The call, in a report made by the Members of European Parliament (MEPs) to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, not to support genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa is unfortunate and an attempt to institutionalize poverty on the continent. The G7 group of nations’ joint initiative with the New Alliance—aimed at lifting 500 million people out of poverty by 2022 using 10 African countries as pilot studies—to start using genetically modified tools in agricultural production is being thrown out of the window.

MEPs have called on the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition to radically alter its mission. The Alliance currently pushes African countries to replicate the intensive agricultural practices employed in many developed countries. For a large majority of MEPs, the G7’s decision to base its programme for food security in Africa on intensive agriculture is a mistake. The European Parliament took its first official stance on the subject with the adoption of a report on the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (NAFSN) on Tuesday (7 June). “We have already made the mistake of intensive agriculture in Europe, we should not replicate it in Africa because this model destroys family farming and reduces biodiversity,” said Mara Heubuch, a German Green MEP and rapporteur on the New Alliance. Launched in 2012 by the countries of the G7 in partnership with ten African countries, the NAFSN has a worthy objective: to lift 50 million people out of poverty by 2050 by enabling investment in the agricultural sectors of ten African countries, including Benin, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Source: euractiv.com

The European Union on Tuesday announced an additional 10 million euros in humanitarian aid to help Burundian refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries. Some 265,000 Burundians have fled the country since a crisis was sparked in April 2015 by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial decision to stand for a third term in office. “The situation is really putting the host countries, particularly Tanzania, under stretched-to-the-limit conditions,” Alexandre Polack, spokesperson for the EU’s Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, told RFI. “We’ve identified a risk of infections and epidemics,” he added, as the UN refugee agency has identified malaria and diarrhoea as key health issues. The 10 million euros for assisting Burundian refugees is in addition to 12.2 million euros of EU humanitarian aid for the Burundi crisis provided since the start of 2016. The money will help improve shelter, food, supplies of safe drinking water, access to hygiene and sanitation.

Source: en.rfi.fr

The Council of Sugar Cane Growers has welcomed the European Union's $23 million direct aid to the agriculture and sugar sectors. Council CEO Sundresh Chetty said the aid package would significantly boost the confidence of canefarmers in Ba, Tavua and Rakiraki who were among the hardest hit by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston. Prime Minister and Minister for Sugar Voreqe Bainimarama signed an agreement with EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica at the EU-ACP Summit in Port Moresby yesterday. "During a time when many growers are still trying to piece their lives and livelihoods together after the devastation caused by Severe TC Winston, this is certainly good news," Mr Chetty said. "It is very timely and growers welcome this mammoth contribution by the EU towards assisting the sector. But what we would like to see is more discussions are held with stakeholders on how best this money could be utilised.

Source: fijitimes.com

This week, Denmark's environment and food minister Esben Lunde Larsen is in Kenya as part of a Danish export delegation, which aims to gain a foothold in the country and boost its ability to produce more fresh fruit and vegetables. Larsen has signed a co-operation agreement with Kenya to improve food security in the African nation. “Kenya has considerable potential as a food-producing and food-exporting nation, and it’s positive that we can help contribute with Danish expertise in a growing market,” said Larsen. In the World Bank’s most recent Ease of Doing Business Index, Kenya shot up 28 spots on the global rankings, attesting to the nation’s significant growth potential and its relevance as a regional trade hub in east Africa.

Source: freshplaza.com

Special Event - Going the Last Mile: Accelerating Progress in Food Security and Nutrition

Organized by IFPRI; ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation(CTA); Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development, European Commission (EC); HarvestPlus; Joint Research Centre of the EC (JRC)
Date & Time: June 14, 2016 - 9:00-17:30 CEST

Location: Espace Baudouin at the Palais des Académies, Rue Ducale 1 / Hertogstraat 1, Brussels Belgium

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development of the European Commission (EC), HarvestPlus, and the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) will co-host an all-day workshop on "Going the Last Mile: Accelerating Progress in Food Security and Nutrition." The event will take place in Brussels, Belgium on the eve of the European Development Days and will focus on translating investments into action. The workshop program includes thematic sessions and moderated discussions on: Translating Analysis into Action, Scaling up Technologies, Delivering from Data, Enhancing Policy Performance & Going the Last Mile.

Source: ifpri.org

This year, the G7 summit will take place from 26 to 27 May in Ise-Shima (Japan). The European Union will be represented by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk. The main topics on the agenda, as set out by this year's Japan presidency, are the global economy, investment, trade, the refugee crisis, climate change and energy, the fight against terrorism, foreign policy and development. Leaders will also discuss several global health policy issues, gender equality and women’s rights (...) Traditionally, a number of third country heads of state and government, as well as chairpersons of international organisations, are invited to participate in parts of the summit. From ASEAN member states, the heads of state and government of Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea are invited. In addition, the President of Chad – the current Chairperson of the African Union – and, from the international organisations, the chairpersons of the UN, OECD, ADB, IMF and the World Bank are invited. As the Ise-Shima summit is the first summit held in Asia in eight years, the Japanese hosts have indicated that the topic of one of the outreach meetings will focus on Asia. In another outreach session, participants will address the Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on Africa.

Source: europa.eu

The Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) has launched an agricultural support scheme bankrolled by the European Union (EU) to enhance smallholder farmers' understanding of policy issues. The scheme seeks to benefit over 20 000 smallholder farmers in three selected provinces. It also seeks to encourage farmers' participation in policy related issues and increased dialogue on food and nutrition security development. The EU funded programme will be implemented in 10 selected districts in the country's three provinces, namely Mutasa, Nyanga and Buhera in Manicaland; Masvingo, Chivi and Mwenezi in Masvingo; and Kwekwe, Gokwe South and Shurugwi in the Midlands. ZFU chief economist, Prince Kuipa, said selected districts would be tasked with implementation of the programme in 10 wards. Kuipa said the initiative would strengthen farmers' understanding of complex policy issues in order to enable them to hold authorities accountable.

Source: allafrica.com

The European Union through Trade and Agriculture Support Programme (TASPII) has purchase packaging materials and equipment worth 2bn/- for the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) laboratory. This was announced in Dar es Salaam yesterday during packaging material producers, consumers and entrepreneurs meeting organized by the Coordinator of the Trade and Agriculture programme from the Ministry of Finance, Jonathan Mbuya. He said EU has released fund for the purchase of the equipment to enable TBS to cope with challenges facing packaging materials so that TBS can be in a better position to determine the quality and control the standards of the locally produced packaging materials (...) On his part, TBS official, Kezia Mbwambo said the intended output of the projects is increased security of the agricultural products especially among small scale farmers and other sub-sectors under the project (...) Furthermore, he affirmed that they will as well work on capacity building to small scale farmers on how they can tap the market by empowering them with skills on striving to produce standard goods especially in tea, coffee, cotton, horticulture and fish industries.

Source: allafrica.com

Ethiopia is being hit hard by one the most severe El Niño phenomenon on record. Numbers speak for themselves – in the past year, the number of food insecure people has increased from 2.9 million to over 10 million at present, write Neven Mimica and Christos Stylianides.This is on top of the almost 8 million chronically food insecure people in the country (...) Since the winter of 2015, the EU has mobilised around €44 million of humanitarian aid to help the victims of El Niño in Ethiopia. In addition, we have just announced an additional €24 million to respond to emergency needs of over 730 000 refugees and some 400 000 Internally Displaced People.