Technology (12)
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“These are very interesting and amazing technologies – with these, we will overcome many of the challenges we face now.”
Organized by the Water Enabler Compact of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) in collaboration with the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, the field day brought together over 200 stakeholders from across the densely populated state in northern Nigeria.
These include the representative of Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, the state’s Deputy Governor who also heads the state ministry of agriculture, the Managing Director of Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) Hon. Suleiman Ibrahim who participated alongside 15 directors and Zonal Managers of his agency.
In attendance also were Directors of Engineering, Agricultural Services, Planning, and Veterinary departments of the Kano State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (KMANR), members of the Wheat Farmers Association, women, and youth groups.
Wheat in Nigeria
With a production of 60,000 tons annually, wheat remains the least cereal produced locally in Nigeria, although widely consumed.
In 2013, the country’s wheat consumption was estimated at 4.1 million tons creating a huge market potential for wheat supply gap.
According to a December 2018 Global Agricultural Information Network report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), wheat importation to Nigeria in 2018-19 is estimated to increase by 4%.
This adds to the 5.4 million tonnes imported in 2017 thus indicating an increasing local demand for the cereal.
Wheat requires very well-drained soil, making it difficult to be grown in salty or acidic soil. The region of the country that supports wheat production includes Northern states such as Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Jigawa and Gombe.
However, local wheat production in Nigeria is fraught with challenges.
The variety of wheat cultivated in Nigeria is hard while the most popular types imported can’t grow in Nigeria as a result of the country’s soil and climatic condition.
Salim Mohammed, national president, Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, identifies lack of policy framework aimed at ensuring consistent supply of high yielding varieties of modified seeds to farmers and appropriate irrigation technologies as major concerns militating against massive production of wheat across the country.
Technology as a way out
It is against this background that the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2018, launched the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) as part of its Feed Africa Initiative.
TAAT’s main objective is to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight Priority Intervention Areas (PIA).
The program increases agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high-performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected nine commodity compacts which include wheat.
These work with six enabler compacts addressing transversal issues such as soil fertility management, water management, capacity development, policy support, attracting African youth in agribusiness and fall armyworm response.
Smarting from the success stories recorded in Sudan where the TAAT Wheat Compact deployed a number of high yielding heat tolerant wheat varieties at scale (Imam, Goumria, Zakia, Elnielain and Bohaine) with a production potential of 5-8 t / ha and more than 26,000 tons of certified seeds produced and distributed to more than 260,000 wheat farmers, TAAT is already poised to transform Nigeria’s wheat sector.
Dr Solomon Assefa, the TAAT wheat compact leader identifies the lack of improved wheat seed in sufficient quantity and quality at affordable price as a key factor contributing to the poor adoption and weak performance of wheat in Nigeria.
These and many more prompted the scaling up of heat-tolerant wheat technologies to farmers in Nigeria.
“The technologies comprised many new wheat varieties with heat and drought tolerance, and stem rust resistance. These traits allow for expansion of wheat production in Nigeria, Assefa said.
“TAAT is fast-tracking this next generation variety release through national programs, offering expertise in land preparation including raised beds, furrow and deficit irrigation, and sprinkler systems, and promoting low-cost mechanized planting within conservation agriculture,” he added.
The TAAT Wheat Compact is led by International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) while International Water Management Institute (IWMI) leads the TAAT Water Enabler Compact.
The TAAT Water Compact promotes low-cost and easy-to-deploy irrigation and water management technologies to small-scale farmers across Africa.
The water-wheat nexus
Henry Igbadun who coordinates the TAAT Water Enabler Compact (TAAT-WEC) in Nigeria disclosed during the Field Day that the program is currently training 30 farmers and 10 extension workers in Kano State on proven water management technologies.
“Our target here is to scale up proven tools, technological solutions and innovations in irrigation and agricultural water management to increase productivity and production of wheat, rice and Sorghum,” Igbadun said.
“It is also to build the capacity of trainers, including innovation platform facilitators, extension agents, champion farmers and youths in the proper use of irrigation and water management technologies and implementation of good irrigation management practice.”
According to Igbadun, the initiative is also aimed at attracting investment from public and private sources into irrigated agricultural production of wheat, rice and sorghum through the demonstration of viability and profitability of irrigation technologies.
He added that, “traditionally, water is lifted from the tube well using centrifugal pumps and allowed to run by gravity on soil surfaces to the crop field.
“This method, he continued, is not only tedious, but it takes a longer time to irrigate the fields, more hours of running the irrigation pumps, higher water conveyance losses, and of fields.
The PVC conveyance and distribution technology is therefore appropriate to overcome these challenges. It saves time / hours of irrigation, which in turn reduces the cost of production and increases yield, “he said.
Prof Igadun displayed several irrigation facilities at the field day and he mentioned some of them as “Impact Sprinklers, Gun Sprinklers, Weirs, Flumes, Spiles, and Orifices.”
On the Wheat field, the Gun Sprinklers, Impact Sprinklers are used to irrigate the field. These are in addition to the irrigation system known as “Improved surface irrigation using PVC pipes.
Shehu, the Kano Wheat Farmers leader, on his part, pledged to mobilize members of his association to adopt the technologies.
“Some of us have tested these technologies and it yielded good results. We are therefore calling on the government to come to our aid by continuing with the program even after TAAT is gone, ”Shehu added.
Engr. Rabiu Abdulkadir, the Director of Engineering and Service at the Kano State Ministry of Agriculture, in his closing remarks, commended TAAT for bringing such technologies to their doorstep during the Alkamawa field day.
Since these technologies, he continued, “will assist our farmers in curtailing the waste of water, thereby increasing the production of wheat, we are left with no choice as government, than to support this program in order to ensure its sustainability,” Abdulkadir added .
“These are very interesting and amazing technologies – with these, we will overcome many of the challenges we face now.”
Organized by the Water Enabler Compact of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) in collaboration with the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, the field day brought together over 200 stakeholders from across the densely populated state in northern Nigeria.
These include the representative of Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, the state’s Deputy Governor who also heads the state ministry of agriculture, the Managing Director of Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) Hon. Suleiman Ibrahim who participated alongside 15 directors and Zonal Managers of his agency.
In attendance also were Directors of Engineering, Agricultural Services, Planning, and Veterinary departments of the Kano State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (KMANR), members of the Wheat Farmers Association, women, and youth groups.
Wheat in Nigeria
With a production of 60,000 tons annually, wheat remains the least cereal produced locally in Nigeria, although widely consumed.
In 2013, the country’s wheat consumption was estimated at 4.1 million tons creating a huge market potential for wheat supply gap.
According to a December 2018 Global Agricultural Information Network report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), wheat importation to Nigeria in 2018-19 is estimated to increase by 4%.
This adds to the 5.4 million tonnes imported in 2017 thus indicating an increasing local demand for the cereal.
Wheat requires very well-drained soil, making it difficult to be grown in salty or acidic soil. The region of the country that supports wheat production includes Northern states such as Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Jigawa and Gombe.
However, local wheat production in Nigeria is fraught with challenges.
The variety of wheat cultivated in Nigeria is hard while the most popular types imported can’t grow in Nigeria as a result of the country’s soil and climatic condition.
Salim Mohammed, national president, Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, identifies lack of policy framework aimed at ensuring consistent supply of high yielding varieties of modified seeds to farmers and appropriate irrigation technologies as major concerns militating against massive production of wheat across the country.
Technology as a way out
It is against this background that the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2018, launched the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) as part of its Feed Africa Initiative.
TAAT’s main objective is to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight Priority Intervention Areas (PIA).
The program increases agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high-performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected nine commodity compacts which include wheat.
These work with six enabler compacts addressing transversal issues such as soil fertility management, water management, capacity development, policy support, attracting African youth in agribusiness and fall armyworm response.
Smarting from the success stories recorded in Sudan where the TAAT Wheat Compact deployed a number of high yielding heat tolerant wheat varieties at scale (Imam, Goumria, Zakia, Elnielain and Bohaine) with a production potential of 5-8 t / ha and more than 26,000 tons of certified seeds produced and distributed to more than 260,000 wheat farmers, TAAT is already poised to transform Nigeria’s wheat sector.
Dr Solomon Assefa, the TAAT wheat compact leader identifies the lack of improved wheat seed in sufficient quantity and quality at affordable price as a key factor contributing to the poor adoption and weak performance of wheat in Nigeria.
These and many more prompted the scaling up of heat-tolerant wheat technologies to farmers in Nigeria.
“The technologies comprised many new wheat varieties with heat and drought tolerance, and stem rust resistance. These traits allow for expansion of wheat production in Nigeria, Assefa said.
“TAAT is fast-tracking this next generation variety release through national programs, offering expertise in land preparation including raised beds, furrow and deficit irrigation, and sprinkler systems, and promoting low-cost mechanized planting within conservation agriculture,” he added.
The TAAT Wheat Compact is led by International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) while International Water Management Institute (IWMI) leads the TAAT Water Enabler Compact.
The TAAT Water Compact promotes low-cost and easy-to-deploy irrigation and water management technologies to small-scale farmers across Africa.
The water-wheat nexus
Teacher. Henry Igbadun who coordinates the TAAT Water Enabler Compact (TAAT-WEC) in Nigeria disclosed during the Field Day that the program is currently training 30 farmers and 10 extension workers in Kano State on proven water management technologies.
“Our target here is to scale up proven tools, technological solutions and innovations in irrigation and agricultural water management to increase productivity and production of wheat, rice and Sorghum,” Igbadun said.
“It is also to build the capacity of trainers, including innovation platform facilitators, extension agents, champion farmers and youths in the proper use of irrigation and water management technologies and implementation of good irrigation management practice.”
According to Igbadun, the initiative is also aimed at attracting investment from public and private sources into irrigated agricultural production of wheat, rice and sorghum through the demonstration of viability and profitability of irrigation technologies.
He added that, “traditionally, water is lifted from the tube well using centrifugal pumps and allowed to run by gravity on soil surfaces to the crop field.
“This method, he continued, is not only tedious, but it takes a longer time to irrigate the fields, more hours of running the irrigation pumps, higher water conveyance losses, and of fields.
The PVC conveyance and distribution technology is therefore appropriate to overcome these challenges. It saves time / hours of irrigation, which in turn reduces the cost of production and increases yield, “he said.
Prof Igadun displayed several irrigation facilities at the field day and he mentioned some of them as “Impact Sprinklers, Gun Sprinklers, Weirs, Flumes, Spiles, and Orifices.”
On the Wheat field, the Gun Sprinklers, Impact Sprinklers are used to irrigate the field. These are in addition to the irrigation system known as “Improved surface irrigation using PVC pipes.
Shehu, the Kano Wheat Farmers leader, on his part, pledged to mobilize members of his association to adopt the technologies.
“Some of us have tested these technologies and it yielded good results. We are therefore calling on the government to come to our aid by continuing with the program even after TAAT is gone, ”Shehu added.
Engr. Rabiu Abdulkadir, the Director of Engineering and Service at the Kano State Ministry of Agriculture, in his closing remarks, commended TAAT for bringing such technologies to their doorstep during the Alkamawa field day.
Since these technologies, he continued, “will assist our farmers in curtailing the waste of water, thereby increasing the production of wheat, we are left with no choice as government, than to support this program in order to ensure its sustainability,” Abdulkadir added .
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire (PAMACC News) - Solar projects stretching across the Sahel region are expected to connect 250m people with electricity by tapping into the region’s abundant solar resource.
The details of the “Desert to Power Initiative” have been outlined as part of the Paris Agreement climate change talks at COP24 in Katowice, Poland this week.
Energy poverty in Africa is estimated to cost the continent 2-4 % GDP annually, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB), which is leading the project.
The Initiative aims to develop and provide 10 GW of solar energy by 2025 and supply 250 million people with green electricity including in some of the world’s poorest countries. At least 90 million people will be connected to electricity for the first time, lifting them out of energy poverty.
Currently, 64% of the Sahel’s population - covering Senegal, Nigeria, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea - lives without electricity, a major barrier to development, with consequences for education, health and business.
By harnessing the exceptional solar resource in the region, AfDB and its partners hope to transform the region.
Magdalena J. Seol in the AfDB’s Desert to Power Initiative said,“Energy is the foundation of human living - our entire system depends on it. For Africa right now, providing and securing sustainable energy is in the backbone of its economic growth.” adding that lack of energy remains as a significant impediment to Africa’s economic and social development,”
The project will provide many benefits to local people, said Ms Seol: It will improve the affordability of electricity for low income households and enable people to transition away from unsafe and hazardous energy sources, such as kerosene, which carry health risks.
Construction of the project will also create jobs and help attract private sector involvement in renewable energy in the region.
Many women-led businesses currently face bigger barriers than men-led enterprises to accessing grid electricity - so the project has the potential to increase female participation in economic activities and decision-making processes.
The project has been launched in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund, a global pot of money created by the 194 countries who are party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to support developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate change. The program is designed to combine private sector capital with blended finance.
“If you look at the countries that this initiative supports, they’re the ones who are very much affected by the climate change and carbon emissions from other parts of the world,” said Ms Seol.
“Given this, the investments will have a greater effect in these regions, which have a greater demand and market opportunity in the energy sector.”
“Women are usually disproportionately negatively affected by energy access issues. Providing a secure and sustainable electricity creates positive impact on gender issue as well.”
The African continent holds 15% of the world’s population, yet is poised to shoulder nearly 50% of the estimated global climate change adaptation costs, according to the Bank.
These costs are expected to cut across health, water supply, agriculture, and forestry, despite the continent’s minimal contribution to global emissions.
However, the International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that Africa’s renewable energy potential could put it at the forefront of green energy production globally.
It is estimated to have an almost unlimited potential of solar capacity (10 TW), abundant hydro (350 GW), wind (110 GW), and geothermal energy sources (15 GW) - and a potential overall renewable energy capacity of 310 GW by 2030.
Other renewables projects in Africa include The Ouarzazate solar complex in Morocco, which is one of the largest concentrated solar plants in the world.
It has produced over 814 GWh of clean energy since 2016 and last year, the solar plant prevented 217,000 tons of CO2 being emitted. Until recently, Morocco sourced 95% of its energy needs from external sources
In South Africa, the Bank and its partner, the Climate Investment Fund, have helped fund the Sere Wind Farm - 46 turbines supplying 100 MW to the national power grid and expected to save 6 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over its 20 year expected life span. It is supplying 124,000 homes.
COP24 is the 24th conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This year countries are preparing to implement the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the world’s global warming to no more than 2C.
PAMACC, Nairobi-KENYA: Possibilities for swift transition to clean and efficient mobility exist more in Africa than other regions, experts have affirmed.
Experts at the ongoing Africa clean mobility week in Nairobi, Kenya believe that Africa’s readiness for the much-needed transition remains exceedingly higher than those of other regions that are deeply entrenched in dirty and inefficient fuel economies.
Africa, according to Rob de Jong, Head of the Air Quality and Mobility Unit of the UN Environment, is very ready to transit because the region depends largely on imported fuel to meet 80% of its consumption needs.
The region he added, “is not producing a lot of vehicles, most vehicles are imported and more than any other continent in the world, Africa can today decide to import cleaner cars and efficient fuel and through this, leapfrog to a new era of clean mobility.”
In other continents like Asia, where there is so much production of poor quality vehicles, its very difficult to introduce vehicle standards, but for Africa, it becomes easier for the region to set up policy frameworks that regulate the quality of fuel it imports and many African states are already doing that,” Jong said.
Experts are also of the view that a larger part of Africa's vehicular need is yet to be met even though the region is motorizing very quickly. In Kenya for example, the number of vehicles doubles every 7 years while in Europe, there are already too many cars and if Africa adopts the clean transition policy today, it will successfully influence a cleaner future.
Jane Akumu, Programme Officer at the Economy division of the Air Quality and Mobility Unit of the UN Environment sees great prospects in Africa’s transition to a clean mobility future.
“We see good prospects for progress,” Akumu said. “when we started this move less than a decade ago, Africa was predominantly using lead petrol but today its only one country that is still using lead petrol out of Africa’s 55 countries,” she says.
“What took other regions over a decade was achieved within less than 5 years in Africa,” Akumu added.
The UN Environment, on its part, has been prioritising and bringing the issues of cleaner transport into the discussions of African ministers and various stakeholders including the private sector, civil society and the media.
“Once issues are prioritised with cost-effective solutions, we see very good and remarkable progress in Africa especially when we link them with health, environment and climate change considerations, it’s a win-win situation, Jane Akumu said.
