Senator Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, says the Federal Government is investing in dry season farming to address the nutrition and food crisis in the country.
Kyari said this during the inauguration of a workshop for stakeholders on policies for food and nutrition security, on Thursday in Abuja.
The workshop is being organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in collaboration with the Joint Research Centre (JRC), an agency of the European Commission.
Represented by Nuhu Kilishi, the Director of Nutrition and Food Safety, Kyari called for stakeholders’ partnership to address food insecurity in the country.
He said that within the available budget, the ministry was investing more in dry-season farming by providing access to irrigation facilities, and improved seeds and agrochemicals for farmers.
He said that the 11 Global Food Security Index published last year showed a Nigerian ranked 107 out of the 113 countries globally.
According to him, this suggests that about 12.9 per cent of the globally poor people are found in Nigeria as of 2022 to date.
The minister said the high level of poverty made it difficult for people to access nutritious and healthy food, and for them to perform both economically and socially.
Kyri, who blamed the situation on insecurity, climate change, and the herder/farmer crisis, said that measures were being put in place to address it.
“No fewer than 35 million Nigerians under 85 million are severely malnourished, 12 million stunted, three million wasted, 23.5 million anaemic, then 7.7 million almost going hungry on daily basis.
“This is not good for us, and therefore we have to tighten up our belt to make sure that we can get out of this.
“It is making us have a lot of issues, and it is important for us to, therefore, gather together and put our heads together to solve this,” he said.
The Director-General of the NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman said that government spending in the food and nutrition sector had increased over the years, adding that the ‘nutrition capture’ in the budgets remained a concern.
He said that with less than seven years to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set date, it was clear that Nigeria needed to do more to address its food and nutrition challenges.
Sulaiman said that there was a need to close the funding gap required to enable the country to return to a steady trajectory for food and nutrition security.
“This workshop, therefore, offers an opportunity for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and NILDS to share findings and experience with stakeholders on how best to tackle food and nutrition insecurity in Nigeria.
“I believe this will also include ways on how to curtail the external shocks that worsen Nigeria’s food and nutrition security, such as the Russia-Ukraine crisis and other concerns from the global economy,” he said.
In her remarks, Ms Lara Cockx, a scientific officer in JRC, said that the mission of the commission was to support evidence-based policy-making, not only in Europe but also in Africa.
She said the centre was keen to have a fruitful collaboration with NILDS, saying that the nutrition workshop was the second project implemented by the centre and NILDS.
“It is to look at these very important issues for Nigeria, and we will look forward to a very fruitful workshop and hear all your inputs to address these important issues and do research that is useful for the policymakers and the different stakeholders,” she said.