NOVEMBER 2018 GERMINATION.CA 67 NIGERIA PAUL ILONA, representing Nigeria’s HarvestPlus, an organi- zation that focuses on improving nutrition and public health through biofortification of food crops, believes that urbanization within the country has not been properly managed and that it’s affecting the dietary diversity of residents. According to Ilona, fruit trees have been overtaken by ornamental trees, affecting the country’s nutritional den- sity, hence the need for biofortification. “Urbanization is seriously affecting the dietary diversity of Nigerians, and there is need for more nutritious foods that will enhance our capacity,” Ilona said. “We have not done enough to add value to diversifying our foods; we have focused too much on urbanization.” Ilona believes the country is concentrating too much on producing carbohydrate-rich foods. “It is not about how much food you have to put into the system,” he said. “It’s the extent to which the food you have meets the desires of your body.” In 2015, the World Health Organization cited that every hour 100 children under the age of five and six women of childbearing age die in Nigeria. “This should be a concern to us. About 60 per cent of the reasons for their deaths have been attributed to malnutrition,” Ilona said. —Source: The Herald, News Agency of Nigeria PAKISTAN THE FOOD AND Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has entered into an agreement with Sargodha University to help enhance its institutional capacity of the seed sector to be in line with the amended 1976 Seed Act and Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2016. Sargodha University has become the first public sector university to have signed an agreement with the FAO. The two sides expressed their mutual interests in conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources, strengthen- ing agricultural research programs in the development of modern seed technology, climate-smart agriculture prac- tices, biofortified food crop varieties, and improved tech- nologies for minimizing post-harvest losses of food crops. According to the agreement, FAO and the univer- sity will initiate certain capacity development activities, including training programs for small-to-medium scale farmers, agribusinesses and entrepreneurs and develop- ment of a technology delivery mechanism and standard operating procedures between the university and the private sector. —Source: Dawn.com