This new online service introduced by ICID is developed to help various stakeholders in locating required business information through a few clicks. The online directory enlists all the services and products being provided by consultants, manufacturing companies, dealers, and other professional institutions dealing in irrigation, drainage and flood management. This online service is totally FREE and can be availed of by any service provider by submitting the required information on ICID website <http://www.icid.org/ypaddform2.php>. To view this new service, please visit http://www.icid.org/ypsearch.php

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

2nd World Irrigation Forum on the theme: Water management in a changing world: Role of irrigation for sustainable food production, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 6-8 November 2016.

www.worldirrigationforum.net

International RiverFoundation hosting International Riversymposium on the theme 'Great rivers of the world: Management for shared benefits', New Delhi, India, 12-14 September 2016.
http://riversymposium.com/

National Water Research Center (Egypt) International Conference on “Research and Technology Development for Sustainable Water Resources Management”  on the theme “Geo-Measurement, Field Investigation, and Monitoring” Special Sessions, Workshops and Exhibition, Cairo, Egypt, 4-6 December 2016.
E-mail: eng.mirmokhtar@gmail.com, website: www.redwarm2016-eg.org

13th International Drainage Workshop (IDW), Ahwaz City, Iran, 4-7 March 2017, Theme: Drainage and Environmental Sustainability. 
E-mail:13idw2017@gmail.com, website:http://idw13.org

68th IEC and 23rd ICID Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, 8-14 October 2017, on the theme: Modernizing Irrigation and Drainage for a new Green Revolution, Mexico City, Mexico, 8-14 October 2017.
Website: http://www.icid2017.org/ E-mail: cnm@mxcid.org, brobles@tlaloc.imta.mx, luis.rendon@cna.gob.mx, luis.rendon@conagua.gob.mx

IFAD commits $25M to agriculture
Daily Observer, 9 August 2016
The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, has disclosed that his entity is committing additional funding of US$25 million to Liberia’s agricultural sector over the next few years. Dr. Nwanze’s disclosure was made after he met with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and senior government officials at the Foreign Ministry on 8th August, in Monrovia. Addressing a joint press conference alongside Agriculture Minister Dr. Moses Zinnah, the IFAD President pledged his unwavering support to Liberia’s agriculture sector in order to empower rural and small-holder farmers. Dr. Nwanze further said IFAD, which is a specialized United Nations organ, is in the country to ensure that the agricultural sector of the country is supported through its operations.
http://www.liberianobserver.com/news/ifad-commits-25m-agriculture

Smart farming: The future of agriculture in the connected world
Business Standard, 8 August 2016
Internet of Things (IoT) is already a mainstream phenomenon, being driven by the promise of revenue growth across multiple sectors such as manufacturing, transportation, resource extraction, agriculture, and the military. The agriculture industry, in particular, primarily depends on engineering, technology as well as the biological and physical sciences. In this digital era, the agriculture industry has been an enthusiastic adopter of IoT and the applications of IoT in this sector is proliferating at a lightning speed with big farmhouses having to rethink their methods to find the efficiencies and cost savings necessary to compete.
http://www.business-standard.com/content/b2b-chemicals/smart-farming-the-future-of-agriculture-in-the-connected-world-116080800782_1.html

Agriculture holds key to Africa’s economy
TVC News, 8 August 2016
Experts from World Bank Group have said that the future of Africa to provide food for its teeming population lies in deliberate huge investment in agriculture. Holger Kray, Africa Agriculture Policy Unit of the World Bank Group, disclosed this recently at a three-day workshop on reporting agriculture hosted by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in conjunction with the World Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Kray noted that African with wide arable land can be utilised maximally to provide food for the people of the continent, adding that agriculture holds a future for the people if all the available potentials are harnessed. According to him, over two billion people are hungry in the world and Africa is located at a strategic place to provide food in excess in order to feed its citizen and export to other parts of the world so as to boost their economy.
http://africa.tvcnews.tv/2016/08/07/agriculture-holds-key-africas-economy/#.V6lnR1R97IU

Cuba and Panama sign climate change agreement
Granma, 8 August 2016
Cuba’s Meteorology Institute (Insmet) and the Electricity Transmission Company S.A. signed a scientific and technical cooperation agreement related to climate change. The documents were signed by Insmet President Celso Pasos and Edilberto Bolívar Esquivel, Panamanian director of hydrometeorology, who noted that the agreement seeks to promote research into climate change and weather forecasting in order to develop new applications for health, energy and food and nutritional security. Given Cuba’s great scientific potential, Esquivel noted that his country is interested in learning and increasing the capacities of both nations in economically viable activities.
http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-08-08/cuba-and-panama-sign-climate-change-agreement

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Zimbabwe: Curbing hunger through mobile technology
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 8 August 2016
It has been six seasons since Patricia Nhauro’s family has harvested a viable crop. It has been even longer since her family has eaten three meals a day. “Probably not since before Mugabe was born,” Patricia says with a laugh, referring to Robert Mugabe, the 92-year-old President of Zimbabwe. Sitting on the concrete stoop of a homestead she shares with her mother and seven children, Patricia says the family survived by selling off all their livestock, what non-governmental organizations refer to as ‘negative coping mechanisms’. But this year, with her home in Mudzi district in the grips of one of the worst droughts on record, they are struggling. “The situation is getting out of hand,” laments Patricia.
http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/news-stories/africa/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-curbing-hunger-through-mobile-technology-72409/

Madagascar: Climate-smart agriculture for drought-stricken country
Amboasary, 4 August 2016
Mirantsoa Faniry Rakotomalala is different from most farmers in the Greater South of Madagascar, who are devastated after losing an estimated 80 percent of their crops during the recent May/June harvesting season to the ongoing drought here, said to be the most severe in 35 years. She lives in Tsarampioke village in Berenty, Amboasary district in the Anosy region, which is one of the three most affected regions, the other two being Androy and Atsimo Andrefana. FAO estimates that a quarter of the population - five million people - live in high risk disaster areas exposed to natural hazards and shocks such as droughts, floods and locust invasion.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201608050220.html

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India: Assam flood situation improves
The Times of India, 7 August 2016
Though the flood situation in Assam showed considerable improvement on Sunday, over 36,000 people in 54 villages of four districts of the state continued to be affected, Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said. Till Saturday, nearly 70,000 people were affected by the flood across 84 villages in eight districts. The death toll in the current wave of flood stands at 34 across the state. As of now, the affected districts are Jorhat, Morigaon, Kokrajhar and Goalpara. Among them, Jorhat is the worst affected with over 25,000 people still suffering, followed by Goalpara with nearly 6,500 and Kokrajhar with nearly 3,000 people hit by the flood at this moment, ASDMA said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Assam-flood-situation-improves/articleshow/53586715.cms

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Germany contributes 1m euro to WFP for food security in Pakistan
The News International, 11 August 2016
The government of Germany has confirmed a contribution of Euro 1 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for resilience and food security in Pakistan. WFP is complementing the government of Pakistan's reconstruction and development efforts and the Fata Sustainable Return and Rehabilitation Strategy (SRRS) by addressing food security issues of temporarily displaced people (TDPs) and returnee populations. WFP relief food assistance has been designed with the prime objective to save lives and avert hunger through the conduct of unconditional relief food distributions to the affected families, who have left their homes or are returning after protracted periods of displacement, and have limited or no means to meet their basic food needs.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/141607-Germany-contributes-1m-euro-to-WFP-for-food-security-in-Pakistan

FAO, WFP hail global food security act
Isaaa, 10 August 2016
The leaders of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN World Food Programme (WFP) have applauded U.S. President Barack Obama for signing the Global Food Security Act (GFSA). The GFSA supports initiatives that focus on developing agriculture, assisting small-scale food producers, and improving nutrition. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said, "The United States is helping to put and even stronger emphasis on how food security and economic development are intertwined, while stressing the central role of small-scale family farmers in the fight against hunger and poverty." "This law will have a dramatic impact on the lives of people throughout world, showing once again why the United States is a leader in promoting food security and helping those who struggle to feed their families so they can start to build their own future," says WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin.
http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=14663

FAO seeks urgent funding to ensure Nigerian food security
New Food, 9 August 2016
Urgent action is needed to provide farming and livelihood support to 385,000 people in parts of Nigeria’s northeast where lack of food security is rampant, FAO said. The resumption of agricultural activities in these areas is of utmost priority to ensure that people can produce enough food for themselves. This includes those who have been internally displaced by the conflict as well as communities who have been hosting them. These populations need urgent assistance to recover their livelihoods, which are mostly based on crop farming, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture and livestock production. For the last three to four years this has not been possible due to the conflict,” said Bukar Tijani, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa.
http://www.newfoodmagazine.com/26181/news/industry-news/fao-foodsecurity-support-farming-nigeria/

FAO boosts Gambia’s food security efforts
The Point, 8 August 2016
The Gambia government and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 2 August 2016 restated their resolve to working together to address the menace of whitefly in the country. The pledge was made at the signing ceremony of a project of twenty million four hundred thousand dalasis (equivalent to US$459,000) designed to effectively control the devastation of fruit trees, vegetables and ornamental plants by the whitefly in The Gambia. Hon. Sherriffo Bojang, deputy Minister of Agriculture and Dr Perpetua Katepa-Kalala, FAO Representative in The Gambia signed on behalf of the government and FAO respectively, at a brief ceremony held at the conference room of the Ministry of Agriculture in Banjul.
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/fao-boosts-gambias-food-security-efforts

UNICEF warns of ‘catastrophic’ food insecurity in South Sudan
JUBA, 7 August 2016
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it had started responding to the growing food security emergency causing malnutrition in children in both rural and urban areas of, a month after violence broke out in South Sudan. “The situation in South Sudan is catastrophic, and even more so for children,” UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac said in a statement on 5th August. This year, UNICEF has reportedly treated 120,000 children under age five for severe malnutrition, a figure higher than what the agency had in the same period last year. “Initially, UNICEF had been planning to provide support to 166,000 children in 2016, but that figure has been revised to more than 250, 000,” the official said. Last month, clashes between South Sudan’s rival forces in the capital, Juba displaced over 40,000 civilians, the world body said.
http://sudantribune.com/spip.php?article59849

Tanzania: Govt plans irrigation scheme for every district
Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 8 August 2016
Plans are underway to set up irrigation schemes in every district countrywide to boost irrigation farming and avoid hunger, the Deputy Minister for Water and Irrigation Isack Kamwelwe said. The deputy minister was speaking after visiting several pavilions at Nanenane grounds at Ngongo grounds in Lindi municipality. He said the country has 29 million hectares, which are suitable for irrigation farming but only 460,000, which is equivalent to 1.6 per cent is being used for irrigation farming. "We are not doing well on irrigation farming, the government is setting plans to boost the sector and soon each district will get its own scheme to boost the practice," he said. According to Mr Kamwele, irrigation farming in the country accounts for at least 20 per cent of food production, annually.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201608080915.html

Australia helping Pakistan in water resource management
Daily Times, 9 August 2016
Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margaret Adamson said that the Australian government will continue its assistance to Pakistan for the next four years to strengthen water, food and energy security. Australia will invest A$11 million in Phase II of the Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio (SDIP) which would focus on improving energy and water management in the Indus Basin. Phase II would build on Phase I - a A$4 million investment which helped strengthen the capacity of Pakistan officials to take an integrated approach to water resource management.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/business/09-Aug-16/australia-helping-pakistan-in-water-resource-management

India: Telangana signs MoU with ISRO for water resources info system
Press Trust of India, 6 August 2016
Telangana Irrigation Department on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting up a Telangana Water Resources Information System (TWRIS) on the 'Bhuvan' web portal. The MoU with the Hyderabad-headquartered National Remote Sensing Centre of ISRO was inked in the presence of Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar. The objective is to capture every field-level irrigation network including dams/barrages, anicuts, main and field channels, etc. and mark every irrigation structure on satellite visualisation tool Bhuvan (similar to Google Earth).Command area of each main canal, minor and field channel (pipe) with survey numbers, among others, would be captured on Bhuvan, officials said.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/telangana-signs-mou-with-isro-for-water-resources-info-system-116080600873_1.html

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IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE - The Journal of the ICID
Articles available via complimentary online access at: http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ird