The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has called on the Federal Government to protect farmers’ rights, promote indigenous seeds and adopt agroecology to address hunger, malnutrition and climate change.

According to organisation, the protection of indigenous seeds and support for local food systems were essential to achieving food sovereignty, preserving biodiversity and strengthening the country’s food security.

HOMEF made the call in a statement to mark the 2026 World Food Day, with the theme, “Innovate Today, Nourish Tomorrow.”

The organisation said millions of people, particularly in Africa, continued to face hunger and malnutrition despite the continent’s abundant natural and human resources.

It attributed the challenges to climate change, economic instability, conflicts and food systems that prioritise industrial agriculture over smallholder farmers and local food production.

Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, said the occasion should prompt a reassessment of agricultural practices that prioritise monoculture and cash crops at the expense of biodiversity and soil health.

“World Food Day should be a day of reflection. It must also be a day of structural reckoning. We are currently trapped in a food system defined by monoculture and cash cropping, where diversity is sacrificed for industrial uniformity,” he said.

Bassey said the approach had weakened food supply chains, depleted soil fertility and reduced farmers’ control over agricultural production.

He called on Nigerians to pay greater attention to the food they consume, stressing that indigenous seeds offered important genetic diversity for developing crops that could withstand drought, resist pests and provide essential nutrients.

According to him, the country must move beyond the pursuit of increased agricultural yields at all costs and support agroecology, which promotes sustainable farming practices while protecting the environment.

He added that preserving indigenous seeds was critical to maintaining biodiversity and preventing ecosystem degradation.

Similarly, HOMEF’s Director of Programmes, Joyce Brown, said hunger amid abundant natural resources reflected shortcomings in existing political and economic policies.

Brown said food should be regarded as a fundamental human right rather than a commodity traded solely for profit.

She called on governments and international institutions to review policies that favour industrial exporters over small-scale local producers.

“True food sovereignty means shifting the power dynamics of the food system,” she said, adding that local farmers should have greater control over food production and agricultural resources.

Brown also warned that restrictions on farmers’ rights to save and exchange seeds could undermine nutrition and food security, particularly among vulnerable communities.

She cited the Nigerian Plant Variety Protection Law, 2021, and urged the government to ensure that agricultural policies protected farmers’ rights and preserved indigenous seed varieties.

The Deputy Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Mariann Bassey-Olsson, also called for greater protection of indigenous seeds, describing seed-saving as essential to farmers’ independence and cultural preservation.

Bassey-Olsson rejected the argument that industrial agriculture was the only way to feed the world, noting that smallholder farmers had sustained communities for generations.

She said indigenous seeds represented generations of agricultural knowledge and adaptation, enabling crops to thrive under local environmental conditions.

According to her, farmers’ ability to save, exchange and replant their seeds is central to food sovereignty and their independence from corporate control.

The organisations further urged the government to support diverse local food systems and ensure that smallholder farmers and marginalised communities had access to the knowledge and resources needed to produce nutritious food.

They also opposed what they described as false solutions to food insecurity, including the genetic modification of crops, arguing that such practices could threaten farmers’ seed rights and biodiversity while increasing dependence on foreign corporations.

They called for greater investment in regenerative agricultural practices, including agroecology, to improve soil health, enhance food quality and strengthen farmers’ livelihoods.