by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Abuja : Italy’s state-run energy giant Eni and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have signed an agreement to foster access to safe, clean water for domestic use and irrigation in crisis-hit northeast Nigeria.
Under the project which was signed on Tuesday, Eni will drill boreholes and provide photovoltaic power systems, including training for their use and maintenance for longterm stability, the FAO said.
The FAO will provide support by identifying the areas to sink the wells as well as technical expertise in the region covered by the project.
The FAO’s assistance in the region “has helped Internally Displaced Persons in camps and those returning to liberated communities, including host communities, to return to their farms and pick up the bits and pieces of their lives again,” said the organisation’s country representative in Nigeria, Suffyan Koroma.
The Eni-FAO project aims to give further humanitarian assistance to people who have fled their homes in the region and host communities amid “unprecedented levels of population displacements” and prolonged disruption of agriculture, livestock rearing and fishing, the organisation said.
The Eni-FAO project is part of Eni’s sustainability effort in Nigeria which includes agricultural development, access to energy, health, training and environmental protection initiatives.
The joint project comes after Nigeria’s government asked oil and gas companies to help it alleviate the suffering of victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.
The FAO has operated Nigeria since 1978 and has programmes and projects in more than 30 states across the Federation.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Cairo : Almost 80 per cent of Yemeni people need urgent humanitarian aid, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN said in a report on Thursday.
The report, presented in Cairo, stressed that Yemen was suffering the worst famine in the Middle East and North Africa.
FAO added that almost a quarter of the Yemeni people were suffering severe food insecurity while 36 per cent of the population faced moderated food insecurity, Efe news reported.
The severe malnutrition index between children under five years of age reached 11 per cent but surpassed 15 per cent in at least four Yemeni provinces. The FAO regarded this situation as critical.
Sanitary services degraded leading to a cholera epidemic, which resulted in at least 2,028 deaths with nearly 580,000 suspected cholera cases.
The water supply also degraded due to the war prompting violence.
The FAO said 4,000 violent deaths took place in disputes over water or lands annually, citing the Yemeni Interior Ministry.
The conflict in Yemen erupted in late 2014 when the Houthi rebels gained control of the capital Sana’a and much of Yemen’s northern provinces.
The Yemeni conflict gained an international dimension when a Saudi-led coalition started to target Houthi rebels in March 2015.
In another regional issue, the FAO stated that war-torn Syria needed between $11-17 billion to recover garden patches and its agricultural infrastructures.
The report added that food production reached some of the lowest levels in Syria prompting problems in supplying near half of the population in Syria with food.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, World
By Dilara Zengin,
Ankara : Global food prices fell 0.5 percent in November from previous month, as sharp rise in sugar and vegetable oil price balanced with low dairy prices, the United Nations’ food body said on Thursday.
The food price index averaged 175.8 points in November, marking a monthly decrease of 0.5 percent, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement.
October food price index stood at 176.6 point, according to FAO.
The food organization noted that food prices are still 2.3 percent higher in November compared to the same month last year.
The FAO Food Price Index is a trade-weighted index that tracks international market prices of five major food commodity groups.
“The November decline was driven by a 4.9 percent monthly drop in the FAO dairy price index, as quotations for butter, cheese, whole milk and skim milk powder fell,” it explained.
The sugar and vegetable oil price indices increased by 4.5 percent and 1.2 percent in November, respectively.
The November’s cereal price index also rose by 1.1 percent while the meat price index remained unchanged in the month.
—AA
