Browsing: FAO

• The Malabo Declaration deadline has expired with only a handful of African countries on track.
• Of 51 AU member states, only Rwanda is on course to achieving the 2014 Malabo commitments on financing agriculture.
• In year’s Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, authorities cited a myriad of challenges in achieving key goals.

Africa food systems are failing but there is still optimism. This is despite the fact that we are only one year away from the Malabo Declaration’s deadline and only six years to the end of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In June 2014, the Malabo Declaration was made in Equatorial Guinea, where all African countries made a commitment to spend 10 per cent of their annual national budgets on agriculture.

“Only four countries achieved the Malabo target of allocating 10 percent of public spending to agriculture (Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia and Mali),” writes Moumini Savadogo for Farming First …

• Addressing the pressing issues of chronic hunger FAO’s blueprint is projected to impact 600 million people by 2030.
• According to FAO, the roadmap envisions transforming agrifood systems from a net emitter to a carbon sink.
• It calls for alternative production methods, adjusted consumption patterns, refined forestry management, and innovative technologies such as carbon capture.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has initiated the process for the development of a groundbreaking global roadmap aimed at eliminating hunger and all forms of malnutrition without exceeding the 1.5°C threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has embarked on a pioneering initiative to craft a global roadmap that holds the ambitious goal of eradicating hunger and all manifestations of malnutrition while adhering to the 1.5°C threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement.

“FAO’s Global Roadmap for SDG2 and 1.5°C underscores the importance of climate financing …

• Eastern Africa and Western Africa account for 70 per cent of Africa’s population unable to afford a healthy diet.
• About 30 per cent of Africa’s children bear the indelible mark of stunted growth, a cruel consequence of malnutrition.
• Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger emerged with the highest prevalence rates of child wasting above 10 per cent.

Food crisis in Africa is deepening with a new report showing that an estimated one billion people in the continent are unable to afford a healthy diet. Painting a grim picture for the continent, the Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition – Statistics and Trends 2023 report adds that a total of 282 million people in Africa, roughly 20 percent of the population, including millions of children, are undernourished. This distressing statistic sadly reflects an increase of 57 million people since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“After a long …

• Fresh financing will bolster Ethiopia’s progress in achieving wheat self-sufficiency.
• Data shows Ethiopia’s wheat productivity has struggled to match the demands of a rising population, urbanization, and economic expansion over the past decade.
• Statistics show that Ethiopia’s annual wheat imports average roughly $600 million.

Ethiopia, the second-largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa, has received a significant boost from the African Development Bank (AfDB) in the form of an $84.3 million grant aimed at propelling the nation’s wheat production to new heights.

The grant, a collaborative effort between the AfDB, the Government of the Netherlands, agribusiness firm OCP Africa, and the Global Center on Adaptation, holds the promise of not only enhancing wheat production but also bolstering exports.

CREW initiative in Ethiopia’s wheat production

As wheat gains prominence as a major crop cultivated across the vast expanse of African plains, Ethiopia strategically positions itself as a pivotal player in the sub-sector.…

• The FAO Food Price Index averaged at 127.2 points in April 2023, up 0.6 percent from March.
• According to FAO, the April rise reflected higher prices for sugar, meat, and rice.
• Price declines were, however, recorded for cereals, dairy, and vegetable oil price indices.
• FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero terms the increase in rice prices “extremely worrisome”.

Global food prices edged up in April for the first time in the past year. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly price changes, averaged 127.2 points in April, up 0.6 percent from March.

The Index was 19.7 percent below its level in April 2022, but still 5.2 percent higher than in April 2021. “As economies recover from significant slowdowns, demand will increase, exerting upward pressure on food prices,” FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero said. 

April rise reflected higher prices for sugar, meat and rice, which offset declines in cereals, dairy …

Meanwhile, Africa is looking to take pre-emptive action to avert the inevitable food crisis.

The United States has pledged support to help the continent grow and distribute more food. The aid will come through the African Development Bank (AfDB). The Bank is looking to fund a significant increase in food production in an effort to ward off the food crisis wrought by the Russia-Ukraine war.

In May this year, the AfDB set up a US$1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility. It was established with the aim of supporting some 20 million smallholder farmers produce more food and to do so more sustainably.…

Kenya’s Ministry of Devolution together with the Food and Agriculture Organization say the country requires at least US$87 million to ensure food security in all the 23 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Counties, between August and December 2021.

In a statement, FAO says several interventions need to be done, at a time when the East African nation has been facing a myriad of challenges in the recent past including two desert locust invasions, the COVID-19 pandemic and poor rains that have resulted in food scarcity.

If sourced, the funding will be used for several interventions and cover various areas, among them provision of feed and supplements and livestock off-take and animal health services.

Additionally, FAO plans to provide drought-resistant seeds to farmers in the counties, as well as milling of staple commodities.

Other interventions include water trucking, rehabilitation and maintenance of water facilities, fuel subsidies for motorized boreholes and water …

A data collection and analysis initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC) has revealed 7 billion trees outside forests for the first time, among other findings. The survey is the first consistent land use representation of the continent and discloses more forests and more arable lands than were previously detected.

FAO and the AUC presented the findings today of the Africa Open DEAL (Data for Environment, Agriculture and Land) initiative which has made Africa the first continent to complete the collection of accurate, comprehensive, and harmonized digital land use and land-use change data. It provides a detailed snapshot of the continent, captured through more than 300 000 sampling points between 2018 and 2020.

“The Africa DEAL shows that science and innovation can provide real solutions and that collaboration and pooling experience leads to the best results. It supports …