ETHIOPIA:ATTITUDES TOWARDS MEAT:DIARY PRODUCTS DURING EASTER.

The faithful believers in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church or the Tewahedo have been fasting for about 50 days and nights in which they do not eat any animal or dairy products.

In the last five days of this intense period of fasting that ends next Sunday, the faithful Christians are passing most of their time presenting themselves as holy and living sacrifices in prayer before God.

This week is the time of preparation for the breaking of this long fasting period. It is also a period in which the Christian community would become so busy in purchasing live sheep, goats, chicken, and cattle to celebrate and enjoy the Easter to be celebrated on the coming Sunday.

On Easter Eve, Ethiopian Christians participate in hours-long church service that ends around 3 A.M., after which they break their fast and celebrate the resurrection of Christ. It is common to prepare special traditional foods and share with neighbors and the poor. In this regard, religious leaders and fellow citizens often support the needy, while observing the Holiday.

In both urban and rural areas, the Christian community uses a great deal of meat and meat products. As the nation's economy is improving, the importance of locally sourced food is becoming more demanding. In many states, meat consumption is a sign of prosperity and wealth. Since the incomes have improved across the nation, industrial meat production as well as consumption has largely been increasing.

Large-scale industrialized livestock production coupled with the global food system should bring an opportunity to make the meat less expensive. But, currently, most of the people do not show interest to consume manufactured meat during holidays due to the moral and ethical choices.

Despite, the shift from traditional diets to those manufactured meat and dairy consumption takes long time to adapt, it throws negative effect on the development of the industry. Moreover, it has also fundamental social effects ranging from personal health to food security of households, and communities. It is important to take the need for more locally sourced food products, and protect the community from unsafe nature of food consumption.

While livestock sector is considered as a source of food, income and wealth accumulation, it contributes 15 percent of GDP and about 18 percent of foreign earnings.

Evidently, Ethiopia is leading in livestock resources in Africa with a total population of 55 million heads of cattle, 2.5 million camels, 26 million sheep, 25 million goats, and 50 million poultry. In this case, about 94 million dollar revenue was obtained from meat exports with a volume of 19 million tonnes of meat during the previous fiscal years. In the year 2015, the meat exports showed a 29 and 24 percent increase in volume and revenue respectively. This increasing export revenue appears to drive the livestock sector towards the market-led industrial development. BY ZELALEM GIRMA.

ZAMBIA: GOVT PLEDGE EARLY DISTRIBUTION OF FARMING INPUTS.

GOVERNMENT will start distributing inputs for the 2017-2018 farming season under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) from June this year.

Speaking to Lusaka Times Ministry of Agriculture permanent secretary Julius Shawa said in an interview yesterday that Government has already started initial preparations for tendering and procurement process of the farming inputs.

Shawa said farmers are likely to start receiving farm inputs as early as June immediately after the procurement process is completed.

"We have been tasked to ensure that we distribute farm inputs to the farmers as early as June, so we have started the preparations," he said.

Shawa said the early distribution of farm inputs will greatly enhance productivity in the agriculture sector as farmers will be able to plant their seed immediately the rainy season starts.

He also said Government is putting in place modalities which will enable farmers using the electronic voucher system (e-voucher) to have their cards activated quickly.

Last year, many farmers faced challenges in accessing farm inputs from agro-dealers due to the delay in activating the e-voucher cards.

Shawa also appealed to farmers to start preparing for the 2017-2018 farming season by saving adequate funds for procurement of farm inputs.

He said with the crop marketing exercise kicking off next month, farmers should be able to sell their produce to the Food Reserve Agency and start planning for this year's farming season.

"Farmers should not only depend on Government for the supply of inputs, they should also start preparing for this year's farming season. They can do this by saving their earnings to buy inputs for the coming farming season," Shawa said. BY PETER ADAMU.

EAST AFRICA:REGION FIGHTS FALL ARMY WORM INVASION MAIZE, SUGARCANE FARMS UNDER ATTACK.

kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have allocated more than $7.85 million for the purchase of specialised chemicals to fight the fall army worm, which is now threatening to wipe out the maize and sugarcane crop.

The destructive pest has wreaked havoc in Southern Africa in the past four months.

On April 5, Kenya said some of its maize fields had been attacked by the army worm, a threat to the country's already thin grain reserves as it seeks to avert $117 million in crop losses.

The same day, Uganda allocated $6.85 million towards the purchase of the chemicals, to save its farmers from a loss of 450,000 tonnes of grain valued at $200 million.

Uganda's Agriculture Minister Christopher Kibazanga said they were developing short- and long-term plans to contain the army worm.

"As an emergency measure, we have already set aside $6.85 million for the purchase of appropriate pesticides known to have worked successfully elsewhere in the control of army worms. So far, we have confirmed damages to both the maize and sugarcane crops," Mr Kibazanga said.Two weeks ago, Uganda said the army worm had infested its maize fields, leaving this year's harvest in doubt and heightening concerns that Kenya would also be affected.

2 MILLION FACE HUNGER IN BORNO

Maiduguri — The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that about 60 percent, amounting to over two million o f the 3.6 million population of Borno State, face acute food shortage in 2017.

A nutrition specialist with the world body, Walton Beckley, issued the warning Wednesday at the commencement of a training for health workers in the three states of the Northeast on nutrition management aimed at saving 450,000 malnourished children in the IDP camps from dying of malnutrition in 2017.

Beckley announced that the training which would be taken to both Adamawa and Yobe states in due course, was aimed at curbing the rate of malnutrition sequel to the Boko Haram crisis in the Northeast.

"It is expected that 450,000 children under the age of five may suffer from severe malnutrition across the three Northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in 2017," Beckley said.UNICEF which raised an alarm that one in five children suffering from acute malnutrition was likely to die without proper treatment, said over the last 12 months, it had treated nearly 170,000 children in the three Boko Haram-ravaged states. BY UTHMAN ABUBAKAR.

BAMBOO PRODUCTION TO BOOST ECOSYSTEM.

The Federal Ministry of Environment has said as part of the diversification process, it will partner with the private sector and other organisations in the development and utilisation of bamboo for the growth of the nation's economy.

The Permanent Secretary, Dr Shehu Ahmed, said bamboo production and management had enhanced the economic growth of many nations and thus, would contribute immensely to Nigeria's ecosystem and help in creation of employment.

Dr Ahmed, represented by the acting Director of Forestry, Mr. Osakuade Tolu Michael, stated this in Abuja at a workshop with International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) on implementation of institutional agreement between Nigeria and INBAR.

He said the workshop was expected to develop a national roadmap that would lead to strong coordinated multi-sector action to guide ministries, the private sector, research institutes and civil society organisations in bamboo production and utilisation.

It would also address current gaps in local policy development, knowledge and skills required to develop industrial value chains, he added.

The acting director noted that Nigeria became a member of INBAR in 2004, adding that the National Council on Environment approved the constitution and inauguration of the Nigeria Bamboo and Rattan Development Programme (NBARDEP).

The permanent secretary, however, identified some of the constraints in the development of bamboo and rattan in the country as lack of government policy and legislation, coordination of local and national administrative levels as well as poor funding. BY CHIDIMMA C OKEKE.