For Nigeria to effectively tackle the challenges of hunger and malnutrition she would have to reorder her funding approach to agriculture. This is because the dearth of sustainable funding has been the obstacle to achieving food security and better nutrition for the people.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), Senator Abubakar Kyari said this in Abuja. He re-echoed it in a post on his X handle, formerly Twitter.
Kyari said that earlier at the inauguration of the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security. He told the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas who is also the patron of the panel, that “This event is a testament to our commitment to ensuring the health and well-being of our citizens through nutrition and food security”.
In his report on the social media handle, Senator Kyari said, “During the event, we discussed the critical challenges of malnutrition and food insecurity, highlighting factors such as the lack of a coherent policy framework, the absence of sustainable funding mechanisms, climate change, and insecurity.
“Hon. Speaker Abbas emphasised the importance of legislative support in tackling these issues and reinforced the commitment of the National Assembly to work collaboratively with all stakeholders.”
Perhaps encouraged by the position of the speaker, the minister reiterated that through a collective and robust framework, the country will address food security challenges and promote the health of all Nigerians. According to Kyari, “The future of our nation depends on our collective efforts to ensure that every citizen has access to nutritious food”.
That collective effort will be urgently needed to take the country out of the current crisis of food insecurity and malnutrition. It is also important that those at the helm of affairs apply speed in all efforts to address the challenges of the land, to prevent a situation where frustration will further drive people into crime and suicide. In 2023, Nigeria was included among the global “hunger hotspots” by the World Food Programme, a development linked to rising insecurity in agricultural regions and soaring costs of essential farming inputs.
The new government had said then that it was going all out to assist farmers to overcome their challenges, by giving agricultural inputs, providing technological support, and ensuring year-round farming was made possible. The majority were hopeful then that such steps would bring down the cost of food even as food items would be produced in larger numbers. That is yet to be made possible, as Nigeria remains under the groan of hunger and hood nutrition is becoming a luxury.