FOR Nigeria to achieve sustainable food security and poverty alleviation by 2030, attention needs to be paid to critical areas like promotion of developed research products, technologies among others.
A professor of food security at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Professor Subuola Bosede Fasoyiro, while delivering the 372nd inaugural lecture of the university titled: “The Hidden Treasures In Plants: Food Security, Healthy And Wealthy Life” which recently held on the premises of the university.
Fasoyiro noted that sustainable development agenda is about problem solving and closing the gaps on global issues. “When we look intently into areas of gaps in achieving sustainable food security and alleviating poverty in Nigeria by 2030, attention needs to be paid to increasing consumers’ awareness and education through dissemination, training and promotion of developed research and technologies.
“As food scientists, we are working hard in collaboration with other scientists in other agricultural fields and relevant stakeholders to bring about research breakthroughs or applicable solutions in terms of products and technologies to achieve food security.” Fasoyiro said.
She further posited that government and agricultural supporting bodies need to ensure development of policies towards a strong food value chain with farm-to-food processing centres; well-equpped and strategically located in both rural and urban areas in Nigeria, focusing on crops in which Nigeria has a comparative advantage such as maize and cassava.
These, Fasoyiro said, will minimise post-harvest losses, aid value addition, enhance productivity, maximise returns to both the farmers and processors, offer various job opportunities for young people especially in agripreneurship, reduce rural-urban migration and open up agro-allied business.
Fasoyiro, also advocated the need to have sustainable food safety and surveillance policy and programme to govern street-vended foods in Nigeria.
She said: “Street foods especially pose a lot of health hazards. Nigeria has no proper surveilance records and traceability of sources of health risks. It is also vital that the government puts in place such policy and programme for effective implementation strategy in the control of food hazards.”
While listing funding as one of the factors that can guarantee food security, Fasoyiro noted that:”There is also the need at this time for better funding of agencies to enable them to encourage youth empowerment for start-up in entrepreneurship in Nigeria to boost job creation, productivity and economic growth.
“This will also reduce the rate of emigration of youths from the country due to unemployment, as the future workforce. Today, many youths in Nigeria are saying schooling is scam. Real education develops the head, the heart and the hands and is a balance of principles with practices foundational to the healthy and wealthy.
“School curriculum should encourage more practical approaches with teaching. Rote learning does not help much, so teachers should act more as facilitators and guide by helping students in self discovery, navigating towards area of their strength, developing leadership and employability skills, exposing them to problem solving tasks, engaging both critical and creative thinking in teamwork and entrepreneurial skills. Students should have developed a sense of purpose and responsibility of how they want to contribute their quota to the society by the time they are graduating from the unviversity.”
Stressing on the use of technology as one of the tools for achieving sustainable food security, Fasoyiro stated that:”For instance, in the area of processing of underutilised legumes, we have a compilation of pigeon pea products and processing technologies we have extensively worked at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan.
“However, there is insufficient funding as a limiting factor to disseminating these technologies to reach more populace in the rural and urban areas in Nigeria where they are needed in addressing protein-energy malnutrition for healthy living and income generation.
“I therefore, call on government and other funding agencies for funds support to disseminate and promote the utilisation of underutilised legumes growing in Nigeria and Africa. This is very important to bridge the gown and the town for the expected outcome of food security.”
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