East Africa: Comesa Moves to Improve Food Security
Comesa says food import and export bans have impacted negatively on access to affordable food in the region.
"The inevitable consequences of this scenario include the frequent spate of food insecurity and poor economic performance in the agriculture sector.
"Furthermore, when big shocks like the 2008 food price crisis and financial meltdown occur -- they only help to reveal the soft economic systems, further destabilising the majority who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods," Jackson Kiraka, Comesa's technical advisor said in a statement.
African food safety project awarded $8.8 million
Massey University food safety and epidemiology specialists will lend their expertise to a global coalition of researchers that has been awarded $8.8 million to help prevent the spread of zoonotic infectious diseases between animals and humans among livestock farmers in Tanzania.
The funding is spread over three years between three grants awarded by the Zoonoses in Emerging Livestock Systems programme,
Ottawa to spend $20M for food programs for children in Africa
The federal government will spend $20 million to fund the International Food Policy Research Institute in supporting new ways to prevent childhood “undernutrition” in Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso.
International Development Minister Christian Paradis made the announcement Tuesday at a farm near Arnaud in southern Manitoba.
The decision was lauded by Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a Manitoba-based coalition of 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies working to end world hunger.
Sowing the seeds in Africa's agriculture sector
The importance of agriculture cannot be underestimated in the continent. Apart from providing subsistence and feeding millions of impoverished Africans, the sector also creates the majority of jobs in most African countries.
The Grow Africa initiative is a program of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) to accelerate investments for sustainable growth in African agriculture.
