the illicit trade of wildlife and forest products are abhorrent. This multi-billion-dollar worldwide trade is a security issue, an environmental issue, and a development issue. It is pushing vulnerable and endangered species toward extinction. The illicit trade is also fuelling corruption and conflict, destroying lives, and deepening poverty and inequality. If not addressed decisively, illicit poaching and wildlife trade will have significant national economic impacts. UNDP is thus proud to be a key partner of the new Global Wildlife Programme, spearheaded and financed by the GEF, in partnership with other organisations, including the World Bank. At UNDP, through these joint efforts, we are committed to helping to stop the illegal trade.”
“Wildlife crime is serious crime and threatens progress towards sustainable development. It destroys biodiversity, denies governments billions of dollars in revenue, prevents communities from obtaining sustainable livelihoods, and undermines law enforcement and national security,” said Nessim Ahmad, Deputy Director General from the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department at the Asian Development Bank.
In June 2015, the GEF approved 10 national projects from Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia. Thursday’s announcement expands this multifocal programme to strengthen the capacity of governments to combat poaching and trafficking of wildlife, and wildlife products in key range and transit countries that are in the front lines of combatting wildlife crime. The nine additional countries include Afghanistan, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
“We are excited to welcome the nine additional country projects to the GWP. This is an opportune moment to scale up our collective efforts and use this global programme to enhance collaboration and achieve greater results across regions and ecosystems to promote wildlife conservation,” said Dr. Claudia Sobrevila, Global Wildlife Programme Manager. “The current crisis in illegal trade of wildlife is a reflection of how much more we need to do to conserve wildlife and promote jobs for local communities. Together with our partners, we are determined to combat wildlife crime across the value chain, engage communities in sustainable livelihood alternatives, and improve the governance of natural resources.”
“Strong partnerships are essential to tackle the complex and multi-sector issues related to wildlife conservation. Vietnam is committed to strengthening existing partnerships creating new ones to preserve our biodiversity and save endangered species from extinction. With the approval of our national project, Vietnam looks forward to collaborating with other GWP countries to strengthen partnerships and share experiences to help enhance results of the individual national projects,” said Dr. Hoang Thi Thanh Nhan, Deputy Director of Vietnam’s Biodiversity Conservation Agency.
The GWP provides an engagement platform for developing countries and the international donor community to coordinate efforts across the supply chain. Further, it aligns with existing efforts, including the International Consortium to Combat Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) that promote effective law enforcement and governance nationally and internationally.
Activities in the programme in the source countries will include enhancing anti-poaching tracking and intelligence operations, increasing the size of conservation areas and improving their management, and providing opportunities for development through nature-based tourism and other agriculture, forestry and natural resource projects that benefit local communities. In transit states, the programme will support anti-smuggling and customs controls and in the demand countries, the GWP will initiate targeted awareness raising campaigns that will help increase legal deterrents for purchase of wildlife and wildlife products.
UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, said, “The victims of wildlife crime are not only the animals and ecosystems that are devastated by poaching and trafficking, they are people as well. The human cost of poaching and illegal trade in wildlife is measured in lives lost to the criminal networks involved and livelihoods destroyed by the erosion of a natural economic foundation. Ending the illegal trade in wildlife requires a concerted and cooperative effort between all sectors. These new projects will further these efforts and help bring us closer to ending wildlife crime once and for all.”
“Illegal wildlife trade in the Philippines contributes to economic losses of at least $240 million per year. We are pleased to work with our partners to strengthen the law enforcement chain and reduce demand for illegal wildlife and wildlife parts. The GEF project will reinforce implementation of the long-term Wildlife Law Enforcement Action Plan (WildLEAP) 2016-2028 – a national framework to combat wildlife trafficking in the country and promote wildlife conservation and inclusive growth,” said Atty Mundita Lim, Director, Biodiversity Management Bureau, Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
Collectively, the GWP countries make up an incredible repository of biodiversity and potential for sustainable development. The Programme’s integrated platform will support national governments and development partners implement targeted interventions to help reverse the impacts of wildlife lost to poaching and negative livelihood impacts experienced by local communities.
The 50th GEF Council Meeting is taking place from June 7-9, 2016, in Washington DC. The Council meeting also marks the 25th anniversary of the GEF being at the forefront of tackling the planet’s most pressing environmental problems. In its 25-year history, the GEF has invested some $14.5 billion – and leveraged an additional $75.4 billion – for nearly 4,000 projects in 167 countries.
Following a five-month progress report, the African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) Project has established 137 limiting nutrient and 70 intercrop trials in a bid to crack the agronomy of cassava.
Agronomy implies the science of soil management and crop production. Centered on improving cassava production, the project aims to improve the livelihoods and incomes of cassava farmers in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda.
A statement released by Godwin Atser, Communication and Knowledge Exchange Expert at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, disclosed that, so far, “20 limiting nutrient trials have been established in Nigeria and 117 in Tanzania,” while for “the intercrop trials, 29 cassava/maize trials have been established in Nigeria, and 41 cassava/sweet potato trials in Tanzania.”
ACAI’s Project Leader, Dr. Abdulai Jalloh, said that the trials would help researchers to answer key questions that relate to cassava agronomy. “Understanding the agronomy of cassava is a crucial step towards maximising the genetic gain of the root crop.”
The statement further disclosed that the project has plans for 667 trials in both Nigeria and Tanzania across the four use cases directly associated with field experimentation. “These are as follows: fertilizer recommendation (295); best planting practices (150); intercropping (202), and staggered planting (20),” it disclosed.
While the trials so far established represent about 44% of the targeted total number of trials, the progress report shows that, across countries, establishment of trials has been higher in Tanzania with 82%, compared to Nigeria, which has 26%.
“This is mainly due to the varying rainy season and farming systems in the two countries. The rains for the first planting during which most of the planting has been done in Tanzania are relatively earlier (March/April), while the main planting season for cassava in Nigeria is April/May. The remaining trials will be planted by the end of May/June in Nigeria while the rest of the planting in Tanzania has been shifted to the second planting in October/November. In general, the trials will be established within the window of planting by the farmers in both countries,” the statement explained.
The Central Africa Director of the IITA, Dr. Bernard Vanlauwe, said, “We hope that more trials will be set up as we enter June when rains would have steadied in Nigeria.”
Costa Rica is an especially biodiverse country, holding about 4% of the world’s known species. Sadly, the country is contractually obligated to keep two of its zoos open for another decade.
Still, after that, they plan to shut it down in favour of a cage-free habitat for the animals to live in.
Treehugger reports that the nation, which also recently banned hunting for sport, will close the last two zoos in the next 10 years and give the animals a more natural habitat in which to exist. They want to convey to the world that they respect and care for wild animals.
Environmental Minister René Castro says, “We are getting rid of the cages and reinforcing the idea of interacting with biodiversity in botanical parks in a natural way.”
We don’t want animals in captivity or enclosed in any way unless it is to rescue or save them.”
Any animals currently in captivity that would not survive in the wild will be cared for in rescue centres and wildlife sanctuaries. No new zoos will be opened.
