Oyo steps up action to curb wasting, ensure food security at grassroots

Oyo State government, in a move to stem wasting and ensure food security, has inaugurated a Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition, with a charge to them to work on improving food security and nutrition in the community.

Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, inaugurating the committee at the Emergency Operation Centre of the Ministry, said the committee is expected to also promote sustainable development and ensure the wellbeing of the community, particularly in nutrition.

“This is to take the message to the grassroots. We already have 27 local government committees on food and nutrition, so these are the last six local government areas that we need to bring on board. These are Ibadan North, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North West, Ibadan South East, Ibadan South West and Ido local government areas.

“It is very important because nutrition plays a vital role in our economy. If you are not taking the right proportion and the right diet, it will show in terms of our children coming down with the triple burden of malnutrition – underweight, stunting and wasting.

“Now in the state, we are battling with wasting. This can be easily corrected, so we need to carry the people along in the local government. They can look through the work plan and see what they can do in their own domain.

“Our hope is to bring to the barest minimum wasting in the state, which currently is about 14.4%, so we won’t end up having children with chronic malnutrition. Malnutrition affects the cognition of children. We want all nutrition-related indices that are flagged red to be brought down to the barest minimum.”

Chairman of the State Committee on Food and Nutrition and Permanent Secretary of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Tunde Ayanleke, said the Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition was important for the state to meet its 5-year targets on nutrition-related indexes.

The Executive Secretary of the State of Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Muideen Olatunji, said that the workplan developed by these committees, when implemented, will improve the nutritional status of women and children in the local government areas.

“The bottom line is to ensure that all our activities get to the last person as much as possible without mitigating or, sorry, without mutilating or discomforting the message. When you have a structured body, we can easily address some of the challenges of malnutrition immediately,” he added.

Dr Khadija Alarape, the director of nutrition at the Oyo State Primary Health Care Board and the project coordinator for the just-concluded ANRiN project, said challenges identified in nutrition in the state included poor attention to nutrition, poor funding for nutrition interventions and weak multisectoral coordination.

Alarape said the inauguration of the committee is in line with the mandate from the Nigerian Governors Forum, the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning and the World Bank that every state should have the State Committee on Food and Nutrition and the Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition.

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