‘Drivers of success for agricultural transformation in Africa ‘– this is the theme of the next Brussels Development Briefing – organized on Wednesday, 2nd October at the Borschette Congress Center (in Brussels) by the Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA), together with the DG Development and Cooperation of the European Commission (EC/DEVCO), the ACP Secretariat and the European NGO confederation for Relief and Development, Concord .
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On 27th August, one of the main seeds and chemicals producers, Syngenta, has launched a legal challenge against the European Commission’s (EC) decision to temporarily ban neonicotinoid pesticides over fears to harm bees.
The European Commission has released the September 2013 edition of ”Comodity price data”, a price dashboard which provides a summary of commodity price data for the most representative agricultural products and consumer food prices, at EU and world level for the ninth month of the year.
On 9 September, the European Commission proposed rules to combat the estimated €12 billion of damage caused every year to EU farming and infrastructure by invasive animal and plant species.
If biofuels received no EU policy support, the price of food stuffs such as vegetable oil would be 50% lower in Europe by 2020 than at present – and 15% lower elsewhere in the world – according to new research by the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), quoted by EurActiv, and published on 5 September.
Concern in Africa over genetically modified (GM) crops has been dismissed as “fear of the unknown” in a report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), which was published on 4 September.
Developing countries should encourage small scale agriculture in order to improve nutrition, reduce poverty, and enhance development, instead of focusing on the possible advantages of heavily processed food, Kanayo Nwanze, the president of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, which has recently taken place in Accra (Ghana).
In an interview with CTA Brussels following the Brussels Briefing on "Geography of food: reconnecting with origin in the food system" - held in Brussels on 15th May 2013 -, Marie-Paule Rizo, Head of the Industrial Design and Geographical Indications Law Section at WIPO (The World Intellectual Property Organization) highlighted the key elements for establishing a successful scheme for protecting geographical indications and traditional products.
The introduction and strengthening of short food chains is on the European Commission’s agenda, as part of the EU Common Agricultural Policy reform, The Guardian informs. In January 2014, the directorate general for agriculture and rural development is due to present the European Parliament a new labelling scheme for the producers who want to market their produce locally.