Focus stories
Two groundbreaking private-public partnerships aim to de-bottleneck agricultural commodity streams and catalyze Agricultural Growth Corridors in Africa.
(08.28.08) Kofi Annan, President Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi and other key leaders arrived in Oslo today for advance meetings prior to the third African Green Revolution Conference, which begins tomorrow.
A Kenyan scientist accredited with the improvement of banana cultivation and a Tanzanian entrepreneur building bridges between milk producers and consumers are the recipients of the Yara Prize for an African Green Revolution 2008. Florence Wambugu (55) and Victor Mfinanga (29) will receive their honours at a prize awarding ceremony in Oslo in late August.
Speaking at the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome, Thorleif Enger, President of the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) and CEO of Yara International, called for public-private partnerships to develop agricultural corridors enabling farmers in Africa and other developing countries to profit from markets.
African leaders meeting for the 25th FAO Regional Conference for Africa in Nairobi reiterated their support for the agriculture sector, calling for increased investments. Africa being hard hit by the food and fuel price hikes, also needs to look into water and land management as well as trade issues and knowledge exchange.
Agriculture in general and Africa in particular were key topics at recent international high-level conferences in Japan, Italy and South Africa, respectively. An African green revolution is deemed necessary to create lasting food security for the continent, with more investments in agriculture needed.
The African Green Revolution has turned out to be a controversial concept which is energetically debated in scientific spheres as well as in civil society. There are strong protagonists and equally strong antagonists, who fervently disagree about which course is best for African agriculture.
Africa recorded another year of remarkable economic growth in 2007 and the projections for 2008 have been positive. However, this could now change as global food and energy prices continue to soar posing a simultaneous threat to political stability. Poor countries, and poor people, are the ones hardest hit. The heads of the United Nations and the World Bank have sounded the alarm.
With India being the cradle of the Green Revolution, it is only natural that the nation should offer Africa a hand with its agricultural development. This was only one of several promises made at the India-Africa summit in New Delhi in early April.
Record food consumption and rising fuel demand contributed to unprecedented price levels for food and fuel in 2007. Increased use of agricultural produce including food crops for fuel production, combined with low output in some drought-affected areas, made agriculture commodity prices soar.
Fidelis Wainaina, best known to Yara as the co-winner of the 2006 Yara
Prize for an African Green Revolution, passed away on March 5, this year.
The Yara Prize will be part of the African Green Revolution Conference also in 2008, when the prize will be awarded for the fourth time. The nomination process for the 2008 award has now started, and nominations should be submitted before March 31.
Improve your English language vocabulary and be rewarded by free rice for the poor. That´s the intriguing offer by FreeRice, in cooperation with the World Food Programme. As the meaningful game has taken off, the daily donation has reached about 200,000 grains of rice a day.
The Board of the Yara Foundation has awarded the 2007 Yara Prize for an African Green Revolution to Josephine Okot and Akinwumi Adesina for their pioneering work with agricultural inputs and agrodealer networks in Africa.
On August 31, concerned corporations and organizations from the private and public sectors met in Oslo, Norway to debate partnership initiatives for an African Green Revolution. The organisers and participants at the conference agreed to seek concrete and concerted action toward the development of self-sustaining changes in African agricultural growth through the use of enhanced approaches to public-private partnerships.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has teamed up with the Rockefeller Foundation to give African agricultural development a considerable financial boost. At the same time, global philanthropist George Soros generously supported the Millennium Village project.
On August 31, concerned corporations and organizations from the private and public sectors met in Oslo, Norway to boost the development of Africas Green Revolution. The three-day Conference aims to become a key arena for promoting Public-Private Partnerships.
Development expert Jeffrey Sachs is urging donor agencies and the international community to support African agriculture as the key catalyst in reducing hunger and poverty through economic growth and halting destruction of the environment. Addressing African Fertilizer Summit participants in Nigeria, Sachs advocated rapid action to get fertilizers and high yielding-seeds to African farmers.
A watershed for African agriculture took place in Abuja, Nigeria on 9-13 June. The Africa Fertilizer Summit, a gathering of more than 600 African and international policymakers and agricultural experts, resulted in key commitments to boost food production and ease Africas struggle with hunger.
"Africa's Green Revolution must be built by Africans. It must rely on Africa's knowledge, Africa's experience, and above all, the skills and energy of Africa's people," says IFAD President Lennart Båge.
|
