WEST AFRICA: Rice versus vegetables

Photo: Lilian Liang/PlusNews Finding their place in fields, markets and meal times (file photo)

DAKAR, 1 April 2010 (IRIN) - Rice may still be a symbol of food security across Africa, but the cereal does little to boost nutrition, unlike vegetables, according to the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).



Vegetables should have their place in the fields and at the table alongside cereals commonly grown in arid countries, vegetable breeding expert Sanjeet Kumar with ICRISAT and the Taiwan-based AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center (formerly known as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center) told IRIN.



"While rice and other cereals can cut hunger, vegetables bolster nutritional security and take up less land to grow."



"Rice is a poor source of essential vitamins and minerals, either because these compounds are not present in rice, especially when it is polished [white], or they cannot be absorbed by humans," UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) nutrition specialist Roland Kupka told IRIN. "Diets that are primarily based on polished rice may thus lead to deficiencies in iron, zinc, vitamin A, and thiamine [B1] deficiency,

GAMBIA: Urban centres under strain as farmers flee

Photo: Wikimedia/IRIN Rural-urban migration is squeezing Banjul's basic services, say residents (file photo)

BANJUL, 23 April 2010 (IRIN) - Cash-strapped farmers in Gambia are flocking to towns and cities because of erratic rains in 2009 and the fact that a recently reformed system of extending loans to farmers  is still not working, say NGOs and farmers.



Farmers told IRIN they were encouraging their children to head to cities to find jobs as their prospects of surviving through agriculture were nil.



"The situation is so bad for me that I have to send one of my sons to Banjul to fend for the family," said Omar Njie, a 61-year-old farmer in the village of Mbollet in the Upper Numi District of North Bank Division in northern Gambia. "After suffering for five seasons in a row, one of us has to look for another way of sustaining the family," he said. "I am growing older every day and my strength is waning."



Heavy rains washed away

AFRICA: Early arrival of meningitis "alarming"

Photo: Claire Barrault/ECHO ECHO/MSF 2009 meningitis campaign; 2010 outbreak weeks earlier (file photo)

DAKAR, 22 February 2010 (IRIN) - A meningitis epidemic has struck earlier than usual and is spreading across sub-Saharan Africa's "meningitis belt" from Senegal to Ethiopia, according to health ministries in the region. The disease occurs during the dry season, with most cases reported in mid-April.



As of 7 February, health ministries in high-risk countries reported 2,298 cases, with a 13-percent fatality rate. Burkina Faso has reported the highest number of cases, but Togo has experienced the highest fatality rate, where 25 of 108 infected

AFRICA: Rotavirus data must propel immunization - experts

Photo: Lourenço Silva/PlusNews More than half-million children die from rotavirus infection annually (file photo)

DAKAR, 27 January 2010 (IRIN) - Health experts hope the release of data showing the success of rotavirus vaccine will help compel policymakers to ensure all children will be immunized.



Rotavirus – the top cause of severe and often fatal diarrhoea and dehydration in children – kills some 527,000 children a year globally, nearly half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.



"It is our hope that these data will catalyze action so that one day we can live

In Brief: Deforestation gets a mixed report

Photo: CAR's Ministry Water & Forestery Resources Forests are among the world's main carbon sinks

JOHANNESBURG, 26 March 2010 (IRIN) - One of the most comprehensive forest reviews conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization shows that the rate of forest loss had dropped by three million hectares every year between 2000 and 2010.



Around 13 million hectares of forests were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes each year between 2000 and 2010; during the 1990s around 16 million hectares were lost annually.



The world's forests cover

In Brief: Get free life-saving information on child health

Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN Health for mother and child

JOHANNESBURG, 8 April 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched the fourth edition of "Facts for Life", a handbook filled with information that could save the lives of some nine million children across the globe who die from preventable and treatable illnesses every year before they reach the age of five.



"Through simple messages, Facts for Life aims to bring vital knowledge to parents and caregivers, who are the first line of defence in protecting children from illness and harm," Ann Veneman, Executive Director of the UN

AFRICA: Donors spend more for health, governments less

Photo: Gnerk/Flickr Whose money is behind health care spending?

DAKAR, 8 April 2010 (IRIN) - In Africa government spending on health care, as a percentage of national expenses, rose just 0.3 percent from 2001 to 2007, while donor funding of the sector during the same period increased from 15.3 to 20.1 percent, according to a review of 52 African countries' health spending by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.



In the 1990s donors spent US$7.5 billion on health care worldwide, $21.8 billion in 2007.



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