UN launches $9 million food security project.

UN launches $9 million food security project.The United Nations ( UN ) on Tuesday launched a nine million-dollar food security project in Kaduna State to improve the livelihood of farmers in the state. Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, Mr Edward Kallon, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, said that the project known as “Food Africa’’ was to ensure improved nutrition and food sufficiency in the country. Kallon said the project was an innovative approach aimed at revamping the food sector to create new jobs for young people, increase farmers’ revenue, improve productivity, enhance nutrition and reduce food loss through the adoption of more sustainable production practices. more

Monkeypox hits Bayelsa, medical doctor, 10 others quarantined.

Monkeypox hits Bayelsa, medical doctor, 10 others quarantined. Fear has gripped the residents of Bayelsa State as a deadly viral epidemic known as “monkeypox” has broken out in the state. According to the World Health Organisation, monkeypox is a rare disease that occurs primarily in remote parts of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. “The monkeypox virus can cause a fatal illness in humans and, although it is similar to human smallpox which has been eradicated, it is much milder,” WHO says. It was authoritatively learnt that a medical doctor and 10 persons who came down with the monkeypox had been quarantined in an isolation centre at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state. The isolation centre was reportedly created by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and the epidemiological team of the state’s Ministry of Health to control the spread of the virus more

GROWING UP AND GROWING OUT: PATHWAYS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT.

GROWING UP AND GROWING OUT: PATHWAYS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT.Meet Sulura, a woman who transitioned from selling maize flour to owning her own restaurant. Now she wants to share the secrets of her success with other women entrepreneurs. At TechnoServe, we are lucky to be able to speak to many women with incredible stories. Recently we met Sulura, a woman in Nampula, Mozambique, as part of a study of women entrepreneurs, funded by the ExxonMobil Foundation under the Business Women Connect program. Sulura is a strong, charismatic woman who, upon seeing us talking to women in the market, approached us and demanded that we include her story! We were glad she did, as Sulura’s story is a classic example of women’s economic empowerment in action. Many women in Mozambique experience significant barriers to business growth. The same day we met Sulura, we met a family of three generations of women – Rosa, her daughter, Ana Rafael, and Ana’s newborn daughter – who have been selling maize flour in the same market spot for 20 years. They buy maize from a nearby farm and process it at a local mill. Rosa and Ana Rafael barely make enough money to be able to feed their families. Maize flour is an extremely competitive commodity with low profit margins. When we asked them why they didn’t switch to a different product, Rosa and Ana Rafael said “this is all we know how to do.” Sulura told us that she also began her business journey by selling maize flour in the market. However, instead of sticking to flour, she carefully saved her profits and used these savings to buy fish and shrimp to sell at the market. After a while, she invested in a small stove and started to sell cooked fish, improving her margins and reducing her inventory waste of spoiled fish. Eventually, Sulura had saved enough money to build a small restaurant in the market. Sulura came to realize that whenever her business had “grown up,” it was time to “grow out” into something more profitable. more

STRYDE: Partnering for Youth Empowerment.

STRYDE: Partnering for Youth Empowerment. A partnership between TechnoServe and the Mastercard Foundation, STRYDE (or Strengthening Rural Youth Development through Enterprise) helps rural young people ages 18 to 30 in East Africa transition to economic independence. Now in its second phase, STRYDE is focused on ensuring sustainable impact by strengthening the capacity of local partner institutions – such as vocational training institutes, government youth centers and prisons – to deliver the training to East African youth.

CLEAN WATER FOR COFFEE COMMUNITIES.

CLEAN WATER FOR COFFEE COMMUNITIES. In Sidama, Ethiopia, communities rely on rivers to both process their coffee and provide for their families. The Water Wise project introduced a simple solution to keep rivers productive and clean for coffee economies. Meselech Amato, a 26-year-old coffee farmer, depends on the nearby Bunata River to wash her clothes, irrigate her crops and provide drinking water for her livestock. Just three years ago, however, it was impossible to use the nearby river for these essential chores. While all communities rely on water, coffee-growing communities often face a conflict between their livelihoods and this life-giving resource. Wet mills are a crucial part of coffee production in which coffee beans are washed and processed. However, the process also discharges wastewater and pulp into the river, affecting local residents. In the Sidama region of Ethiopia where Meselech lives, hundreds of millions of liters of wastewater and coffee pulp are discharged into the rivers during coffee processing. Because women are customarily responsible for household chores such as collecting water, the negative effect of the river contamination disproportionately burdened local women. In processing season, the river would become so contaminated that Meselech was forced to travel nearly three kilometers each day to fetch water from an alternative source. “The polluted water damaged our vegetables when we irrigated and hurt our animals when they drank it,” In 2012, TechnoServe partnered with Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee to protect Sidama’s rivers and improve the lives of its communities through the Water Wise Coffee project. The initiative worked with wet mill owners to implement an innovative water management system that reduced contamination of local rivers. Through the project wet mills began to separate the coffee pulp from the wastewater. The separated pulp was then composted and distributed to farmers as organic fertilizer. Meanwhile, the remaining wastewater was absorbed by vetiver grass wetlands, which were also planted through Water Wise. After Wicho Bunata wet mill established vetiver grass wetlands with the support of TechnoServe and the Water Wise Program, Meselech says that she no longer needs to travel long distances to collect water; rather, she now uses the water from Bunata River, even during the processing season. more

REDUCING WASTE IN FRUIT PRODUCTION.

REDUCING WASTE IN FRUIT PRODUCTION.Kenyan farmers and businesses are improving the mango value chain through sustainable post-harvest handling practices and technologies.According to government estimates, as much as 50 percent of Kenya’s harvested fruit goes to waste. Post-harvest loss means a significant loss of income for smallholder farmers like John Musomba, who grows mango on a 2-acre farm in Nziu, Kenya. Even when his trees are healthy and producing succulent green mangoes, the value of his precious harvest can plummet for a variety of reasons. Fruit flies and other pests – on the rise in Kenya due to climate change – can destroy a large part of the harvest. Bruised fruit that hits the ground when harvested incorrectly or gets damaged through poor transportation will not sell well. And heat can be a great enemy for John’s fruit, leading to rapid deterioration after harvest. TechnoServe and the Rockefeller Initiative have teamed up on the YieldWise Initiative to mitigate these factors and improve incomes for mango farmers in four regions of Kenya.more

BUILDING HEALTHIER BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITIES THROUGH FOOD FORTIFICATION.

BUILDING HEALTHIER BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITIES THROUGH FOOD FORTIFICATION.Food processing businesses are working to end hunger by increasing their capacity to provide quality, nutritious fortified foods for local communities. In Eastern and Southern Africa, 25 million – or 40 percent – of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Adequate nutrition is vital to children’s health and cognitive and physical development, and food fortification is a scalable, cost-effective method to increase communities’ access to nutrients. Yet many small and growing local processors have difficulties producing high-quality, affordable and nutritious products due to a lack of technical and business knowledge and investment. Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE) is a partnership between TechnoServe, Partners in Food Solutions and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which aims to expand the availability of affordable and nutritious foods by increasing the competitiveness of the food processing sectors in Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. Between launch in 2012 and completion in 2017, SAFE benefited more than 1,000 food processors, who source from more than 973,000 smallholder farmers. more