| 7TH AFRICAN CONFERENCE OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMISTS (7th ACAE) |
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The Executive Board of the AAAE wishes to announce that the 7th African Conference of Agricultural Economists, initially scheduled for Durban in September 2022, will now take place in the same city from 18-21 September 2023. The deadline for submission of papers, invited panels, and symposia will be Tuesday, March 07, 2023. THEME: TBC KEY DATES: - First Call for Papers: 13 July 2022
- Conference website opens: 05 August 2022
- Early Bird registration opens: 22 August 2022
- Second Call for Papers: 22 August 2022
- Final Call for Papers: 26 September 2022
- Submission of proposals for Symposia and Invited Panels: 08 December 2022
- Deadline for all Contributed Papers, Invited Panels and Organized Symposium submissions: 07 March 2023
- Notification of acceptance of papers: 06 June 2023
- Early Bird registration deadline/ Regular registration: 20 June 2023
- Presenting authors registration deadline: 17 July 2023
- Deadline for revised papers submissions: 24 July 2023
- 7th ACAE, Durban, South Africa: 18 - 21 Sept. 2023
We are exploring fundraising opportunities to help sponsor participation by early-career academics and professionals from around Africa whose papers will be selected for presentation. Further announcements on the conference will follow.
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| South Africa Relaxes Travel Restrictions |
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The government has announced that all Covid-related travel regulations, such as presenting negative PCR tests upon entering the country, have been dropped effective Wednesday, 23 June. Masks are no longer mandatory anywhere, and the limit on the number of people that may attend gatherings has also been scrapped. But those planning to travel internationally might want to hold on to their masks for now, as most airlines and many other countries still have mask mandates in place. Read more
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| Aliko Dangote On $2.5 Billion Fertilizer Plant: ‘Massive Orders From The EU’ |
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In March, Aliko Dangote opened A $2.5 billion urea and ammonia fertilizer plant in Nigeria commissioned by the country’s President Muhammadu Buhari. In an interview with FORBES AFRICA, Dangote, the president and CEO of Dangote Group, the continent’s largest cement producer, says the new fertilizer plant, which has already started production, could lead to Nigeria earning about $5 billion in export revenue. “We are getting a huge demand from all over the world with massive orders from the European Union,” says the billionaire entrepreneur, who is also opening an oil refinery, expected to be Africa’s biggest with the capacity to produce 650,000 barrels per day, by the third quarter of 2022. The war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers, have meant disrupted global supply chains and this has ignited the price of fertilizers for Africa’s small-scale farmers. Fertilizers provide healthy nutrients for crops and experts say the current impasse can stifle agricultural growth and lead to hunger on the continent. Nitrogen, potash and phosphate that are important for fertilizer manufacture also come from Russia and Ukraine. The countries’ leading position stems from their influence on the gas ecosystem too. Fertilizers are a by-product of ammonia created when mixing nitrogen and hydrogen gas. Dangote’s fertilizer factory, located in Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, sits on 500 hectares of land with capacity to produce three million metric tons of urea yearly. The Dangote Group’s website cites the plant as Africa’s largest granulated urea fertilizer complex. The oil refinery, also at the same location, will boast 1,100kms of subsea pipeline infrastructure to handle 3 billion Standard Cubic Foot of gas per day produced for commercial use. Read more
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| Women Agricultural Economists to Participate in a Two-year Mentoring Program |
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African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) has launched the commencement of a mentoring program specially tailored for women agricultural economists. Participants include 14 women agricultural economists competitively selected for the Mentoring Program for Women Agricultural Economists in the Global South. Hailing from 11 countries, including China, Germany, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Sri Lanka, the agricultural economists will be supported through a two-year virtual mentoring program aimed at developing their careers and improving their visibility. The 14 mentees have each been paired with 14 mentors carefully chosen to match their area of expertise and career goals. The Mentoring Program is a collaboration of AWARD and the International Association of Agricultural Economics (IAAE) through its International Committee of Women in Agricultural Economics (ICWAE). Read more
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| The Double Standards from which African Economies Suffer because of the Crisis in Ukraine |
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According to Senegal's President Macky Sall, the exemptions to the financial sanctions against Moscow applied by European states to continue energy trade with Moscow should also be implemented to allow African countries to continue supplying themselves with fertiliser and wheat. “We are a collateral victim of this situation because of the weaknesses of our economies,” continued the Senegalese President, speaking alongside his counterpart Mohamed Bazoum of Niger and Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, who became vice-president of Côte d’Ivoire in late April. Extending the criticism addressed by Sall to the continent’s international partners – especially Western ones – whose concessional loans are “insignificant” in relation to the financing needs for irrigation, Bazoum recalled that Niger had a programme already in place to promote the exploitation of its surface and underground water resources. “The difficulty was to have the financial resources to invest,” the Nigerien President explained. He pointed out another inconsistency with the continent’s external partners: this time in terms of climate. He said that the commitment of $100bn in annual aid promised at the COP21 in Paris to help the countries of the South to face the climate crisis had never materialised. Read more
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| Rising prices: why the global drive to keep food cheap is unsustainable |
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As prices rise, everywhere, for pretty much everything, the prospect of the human suffering this will cause is deeply worrying. There are predictions that the number of people in the world experiencing acute hunger – currently 276 million – could soon rise by as many as 47 million. To address the problem, one thing that many agree on is keeping trade barriers low. This means not banning exports, where individual countries hang on to their supplies and making sure sanctions don’t affect vital food supplies. The fear is that any barriers to global flows of food will simply push prices up even more. This focus on keeping prices low is understandable and necessary. But it is also worrying because the economic mechanisms which have driven down prices in recent decades have severely weakened the global food system. Read more
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| African scientists lead the continent’s gene editing research |
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Research using gene editing technology is being undertaken on the continent largely by African scientists to provide solutions for Africa, according to a panel of scientists and regulatory experts. Their work is drawing upon the efficiency and precision of gene editing to restore staples that African farmers prefer, like banana and sorghum, they said. The goal is to support food security and better incomes for farmers, especially in the face of climate change challenges. The panel of scientists included Dr. Leena Tripathi, director of Eastern Africa for the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture; Prof. Steven Runo, associate professor at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, and Josphat Muchiri, deputy director technical services at Kenya National Biosafety Authority (NBA). They made their observations in a recent Alliance For Science Live webinar, in which they noted that gene editing can improve Kenya’s food security. Read more
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| How did the Russia-Ukraine war trigger a global food crisis? |
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Russia’s war in Ukraine is preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe, threatening to worsen shortages, hunger, and political instability in developing countries. Together, Russia and Ukraine export nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley, more than 70 percent of its sunflower oil and are big suppliers of corn. Russia is the top global fertiliser producer. World food prices were already climbing, and the war has made things worse, preventing some 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain from getting to the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia. Weeks of negotiations on safe corridors to get grain out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have made little progress, with urgency rising as the summer harvest season arrives. Read more
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| Global Food Security in CCC Times (Climate change, Covid, and Conflict) |
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The Center for Development Research (ZEF) has the pleasure to invite you to a public lecture by Professor Johan Swinnen, Global Director, Systems Transformation, CGIAR and Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC, USA. In his lecture, Prof. Swinnen will talk about “Global Food Security in CCC Times (Climate change, Covid, and Conflict)”. Date and time: Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 16:00 h – 17:30 h (CEST). After the lecture, there will be a small reception and opportunity for interaction. Venue: The event will take place in-person only at ZEF, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn, Conference room ground floor. Read more
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| Burkina Faso: A food and nutrition project has been a ‘godsend’ for students at village schools |
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It’s 13:00 at the primary school in Konioudou, a village in the rural commune of Kombissiri, about 40 km outside the capital Ouagadougou, and it’s time for the pupils’ midday break. In the shade of the courtyard’s large trees, some are playing, teasing each other, laughing; a few others are leafing through books. But all are waiting for one thing: lunchtime. At the headmistress’ signal, the children line up at the entrance of their classes. Inside, a canteen worker serves food on plastic dishes. Then the pupils enter the room, in small groups, to take their own plates. What’s on the menu today? A millet porridge enriched with monkey bread, peanut powder, and sugar. Next time, it could be couscous, rice, beans, cowpea salad, or other meals based on local produce. Read more
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African Association of Agricultural Economists c/o University of Nairobi, C.A.V.S, Upper Kabete Campus Loresho Ridge Road, Nairobi, Kenya |
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