Don, APRNet raise alarm over threat to food security

Tasks FG On Proper Policy Implementation To Tackle Food Shortage

A professor of Home Economics and Nutrition Education, Prof. Lilian Imuetinyan Salami has warned of food insecurity as there are many forces threatening food production and distribution in the country. He said while nutrition controversies thrive, food accessibility continues to be a challenge, noting that nutrition is a major contributor to health prospects and choices.

Delivering the 206th inaugural lecture of the University of Benin, yesterday, in Benin, themed: “If The Scientists Don’t know, How Can I? Is it a case of too much Information?” Salami explained that food security and healthy living is the ability of every citizen to have regular access to enough food to meet his or her nutritional requirements for a healthy, active and reproductive life.

He said: “Only two common lifestyle habits are more influential than food, and these are smoking and excessive use of alcohol coupled with genetic constitution, with the latter most time a common denominator. It is likely that the general belief would be that we could just eat the way of our forefathers. But our forefathers roamed and ate unprocessed foods. Today, we are more sedentary and depend more on technologically processed food.”

Similarly, the President of Agricultural Policy Research Network (APRNet), Anthony Onoja said without appropriate policy implementation, the worsening problem of food shortage and hunger in the country might not end soon.

Disclosing this at its ninth Agricultural policy research seminar held yesterday in Abuja, Onoja noted that such issues as climate change, poor finance of agriculture research and herdsmen violent clashes with farmers in different parts of the country may “exacerbate the already lingering food deficit problem, if not addressed now, especially using a multi-stakeholder approach.”

Also, the Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Tony Ojoro, advised Nigerian farmers to leverage on available technology to market their farm produce. This, he said, would help to ensure that farmers are not left out in information Communication Technology revolution.