Feed Nigeria Summit targets resuscitation of food system

Worried about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s agriculture sector, the organisers of this year’s Feed Nigeria Summit (FNS) say this edition is targeted at resuscitating the country’s disrupted food system.

The Technical Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture on Knowledge Management and Communication, Richard-Mark Mbaram, who is also a member of the event’s Organising Committee, who made this disclosure during a briefing in Lagos, said this edition would focus on revamping the country’s food system architecture and addressing concerns surrounding critical value chain activities in the agriculture sector.

Themed: “Post COVID-19: A Repaired Food System, Pathway to a Revived Economy,” he said the summit seeks to capitalise on the positive energy of the Nigerian agriculture sector to strengthen the nation’s overall economy, post-pandemic.

He harped on the need for objective auditing of the entire agricultural ecosystem to ascertain areas of strength and weaknesses; hence the summit’s theme.

“The theme resonates with current realities we face globally from the prism of the food system, heavily occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. From Nigeria’s perspective, there is so much at stake. With this summit, we are looking to x-ray these realities,” Mbaram said.

Though laudable, efforts and measures made by the government to improve the food system following the COVID-19 pandemic are still curtailed by challenges that continuously result in low productivity, price variations and unfavourable trade realities, post-harvest loss, malnutrition and unemployment.

Mbaram further stated that addressing these concerns would inevitably strengthen the overall economic recovery efforts of the government at all levels.

He said: “For us, if we can repair the country’s food system, then certainly our economic-revamp efforts will be on the right track. The summit will achieve this critical objective with the support of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), also keen on advancing the course of its agricultural policy – NATIP.”

With AgroNigeria as host, the summit will hold at the Ladi Kwali Conference Centre, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja on August 23 and 24, 2021.