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| March 2009 |
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- Open vacancies at the IFOAM Head Office
- Organic farming continued growth in Africa
- First African Organic Conference
- Bee Keeping Project in Zambia
- Organic agriculture good for food security in Africa
- Development of national standards for organic farming and production in Zambia
- Call for contributions Africa Organic News – March 2009
- Upcoming Organic Agriculture related events
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| | 1. Open vacancies at the IFOAM Head Office
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| | IFOAM is now recruiting the following staff members:
• Membership Manager
• Advocacy Manager
• Office Coordinator
For more information, please visit: www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/inside_ifoam/jobs.html.
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| | 2. Organic farming continued growth in Africa
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| | IFOAM and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) have presented the results of the study titled ‘The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2009’ at BioFach 2009.
Currently, 32.2 million hectares are certified according to organic standards (data as at the end of 2007). In addition, more than 31 million hectares were certified for organic wild collection. The global organic market has been estimated at 46 billion US Dollars in 2007.
In Africa, in 2007, over 0.9 million hectares – about 3 percent of the world’s organic agricultural land - were certified organic, constituting an increase of more than 185,000 hectares compared with last year’s survey. The countries with the greatest organic agricultural land are Uganda (296’203 hectares), Tunisia (154’793 hectares), Ethiopia (140,308 hectares) and Tanzania (62,486 hectares). Most of this land is used for permanent crops. The main permanent crops are coffee and olives. At least half a million producers were reported in Africa.
However, in terms of share of a country’s agricultural area, Sao Tome and Prince has the highest (5.02 percent) followed by Uganda (2.33 percent) and Tunisia (1.58 percent).
In addition to the agricultural land, 9.6 million hectares of land are certified for bee keeping, forest and wild collection. The largest bee keeping areas are in Zambia (5.2 million hectares). The largest wild collection areas are in Namibia (2.8 million hectares), Sudan (490,000 hectares) and Morocco (400,000 hectares). Medicinal plants like Devil’s claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) play the most important role.
All these African statistics and the land use information per country will be available soon at: www.ifoam.org/africa.
The book “The World of Organic Agriculture - Statistics and Emerging Trends 2009” may be ordered via the IFOAM, FiBL, and ITC web shop at http://shop.ifoam.org/bookstore/, shop.fibl.org, and www.intracen.org/eshop/welcome.asp.
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| | 3. First African Organic Conference
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| | The National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) and Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) are organizing in Kampala, Uganda, the First African Organic Conference, scheduled for May 19th to 22nd 2009 .
The theme of the conference is “Fast Tracking Sustainable Development in Africa through Harnessing Organic Agriculture and Biotechnology.”
The conference registration and the submission of papers for presentation are still open. All suggestions and advice on organizations that might sponsor/support the event would be highly appreciated.
IFOAM will organize a two day fundraising training for representatives of the African movements in conjunction with this conference and several presentations of IFOAM’s work during the conference.
For more information about the conference, please visit: www.nogamu.org.ug/newcms/index.php?page=nog_intevents&expand=2.
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| | 4. Bee Keeping Project in Zambia
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| | The Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ) will be launching soon a bee keeping project in Kaoma District. The project is funded by the European Union under
the agriculture diversification and food security programme and targets
women and men bee keepers. OPPAZ provides training in constructing,
managing and cropping of bee hives, and quality management of the bee
products.
For more information, please contact: Munshimbwe Chitalu.
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| | 5. Organic agriculture good for food security in Africa |
| | The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has
recently published a policy brief called “Sustaining African
Agriculture – Organic Production”.
The brief highlights research showing that organic agriculture is a
good option for food security in Africa. -- equal or better than most
conventional systems and more likely to be sustainable in the longer
term.
The UNCTAD brief made also a number of recommendations, one being on
the need for a global partnership for an African Sustainable Green
Revolution.
For more information, please visit: www.unctad.org/en/docs/presspb20086_en.pdf.
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| | 6. Development of national standards for organic farming and production in Zambia |
| | The Zambian Bureau of Standards has developed in collaboration with the
Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ) a Draft
Zambian Standard for Organic Farming and Production. This draft is
currently being circulated to all interested stakeholders in and
outside Zambia for comments.
The deadline for comments is the 10th of April 2009.
For more information, please contact: Dingiswayo Shawa.
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| | 7. Call for contributions Africa Organic News – March 2009
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| | We would like to receive your contribution for the next issue of the Africa Organic News newsletter (April 2009). We are particularly interested to know success Organic Agriculture related projects currently implemented in your countries or regions. Submissions in both English and French are welcome.
The deadline for contributions is the 19th of March 2009.
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| | 8. Upcoming Organic Agriculture related events
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| | Fourth Senegalese national and annual fair of organic and natural products
April 8-12
Thiès, Senegal
For more information, please contact: Ibrahima Seck.
Workshop for exchange and learning on “Building organic & fair-trade value chains”
April 19-25 2009
Cotonou, Benin
For more information, please contact: Frank Eyhorn.
Africa Organic Conference
May 19-22
Kampala, Uganda
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Email: h.bouagnimbeck@ifoam.org
Head Office Contact Information
Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 5
53113 Bonn, Germany
Tel: +49-228-92650-10
Fax: +49-228-92650-99
Email: headoffice@ifoam.org
http://www.ifoam.org
© 2009 IFOAM - All rights reserved. International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) e.V.
Trial Court Bonn, Association Register no. 8726
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