Global workshop closes with commitment to enabling environment for new research on fish for nourishment

(December 15, 2017) Participants at the Global Workshop on Nutrition-sensitive Fish Agri-food Systems which closed 8 December in Siem Reap, Cambodia agreed that while evidence is mounting that fish is a solid investment choice, in particular for reducing global undernutrition, more needs to be done to build the case.

The workshop also saw an announcement that WorldFish has become an official member of the Scaling UP Nutrition (SUN) movement. SUN is a global push for action to improve nutrition of all —especially women and children.

Incoming WorldFish Director General, Gareth Johnstone: “It’s clear that a more compelling case to better understand how fish production and consumption can impact the lives of the poor needs to be made. At WorldFish, I commit to creating an enabling environment for better research and better research collaborations that will make a clearer link between fish agri-food systems and development outcomes including livelihoods and food and nutrition security.”

Shakuntala Thilsted, Research Program Leader, Value Chains and Nutrition: “Global reports on agriculture are produced that too often make marginal reference to fish and its contribution to livelihoods and food and nutrition security. Membership of SUN will allow us to gain more visibility for fish as a critical means to address nutrition and health. At this workshop, I was particularly pleased to see strong statements of support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IFAD, JICA, USAID and the World Bank among others, in particular recognizing the importance of fish and the need to make nutrition-sensitive investments.”

The Global Workshop on Nutrition-sensitive Fish Agri-food Systems, was convened by WorldFish with support from IFAD, the European Union and the Royal Government of Cambodia and was held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 5-8 December 2017. The event was opened by H.E. Dr. Yim Chhay Ly, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Royal Government of Cambodia

Robert Bertram, Chief Scientist for USAID's Bureau for Food Security, emphasized the importance of fish for poorer households during the closing session: "People recognize that fish is an especially nutritious food -- this is widely understood. What is less well known is how critical fish is to the diets of the poor in many countries where we work. Using fish more comprehensively can help achieve food security that is sustainable and highly effective in advancing our nutrition goals."

The event saw 150 participants from 20 countries discussing a need to shift from fish production approaches to fish agri-food systems that are more geared to nutrition-sensitive outcomes.

Participants at the workshop, including representatives of governments, UN organizations, NGOs and research institutes reflected that fish agri-food systems were not as well researched as other areas of agriculture making informed decisions on how to invest difficult.

Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world has committed to ending all forms of malnutrition. Reorienting food systems across all actors and levels, towards improving nutrition outcomes (nutrition-sensitive food systems) is central to achieving this goal, as was recognized in the second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) Framework for Action and further strengthened by the declaration of the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025. The CGIAR has also committed to improvements in food and nutrition security with specific targets for increasing dietary diversity of women and reducing micronutrient deficiencies up to 2030. Fish is uniquely placed to contribute to this goal, yet has received inadequate attention in debates on nutrition-sensitive food systems. 

Owl-inspired wisdom solves mystery

A conservation superhero has turned crime fighter, as the special owls he saves have led the way to a nest of stolen vehicles.

Early on Tuesday morning, 5 December, the manager of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) Birds of Prey Programme, Dr Gareth Tate saw that, as usual, his Ford Ranger stood safely in the driveway. Moments later, when he looked again, there was only empty space where his Ranger once stood. A trusted companion in the field for many years, the vehicle had been sponsored by the Ford Wildlife Foundation, and Gareth’s work would be crippled without it. He immediately called the police and the vehicle tracking company, Netstar, and notified the security company that guards the street.

CCTV footage showed a car pulling up next to the EWT vehicle, and less than ten minutes later the Ranger was driven off. To follow the strong signal from the two tracking devices in the vehicle, a team was sent to intercept the stolen car, but the devices were soon found discarded from the vehicle. It was now officially off the grid.

Or was it? As it happened, there was a solar powered GPS/GSM tracking device in the vehicle, which was intended to be attached to a threatened African Grass-owl as part of an EWT research project on the movement ecology of the species on the highveld coal belt. The team had planned to head out the evening before to deploy it on one of these mysterious birds, but this trip had been cancelled due to heavy rain.

The owl tracking device uses cellular networks to download and send GPS locations or fixes at set intervals. Gareth immediately uploaded new settings to the device that was due to come online at 14:00 that afternoon. The new settings would make the device come online and send a location every 10 minutes, as opposed to only every 20 hours.

At 14:00, Gareth logged in to see if the device had powered up, but to his disappointment, it had not come back online and it was feared that this tracking device too had been destroyed.

After checking on the device on an hourly basis for the next few days with no success, it seemed as if all hope was lost. However, a final attempt to check up on the logger on Sunday 10 December proved successful, as it was not only online but was giving strong GPS fixes. The police were contacted, as was Netstar, and both mobilised their teams. Gareth also contacted Mark Notelvitz, the director of CORTAC tactical security services in Johannesburg, whom he also informed about the owl tracking unit coming online and Mark immediately got his teams into the area, despite the EWT not being their client.

With the help of SAPS, CORTAC and Netstar searched a number of premises in close proximity to the last GPS location, but were unable to locate either the vehicle or tracker. On Monday morning (11 December 2017), Gareth again logged in and noticed the tracker had come online again. Due to poor cellular reception and waning battery life, there was some error in the accuracy of each GPS fix, which usually varies from 0-100m, making the exact location of the device difficult to distinguish. But after conducting in-depth analysis on the data, based on similar work done when trying to locate vulture nests from GPS-tagged individuals, Gareth was able to determine a more accurate location of the stolen device. He again contacted the SAPS, Netstar, and CORTAC with the updated address and coordinates for the device. This led to the discovery of the stolen EWT Ford Ranger along with two other stolen vehicles. A number of individuals were also apprehended and a large amount of criminal activity was uncovered in the premises. The EWT’s little owl tracker not only saves owls’ lives but was instrumental in bringing down a criminal syndicate and recovering stolen vehicles.

This remarkable story demonstrates how teamwork, relentless perseverance and conservation in action not only saves wildlife but saves the day!

Special thanks must go to all those involved, including SAPS, CORTAC, Netstar, and Ford Wildlife Foundation, for helping to return this vehicle to the EWT, keeping our birds of prey in the sky and our Ranger on the road! - Endangered Wildlife Fund press release.

Read about the EWT and owls in the "Birds and farming" chapter. 

Good news to South Africa from Agriculture

For the second quarter in a row, agriculture posts growth that does wonders for the South African economy, contributing significantly to a 2% growth.

Find the Farmer's Weekly article "Second consecutive quarter of agricultural growth for SA" here.

View our website which gives overviews of every link that contributes to this success at www.agribook.co.za.