Over 50% of Nigerians cannot afford food that contain the required nutrients for healthy consumption which has resulted to increased hunger and malnutrition in the country.
This was revealed by the permanent secretary, federal ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Ernest Umakhihe at the commemoration of the 2022 World Food Day celebration in Abuja.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “Leave No one Behind”.
Dr Umakhihe who was represented by a Director in the Ministry, Engr. Abubakar Jubril said the food system in Nigeria presently provides food that are expensive, and sometimes unsafe and unhealthy.
According to him, the rising hunger is affecting nutrition, education, and wellbeing, especially for women children.
He said “Nearly 38% of children less than 5 years old in Nigeria are malnourished in one form or the other as reported in the National Demographic and Health Information Survey (NDHIS 2018).
“As we are quite aware, the UN Food Systems Summit, held during the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2021 set the stage for global food systems transformation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
“The summit served as a historic opportunity to empower all people to leverage the power of food systems to drive nations’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and get them back on track to achieve all 17 sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
“The summit, recognized that everyone, everywhere must take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food.
“The food systems dialogues, were based on five action tracks which align with the current developmental priorities of Nigeria, and therefore, immensely contributory to improved food systems in the country.
“The five action tracks include: ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all; Shift to sustainable consumption pattern; Boost nature-positive production; Advance equitable livelihoods; and Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress”.
The permanent secretary further assured of the Ministry’s commitment for the continuous promotion of nutrition sensitive agriculture to address malnutrition in all its ramifications.
He said action plans are in place to ensure access to safe and nutritious food; boosting nature positive production and building resilience to vulnerabilities.
Also, the Technical Advicer, USAID Advancing Nutrition, Mr Michael Daniel, reaffirmed the Agency’s commitment to technically support the Nigerian government to finding lasting solutions to nutrition issues in the country.
He said the USAID Advancing Nutrition project also seek to strengthening wasting prevention amd management through specific and food syst approach.
Daniel said “At the USAID Advancing Nutrition, we work for now in 3 states, Kebbi, Sokoto and Bauchi and we are hoping to expand to the FCT and Ebonyi State.
“We are looking at our objectives of first, coordinating activities of USAID Investments to ensure that our results are put together to ensure that the results are properly put together to improve our Nutrition outcomes.
“So for us, under the food system approach we are collaborating with several agencies which include the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and other USAID funded projects both private sectors like Havest Field and other agencies to deliver on this mandate”.
The 2022 World Food Day is aimed at promoting worldwide awareness and actions for people who suffer from hunger and ensuring healthy diets for all.
