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The Nigerian government and the United Nations have called on stakeholders in the food value chain to address the challenges of food system in a more holistic way, to sustain food chain in the country.
The call was made at Pre- Food System Stock-taking moments media engagement in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital.
The Permanent Secretary, Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr. Nebeolisa Anako, who described food system as the most complicated stomach infrastructure with issues, stressed on the need for adequate food and Nutrition as they are central to achieving Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.
“Food system entail complex networks that include input and output of food production processes and consumption. Food system is not limited to agriculture alone, but also about the food value chain. This is because the food produced through farming needed to pass through some stages before it goes to the stomach.
The food system problem has been on transportation of food from the farm looking for seedlings to plant, to the time we plant. Down to the table to managing the waste; our effort is to reduce hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition .
When you lack food you cannot leave nutrition aside of food, it is about eating healthy food that will give human capita and healthy population. We want to drastically reduce food importation and promote sustainable food trade as a country and we are getting there, this is a project that concerns all of us”.
Top priority
Permanent-Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe said ensuring food security should be a top priority of all stakeholders in Africa.
Mr. Umakhihe was represented by the Director in charge of Nutrition and Food Safety at the Ministry, Mrs. Sugrah Mahmood while speaking on the topic “Ensuring sustainable food system in Nigeria, challenges and prospects.
“As we are all aware, our country is facing severe crisis in line with the recent declaration on state of emergency on food security and water by President Bola Tinubu.”
The declaration demands our utmost intention and collective efforts to address the perceived challenges, and explore the prospects of sustainable food security in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is blessed with vast agricultural resources, yet we grapple with persistent food insecurity, malnutrition and hunger. The challenges we face are multifaceted, but by identifying and addressing these issues we can pave the way for a most sustainable food future,” she said.
Ensure food security
Also speaking, the Director of United Nations Information Center, Ronald Kayanja, while commending Nigeria’s effort to ensure food security, also enjoined Nigerian to scale up their participation anywhere possible, to the operation feed yourself as Nigeria is really important country in the world and Africa.
”It is the biggest country in the continent, in terms of population; it is in everybody’s interest to have a well-functioning Nigeria and agriculture is the core of the economy.”
The president’s declaration of emergency on food security alerts all Nigeria on the need to mobilise to achieve the desired goal.
“The progress and success in Nigeria is immeasurable on what can be done, but there are challenges that must be tackled, irrespective of the land size,”Kayanja said.
To improve food systems
The fear of the world not achieving the sustainable development goal of zero hunger if urgent steps are not taken necessitated the united nations’ call on all countries to come up with modalities to improve food systems.
To this end, Nigerian are encouraged to rise up to the New Project Operation Feed Yourself, by joining Farm Estates, Farming Clusters and backyard farming.
The event was organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC).