• ‘How poor people are forced to choose between nutrition, economic viability’
• Compound in broccoli slows down vision loss, middle-age spread
• Lagos holds Food Security Summit and Exhibition on November 10, 11

Several studies have shown that nearly 800 million people are living in hunger around the globe. More than two billion people suffer from micro-nutrient deficiency. And another 600 million people are obese. That means nearly half the world’s population could be considered without access to adequate food.

As part of efforts to ensure the continuous availability of safe, nutritious and affordable foods, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations identified the four pillars of food security as availability, access, utilization, and stability.

In fact, the final report of the 1996 World Food Summit states that food security “exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
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The United Nations (UN) special representative on the right to food, Hilal Elver, warned that junk food is a human rights concern and poor people are being forced to choose between economic viability and nutrition.

This catch-22 situation, she warned, violates the basic human right to adequate food.

Elver blamed the rise of industrial food production coupled with free-wheeling trade markets that have allowed large corporations to flood the world with cheap, nutrient-poor foods.

“Within the human rights framework, states are obliged to ensure effective measures to regulate the food industry, ensure that nutrition policymaking spaces are free from private sector influence and implement comprehensive policies that combat malnutrition in all its forms,” she said.

Also, scientists claim physical signs of ageing could be slowed down by a compound found in broccoli, cabbage and avocado.

According to the study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, it slowed down the deterioration of liver and eye function, bone density and the metabolism, a new study found. While it was found to prevent laboratory mice from gaining weight as they aged – despite consuming more food.

Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) compensated for the loss of energy production, which experts believe is a key driver of the body’s ageing process.

Researchers tested the compound on older mice to see if it helped to slow their physical ageing signs. They were also keen to find out if it could alter their metabolism to one expected in younger animals.

With age, the body is known to lose its ability to make a key element required for producing energy – known as nicotinamide adenine dinulceotide (NAD).

Today, Nigeria is one of the food-deficit countries in Africa despite the abundance natural resources at her disposal.

It is feared that Lagos State with its teeming population of over 22 million people and annual population growth rate of six to eight per cent, one of the highest in the world, would be worst hit if nothing was done urgently.

Also, several studies have shown that the convergence of several factors magnifies the challenge of achieving food security especially in this clime: aside persistent poverty and undernourishment; expected population growth, income growth and changing consumption patterns; the required boost in agricultural production; climate change; and water scarcity are factors that compound our woes.

However, the Lagos State Government has decided to take the bull by the horn by holistically addressing the issue of food security.

Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Food Security, Mr. Ganiyu Okanlawon, told journalists that the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, upon assumption of office proactively created the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Food Security in order to bring to the fore the importance of sustainable food security in Lagos State.

Okanlawon said: “Although, Lagos continues to be the commercial nerve Centre of Nigeria, with about 45 per cent of the nation’s skilled population residing in the State, the State government is not oblivious of the tendency for increased population due to rural urban migration, and as such is making urgent plans for sufficient food production that will be able to withstand the demand for food in the future and guarantee food security.

“It is instructive to note that in spite of its limited land space, the State possesses vast agricultural investment potentials waiting to be tapped or optimized. It is however gratifying to note that in the last one year of the present administration, the State has embarked on various innovative agricultural and agro-allied programmes and projects geared towards ensuring food security in the State.”

These, he said, include: collaboration between Lagos and Kebbi States for the development of agricultural commodities like rice, wheat, ground-nut, onions, maize/sorghum and beef value chains; strengthening of the Agric Youth Empowerment Scheme (AGRIC-YES); and continued establishment of infrastructural facilities at Songhai-Avia, Badagry under the Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme.

Okanlawon said the State government is also intensifying its Estates Initiatives on Poultry, Fish, Vegetable and Arable Crops; Coconut Development in Lagos State for tourism and poverty alleviation; Commercial Agriculture Development Project to increase productivity; National Fadama Development Project for poverty alleviation; Input Subsidy and organic farming promotion to increase farmers income; Farm Mechanization to reduce drudgery in Agriculture; and Agricultural Land Holdings and management to improve access by genuine farmers to land.

He said Lagos State government is not relenting in its Rural Finance Institution Building Programme and School Agricultural Programme while its Agricultural Extension Services and animation to improve farmers’ productivity is being strengthened. The State government through the Ministry of Agriculture is also currently upgrading abattoirs and slaughter slabs to provide wholesome meat to the citizens.

Also as part of its commitment towards ensuring food security, Okanlawon said the Lagos State Government announced zero tolerance against distribution of unwholesome foods and all forms of food poisoning in the State vowing not to leave no stone unturned in ensuring wholesomeness in the process and distribution of foods that residents of the State consume.

In furtherance of its commitment to optimally explore its agricultural value chain potentials and ensure food security for its teeming populace especially at this auspicious time, he said the Lagos State Government has made known its plans to organize a world class summit tagged ‘the Lagos Food Security Summit and Exhibition’.

Okanlawon, who made this known recently at news briefing, noted that that the summit is being organized to institutionalize a food security framework that would guarantee sustainable food security for its growing population.

He added that the summit which is scheduled to hold at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja from Thursday November 10 to Friday November 11, 2016 is designed to realign emerging realities with new global trends on food safety, food processing, food storage, food handling, funding of agribusiness and agric insurance.

Okanlawon added that the summit with the theme ‘Actualizing Sustainable Food Security in Lagos: A New Comprehensive Agenda’ will attract major stakeholders from the Agricultural sector and academia as well as prospective foreign and local investors, media, civil society and policy makers in government.