Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture

An assortment of fruits on sale at a market in Busia town, Western Kenya, near the Kenya-Uganda border. Credit: Justus Wanzala | IDN-INPS

Nutrition Insecurity Impedes Food Security in Africa

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) - Due to a rapid increase in population in African countries, boosting food production through increasing crops yields and livestock production to eliminate hunger is attracting the attention of governments.

However it is emerging that as Africa tackles food security challenges, it must also fight poor nutrition. Stakeholders in the agriculture observe that food and nutrition security issues require a multi-pronged approach that brings on board farmers, policy makers and researchers.

: Justus Wanzala; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 October 2016

Photo: A farmer in Tanzania in a rice paddy, which uses a climate-smart system to intensify production.

Need for Food and Agriculture to Adjust to Climate Change

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA | ROME (IDN) - Climate change, hunger and poverty must be addressed together in order to achieve the sustainable development goals set by the international community: this is the clarion call emerging from this year's World Food Day celebrations in Rome and in many countries.

At the global World Food Day ceremony on October 14, FAO Director-General José Graziano declared: "Higher temperatures and erratic weather patterns are already undermining the health of soils, forests and oceans on which agricultural sectors and food security depend."

: Ronald Joshua; UN INSIDER; 14 October 2016

Photo: A market in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Photo: FAO/Benjamin Rasmussen

FAO Underlines Role of Trade in Food Security

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that declining prices could obstruct international efforts to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty, and called for necessary steps to guarantee decent incomes and livelihoods for small-scale producers.

“Low food prices reduce the incomes of farmers, especially poor family farmers who produce staple food in the developing countries. This cut in the flow of cash into rural communities also reduces the incentives for new investments in production, infrastructure and services,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva at a high-level meeting on agricultural commodity prices in Rome.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 03 October 2016

Children's hands hurry to the lunch cooked by Artou and Fatime: rice and fish. Village of Tagal, Lake Chad region, Chad. UNICEF/ Tremeau

FAO, IFAD, WFP Vow to Achieve Zero Hunger Target by 2030

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - Two among a spate of events accompanying the 71st session of the UN General Assembly have underlined that the Zero Hunger Challenge, launched in 2012 by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the Decade of Action on Nutrition, announced in July 2016, are critical to implementing Sustainable Development Goals.

According to the UN, almost 800 million people go to bed hungry every night and one in three people worldwide – nearly 2.5 billion – suffer from at least one form of malnutrition, ranging from hunger to obesity to a lack of critical nutrients.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 22 September 2016

Photo: Doro refugee camp, in Maban, South Sudan. Credit: ©FAO/UNHCR Albert Gonzalez Farran

FAO Against Migration Being a Desperate Last Resort

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) - While migration has throughout history been a driver for development, the cost becomes too high when people find that leaving their homes is their only alternative, according to FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

"Migration should be an act of choice, and not a desperate last resort," Graziano da Silva said during the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants on September 19.

Bolstering the opportunities that allow rural people in developing countries to remain at home is a critical component of any plan to tackle the contemporary migration crisis,

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 19 September 2016

IFAD Launches $110 Million Facility For Refugees

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - An unprecedented 65 million people worldwide have been affected by the current global crisis of forced displacement, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). More than one-third of the displaced – or 22.2 million – are in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region.

With this in view, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has announced the establishment of a new financing facility amounting to $110 million to assist refugees, displaced people and their host communities to address the increased pressure put on rural areas by the influx of millions of people.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 19 September 2016

Photo: Agro-forestry farmers tend to their crops in Kigoma, Tanzania. Forests are an integral part of the national agriculture policy with the aim of protecting arable land from erosion and increasing agricultural production. Photo: FAO/Simon Maina

USAID Helps FAO Track Progress in Development Goal 2

By Ronald Joshua

ROME (IDN) - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have signed a $15 million agreement aimed at boosting the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data – information that is essential to good policymaking and that will help track progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

FAO said in a news release on September 7, the USAID donation will cover the first phase of an FAO-led project that will run from 2016 to 2021, starting with pilot efforts in four developing countries – two in sub-Saharan Africa, one in Latin America and one in Asia. A dialogue is under way with eligible countries.

: Ronald Joshua; UN INSIDER; 07 September 2016

Photo: Heliconius doris Linnaeus butterfly of Costa Rica. Credit: Wikimedia Com-mons.

Costa Rica Setting its Sights on Sustainable Development

By Jose Rafael Quesada*

SAN JOSE (IDN) – Costa Rica, a small Central American country with a population of barely 5 million inhabitants, has a high human development index (ranking 69th worldwide) and is considered a consolidated democracy in Latin America.

High investments in education, good development of social security and high levels of openness and competitiveness in international markets make Costa Rica a candidate for membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

However, the country is still experiencing serious problems in the area of endemic poverty, a low level of efficiency in the construction of infrastructure, high levels of state indebtedness and high indicators of tax evasion.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 30 August 2016

Photo: Food security in the face of climate change. Credit: Obrazek Duzy | science.studentnews.eu

Climate Change Threatens USD2.5 trillion Losses in Agriculture

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) - Global warming threatens to cause a huge economic damage to agriculture, adding up to the annual amount of roughly 0.8 percent of global GDP by the end of the century, which translates to losses of $2.5 trillion dollars, warns a new study.

But further trade liberalization in agricultural commodities could reduce financial damage globally by 65 percent, to 0.3 percent of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product), says Miodrag Stevanovićby, lead author of the study by a team of scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

: Jutta Wolf; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 25 August 2016

Africa’s Great Green Wall a New World Wonder in the Making

By Rodrigo Pérez

RIO DE JANEIRO (IDN-INPS) – Beneath the glitz and glamour, the Samba and Rio’s Carnival-like atmosphere, this year’s Olympic Games Opening Ceremony showcased the most impossible sounding dream of all – Africa’s Great Green Wall.

The initiative started a decade ago. Once completed it will be the largest man-made structure on Earth and a new Wonder of the World.

The progress made shows that land restoration efforts on a mass scale are both possible and offer hope. Senegal has already planted 12 million trees, Ethiopia has restored 15 million hectares of degraded land and Nigeria has created 20,000 jobs in rural areas.