THE INTERMINISTERIAL CONFERENCE IN VIENNA AUSTRIA: What is the Take Home for Africa?
PART TWO
By Prof. Dr. Halimu Shauri
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
The TRANSPORTABLE E-BEAM OR ELECTRONIC BEAM is advantageous for Africa because of limited resources.
This truck with the E-BEAM technology can move from one site to another or one country to another, raising possibilities that several countries can team up and get one.
Better still, the African Union [AU] can, for example, invest in some units that can be used in Africa.
The E-BEAM technology is useful for waste water treatment. This is a plus technology for large industries that release waste water into the environment.
In addition to cleaning the waste water into usable water resources, the E-BEAM ensures environmental conservation in the face of climate change.
This technology is key for Africa given that over 40% of our farm produce get wasted in our farms. It helps in postharvest losses, for example, prolonging shelf life of both agricultural and marine produce.
“The irony is, while Africa is food insecure, the same Africa wastes 40% of its produce to postharvest losses.”
Thus, IRRADIATION technology comes in handy to rescue Africa and bridge the food insecurity gap by saving 40% of already what we harvest and goes to waste.
Many fruits produced in Africa end up in Africa because of the fruit flies. While fruits fetch good prices in Europe, we can not export our sweet fruits because of such infestations.
IRRADIATION TECHNOLOGY can help African fruit farmers out of poverty by placing their fruits at the world market. IRRADIATION technology is also handy in insect pest control.
Many African farmers lose a lot of their produce to insects and pests.
The tsetsefly menace has successfully been dealt with using the STERILE INSECT TECHNIQUE [SIT] in Zanzibar and is being mitigated in other African countries using this nuclear technique.
Another very key lesson and best practice in the application of Nuclear Science and Technology is in SMART AGRICULTURE to improve food production.
The IAEA and FAO have teamed up in a project dubbed ATOMS4FOOD, essentially to scale up food production and fight food and nutritional insecurity.
Here, SMART AGRICULTURAL practices in soil and water management, crop and animal breeding, and insect and pest control are integrated for optimal productivity.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate IAEA for the commendable effort in looking for solutions to global challenges.
The onus is now on us to adopt or uptake these technologies and mitigate our challenges as Africa.
In the same vain, I want to thank AFRA AND IAEA for appointing me as the SOCIOECONOMIC PROJECT SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANT [PSC] FOR THE ATOMS4FOOD PROJECT TO ASSESS ITS IMPACT.
Prof. Dr. Halimu Shauri
Dean & Consultant Sociologist
PWANI UNIVERSITY, KENYA
