Open letter to Bono and Bob Geldof

Open letter to Bono and Bob Geldof

President Obama Meets with Liberian President Sirleaf

The Greater Cane Rat- AKA-Grasscutters-A delicacy In Cote d'ivoire

One of the projects being started by ACLCP(Association of Christians Fighting Against Poverty) and the demonstration farm in Cote d'Ivoire is a grasscutter production.
In the beginning of the month,30 grasscutters where delivered at that Ghana border by Renita Reed.
Three died in transport as these little 'rats' are sensitive to travel.
Now the 27 have found a new home in the demonstration farm and will be the base for production.

Wikipedia states;
The Greater Cane Rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) is one of two species of cane rats, a small family of African hystricognath rodents. It inhabits Africa, south of the Saharan Desert. The cane rat lives by reedbeds and riverbanks. As humans move into such territories, the cane rats accepted plantations and cultivated areas. Cane rats can grow about two feet long in the longest individuals and weighs a little less than 19 lb (8.6 kg). It has rounded ears, short nose, and coarse bristly hair. Its forefeet are smaller than its hindfeet and supports its weight on only three toes. Cane rats live in small groups led by a single male. They are nocturnal and make nests from grasses or burrow underground. The oldest cane rat can live more than four years. If frightened, they grunt and run towards water. They eat grasses and cane and since they have tastes for cultivated foods, they make serious agricultural pests. So far, their conservation status is lower risk.

In the country of Ghana and other regions of West Africa, the Greater Cane Rat is usually called a grasscutter or cutting grass. In both West Africa and Southern Africa, it is considered a delicacy. As a consequence, "grasscutters" are beginning to be raised in cages for sale, and so are sometimes referred to as micro livestock.

So in here begins a small enterprise raising grasscutters.

The goal is to help in self sustainability of ACLCP and teach other farmers in the production of these delicate, expensive meals.

My Latest E-Letter-Saturday Morning Post(s)

Saturday Morning Post(s) has been in production for 3 years...get latest copy here

Jatropha-the other weed

In 2008, Mission Goorgoorlu won a grant to produce biofuel outboards, with the goal of helping rural Senegalese use their waterways to connect them to markets, hospitals, and cities. This is our first launch.

Check out this video

‘Agribusiness is the pathway out of rural poverty’

http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2010/30.htm

‘Agribusiness is the pathway out of rural poverty’: IFAD President urges African leaders to invest in agriculture

Rome, 29 April 2010 – African governments, donors and the private sector need to act now to turn the world’s 500 million small farms into profitable businesses, said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Prior to leaving for Dar es Salaam to attend the regional World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, hosted by the United Republic of Tanzania, Nwanze said, “What we need to be rethinking is how to turn political will into profits for Africa’s agriculture sector, 95 per cent of which is smallholder farming.”

He added that this could be accomplished if African governments step up their investment in agriculture and build partnerships with the private sector in an open and accountable way. “Working to double the income of a subsistence farmer is simply poverty management. But helping that farmer to launch an agribusiness; that is poverty eradication,” emphasized Nwanze.

The theme of this year’s WEF meeting on Africa is “Rethinking Africa's Growth Strategy”. Nwanze is slated to speak at key Forum sessions.

“African governments must create the right policy environment to allow agribusinesses and agro-industries to develop and flourish, which can provide much-needed employment for Africa’s youths,” he said. “At the same time, investments by the international community and developing country governments need to be smart to focus on the research and development of new technologies to enhance productivity and intensify production.”

Investments and policies need to pave the way for private sector involvement by providing smallholder farmers sufficient access to assets such as land and water, and improving infrastructure, such as roads, power and storage.

During the Forum, Nwanze will outline the potential and promise of rural agriculture and call for governments of African countries and the private sector to find synergies among their competing priorities.

“We must continue to ask tough questions about how African countries, and particularly their leadership, are managing their own houses and applaud those who are setting examples,” said Nwanze, adding that “lessons must be learned from past mistakes that have led to misery for poor people in the rural areas of the continent.”

It will be the first time the WEF has held its meeting in East Africa, where according to UN agencies, a major food crisis is building in southern Sudan.

“With some 80 million small farms in sub-Saharan Africa producing 80 per cent of the agricultural outputs, smallholder farmers can unlock the continent’s potential to feed itself,” he continued.

“Agriculture, irrespective of the size of the farm, is a business. And every entrepreneur, whether it is a smallholder farmer or a large commercial farmer, needs or wants to make money. We have the responsibility to transform smallholder agriculture into smallholder businesses," Nwanze said.

At WEF, Nwanze will meet private sector leaders and explore wealth creation for smallholder farmers. “I will be working to empower them to increase incomes from one dollar a day to five dollars a day,” he stated. Partnerships with the private sector are a linchpin in the new vision of IFAD, and under Nwanze’s leadership the Fund is looking to mobilise resources through the private sector for agro-processing, marketing and business development to transform rural areas into thriving economies.

SENEGAL: Small-Scale Irrigation: Key to Rural Development

SENEGAL:
Small-Scale Irrigation: Key to Rural Development

Koffigan E. Adigbli

DAKAR, Apr 13 (IPS) - Over the past four years, the Local Small-scale Irritation Project has spent more than $10.5 million U.S. dollars supporting rural communities in Senegal.
These water reserves have contributed to increased rice yields, which grew from less than one tonne per hectare in 2003 to three to six tonnes per hectare in 2009. It also allowed the development of off-season horticulture, rice cultivation and vegetable gardening. Communities in target villages of Fatick, Tambacounda and Kolda Kédougou also achieved six to eight months self-sufficiency in rice crops.

"The project has also helped increase the income of more than 6,000 farmers by over 50 percent; replenished the water table; launched micro-projects (in water supply and sanitation), and an anti-salinisation campaign," Wally Gueye, technical advisor to the Ministry of Environment told IPS.

He said more than 2,100 hectares of land that had been rendered saline was reclaimed; preventive measures were taken to protect a further 9,800 hectares of land at risk. of salinity.

"The activities conducted in different regions often exceeded targets," said PAPIL coordinator Amadou Baba Sy, "whether it be seedling production and reforestation, creating and maintaining fire-breaks, or cattle rangeland clearing and maintenance."

He added that a programme on water-borne diseases was implemented by regional medical centres which included information, public education and communication campaigns along with advocacy tools.

Sy emphasized that the persistent food and financial crisis, the adverse effects of climate change, floods caused by torrential rains, desert encroachment, coastal erosion and loss of ecosystems have combined to hinder some of PAPIL's achievements.

He also said there were still some difficulties to be overcome before the programme can expand nationally. These difficulties are mainly tied to implementation delays and funding gaps.

An agreement was signed in February between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and PAPIL defining a framework for collaboration, co-managing and co-financing joint activities and guaranteeing the project's sustainability as a tool for grassroots development, Sy told IPS.

A total of 207 microprojects amounting to about $1.6 million dollars are available to rural communities, according to Sy. The projects include 35 for water education, 10 health, and 98 for post-harvest equipment.

Jeffrey Povolny, Senegal director of USAID/Wula Nafaa ("Benefits of the Forest" in Bambara), states that USAID has the added intention to work with PAPIL to help the Senegalese government improve its agricultural policies and activities.

"We work on the same issues. It was logical for us to combine our efforts and work together for better returns," he says. The overall objective of USAID / Wula Nafaa is to contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable local development by increasing the income of rural producers and local communities, he told IPS.

Ibrahima Diouf, coordinator of a group of farmers who've been participating in the project in Fatick for over three years, the breadth and productivity of rice cultivation have increased considerably.

"Our group, which includes over one hundred people, has more than five hectares of rice... Currently we're supported by PAPIL especially regarding irrigation. We also produce garden vegetables, a very profitable undertaking," he told IPS.

Famara Sarr, vice-chairman of Fatick's regional council, said it was important to encourage the government to provide more resources to the project.

"Lack of funding prevents PAPIL from reaching approximately 65 percent of farmed regions and 70 percent of other agricultural production areas," he says. "The project must be institutionalised to support communities with programmes that are to everyone's advantage."

(END/2010)

Slager Vision Video-West africa 2010

Slager Vision Video -West Africa 2010 from rick slager on Vimeo.

Agricultural Empowerment Initaive--LEAD INC.

Agricultural Empowerment Initiative

In response to requests from rural regions of Liberia, LEAD is launching an agricultural component to its training and loan programs. In spite of its fertile land, roughly 80% of Liberia’ s food supply is imported each year. This is largely due to the large number of farms which failed or were abandoned during the war. LEAD’s newest program, the Agriculture Empowerment Initiative (AEI) is dedicated to providing the business skills training and capital needed by Liberia’s farmers as they restart their farms. This program will help to lower food prices across Liberia, stem urban migration, and generate jobs in Liberia’s poorest rural region.

Rice vs Vegtables

DAKAR, 1 April 2010 (IRIN) - Rice may still be a symbol of food security across Africa, but the cereal does little to boost nutrition, unlike vegetables, according to the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Vegetables should have their place in the fields and at the table alongside cereals commonly grown in arid countries, vegetable breeding expert Sanjeet Kumar with ICRISAT and the Taiwan-based AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center (formerly known as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center) told IRIN.

“While rice and other cereals can cut hunger, vegetables bolster nutritional security and take up less land to grow.”

“Rice is a poor source of essential vitamins and minerals, either because these compounds are not present in rice, especially when it is polished [white], or they cannot be absorbed by humans,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) nutrition specialist Roland Kupka told IRIN. “Diets that are primarily based on polished rice may thus lead to deficiencies in iron, zinc, vitamin A, and thiamine [B1] deficiency, which in turn impair growth, immunity, and mental development among children.”

Mineral and vitamin-packed foods include fruit, vegetables and animal products like eggs or fish, said Kupka.

UNICEF estimates 40 percent of under-five children in the arid Sahel are chronically malnourished because they lack the vitamins and minerals needed to bolster their immune systems and mental skills. Another estimated 300,000 die every year from malnutrition.

While health workers may have scales, armbands and yardsticks to measure acute malnutrition (when children are underweight for their height), they are less likely to have microscopes to analyse blood work to measure micronutrient deficiencies.

Comparative advantage

When asked whether rice overshadows more nutritious agriculture sectors, the director of Africa Rice Centre, Papa Abdoulaye Seck, told IRIN that rice cultivation can subsidize these other crops.

“Rice is a strategic commodity… We can do business with rice. Imagine if the US$2 billion dollars [2006 estimate] that Africa spends on rice imports every year were reinvested in the agricultural sector - do you think Africa would now have 265 million starving people?” asked Seck, referring to an estimate from UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).


Photo: Tomas de Mul/IRIN
Rice fills stomachs, but empty in other ways (file photo)
Seck said farmers in Africa have a comparative advantage in growing rice. “We want to develop rice instead of [only] vegetable gardening, because Asia, the largest producer of rice, will not be able to continue doing so. In Asia, there is arable land, but less water. While in Africa, we have enormous potential.”

FAO estimates farmers use 17 percent of cultivable land in Africa, which leaves some 126 million hectares to plant, he said.

Lack of seeds

Based in Niger, vegetable breeder Kumar said ICRISAT and AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center have worked with local groups since 2001 to establish in West Africa 2,500 vegetable gardens that use low-drip irrigation - small perforated pipes that deliver water directly to plant roots.

“There are local vegetables and people know the importance of traditional vegetables, but they do not have the seeds or they get seeds donated from other countries that are not adapted to local conditions,” Kumar told IRIN.

He said land in the Sahel is not the main obstacle to expanding vegetable cultivation, but rather lack of seeds. The vegetable plots are at most 500 square metres. Vegetables that can survive in the Sahelian sun need to be grown for their seeds, but seed commercialization is undeveloped.

Then there is tradition. “Staples like millet and sorghum have long dominated diets in the region, and they are suited to the climate. Vegetables, including indigenous vegetables, have always been part of local diets, but improved vegetable varieties that grow well in the Sahel were introduced only in the past few decades,” said AVRDC’s director for Africa, Abdou Tenkouano.

Problem of perception

There is also the problem of perception. “Vegetables like traditional leafy greens are sometimes viewed as ‘food of the poor’. People may not know how to prepare vegetables to benefit from their nutritional content, and they may lack knowledge on the health benefits of a balanced diet,” he added.

For the past two decades in Mali, Mariko Fadima Siby has grown 'fonio', a local cereal found throughout the Sahel.

She told IRIN rice has always been seen as a sign of status. “Since rice cultivation first picked up here in West Africa decades ago, you were somebody if you had rice during the holidays or growing in your field. It is not that local crops were forgotten, but they paled next to the sheen of rice.”

But eventually, people turn to what grows in their backyard, Siby concluded. “This is a hot place in the world. Whatever takes root here, we will take.”

pt/cb

Themes: (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition

[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88650

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]