Governor Kefas has urged stakeholders to harness the momentum of the ACReSAL project. (Image source: ACReSAL)

The Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Day celebration, held in the state capital, marked a major milestone in the state’s journey towards climate-resilient agriculture, as Governor Dr Agbu Kefas launched three groundbreaking initiatives under the ACReSAL project

At the heart of the celebration were three critical initiatives designed to empower Taraba farmers and promote climate-smart agriculture. The first two initiative involves the distribution of climate-smart farm inputs and tractors, which will enable farmers to enhance production and build resilience against climate change. The third initiative focuses on the presentation of Community Resolving Funds (CRF) to dedicated farmers and community leaders.

Governor Kefas expressed his gratitude to the World Bank and the Federal Project Management team for their dedication, expertise, and robust support, while reiterating the state’s vision for a future where sustainable agriculture fuels economic growth, every farmer has the opportunity to prosper, and innovative practices become the norm. 

Dr Joy Iganya Agene, task team leader of the ACReSAL project and senior environmental specialist, expressed her delight at the significant progress made by Taraba State in the ACReSAL project. This progress has propelled the state to stage two of project implementation. She urged beneficiaries to utilise the proceeds from the Community Revolving Funds (CRF) disbursement for climate-smart activities. Dr Agene also encouraged communities to harness their abundant natural resources to combat the challenges posed by climate change.

As Taraba State deepens its collaboration with the World Bank, Governor Kefas has urged stakeholders to harness the momentum of the ACReSAL project, which is a key initiative among the various proactive steps taken by the state government to address environmental issues. 

Sudan, the Philippines and Malawi made notable contributions to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

More than 14,000 seed samples from 21 genebanks were deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault last month

These samples included essential varieties of sorghum and pearl millet from Sudan’s crop genebank; a collection of velvet beans from Malawi; and critical food crops from a Philippine gene bank that is being destroyed by typhoons and fires. Brazil, the host of this year’s global climate negotiations, also deposited a major collection of more than 3,000 varieties of rice, beans and maize.

Following the deposit ceremony, the first-ever Svalbard International Dialogue brought together high-level government officials, crop experts and global thought leaders to discuss the challenge of safeguarding crop diversity amid increasing environmental pressures and escalating global conflicts.

Sudan’s contribution 

Sudan made its sixth deposit of seed samples of 15 species, including many varieties of sorghum, a crop that is deeply tied to Sudanese cultural heritage, and is also a lifeline for food security in the country. With the help of the Emergency Reserve for Genebanks, hundreds of seed samples that were impacted during the civil war, were transported to NordGen to be sorted catalogued, packed and documented as part of the Sudanese deposit. These were then transported to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. 

The Philippines’ contribution 

After several seed stocks were destroyed by natural extreme events like typhoons and fires, partners from the Philippines with support from the BOLD Project, visited Svalbard to deposit seeds of eggplant, rice bean, lima bean and sorghum.

Malawi’s contribution 

Being another BOLD partner, Malawi deposited velvet beans, a crop that enables farmers to boost production and keep their soils healthy, while also offering important medicinal benefits. Velvet beans are a nitrogen-fixing legume that when used as a fertiliser can more than double maize yields. The species, which is also used in traditional medicine, boasts high levels of levodopa, a compound used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. 

“This moment is a powerful reminder that securing our food future requires collective action,” said Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust. “Through our partnerships, including the BOLD project, we’ve worked with institutions around the world to safeguard vital crop diversity.”  He further highlighted how the deposited seeds represented not only biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them. “We must find a way to protect this crop diversity for generations to come,” Schmitz added. 

To avert a major crisis in Somalia, the WFP is calling for urgent funding to mitigate the impacts of the expected drought. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Alarming new data shows that worsening drought conditions, conflict and high food prices are likely to push one million more people into food insecurity in Somalia

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, 3.4 million people are already experiencing crisis-levels of hunger, with the number expected to rise 4.4 million between April and June this year. Moreover, around 1.7 million children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition through December 2025, due to below-average rainfall forecast for this period. 

Among those hardest hit are households with low agricultural yields who have depleted their food stocks, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and pastoralists with limited livestock and below-average earnings from livestock sales.

A drastic increase in humanitarian needs and subsequent shortfall in fundings is forcing the WFP to cut-short food and cash assistance as well as some life-saving programmes such as school meal arrangements for students. With a funding gap of US$297mn and no additional funding  expected in the next six months, WFP operations in Somalia are threatened by pipeline breaks by mid-year. 

To avert a major crisis in Somalia, the WFP is calling for urgent funding to scale up food assistance, nutrition support, water and sanitation services, as well as livelihood initiatives to mitigate the impacts of the expected drought. 

The X-ray inspection system Dylight S combines a compact design with precise foreign body detection and efficient quality control. (Image source: Minebea Intec)

One of the world's leading industrial weighing and inspection technologies, Minebea Intec has introduced the new Dylight S, an X-ray inspection system that enables manufacturing companies to guarantee the highest product safety and quality at an affordable price 

The evolving needs of the food and pharmaceutical industries makes advanced technologies crucial to ensure sustainability, while maintaining high product quality, safety and affordability. Regulations such as the pre-packaging ordinance or supplier audits require complete documentation. At the same time, sustainable packaging materials make the use of advanced X-ray technologies essential. This is where the new X-ray inspection system Dylight S comes in. 

Featuring sideshooter technology, this compact system has been specially developed to ensure the quality of products in upright containers. It enables more precise detection of foreign bodies in products with light and complex packaging. The X-ray inspection system not only enables reliable detection of metallic and non-metallic foreign bodies—including glass, rubber, stones or plastic parts—in containers such as PET bottles, liquid food cartons or plastic cans, but also offers functions for completeness checks and fill level inspections. Thanks to a wide range of interfaces, Dylight S can be seamlessly integrated into digital production environments. 

"The X-ray inspection system Dylight S is characterised by its extremely compact design. This enables easy integration into existing production lines," said product manager at Minebea Intec, Mengqi Liang. "Another key advantage of the Dylight S is using the monoblock generator without an external transformer, which reduces technical complexity and simultaneously lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO)."

Furthermore, to boost production efficiency and improve accuracy, Minebea Intec is introducing another innovative feature with the X-ray inspection system Dylight S: autonomous parameter adjustment. This function optimises the product set-up process and inspection process by automatically adjusting the settings to reduce false rejects. Another notable feature is the image acquisition function that uses innovative software technology to generate a second X-ray image from an acquired image, enabling the operating personnel to subsequently optimise brightness, contrast and scaling and to detect the foreign bodies that have been missed in the original images.