By Abdallah el-Kurebe, Editor
Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has said that Nigeria’s changing demography, which is driven by rapid growth in population, added with a stagnant and retrogressing agricultural productivity were challenges that the country needed to worry about.
Speaking at the just concluded Nigeria Zero Hunger Forum (NZHF), which held in Sokoto, Obasanjo observed that by 2050, the country’s population would be over 400 million and the increase in population would put pressure on food systems as more people would require food to eat for survival.
He said Nigeria should begin to think and proffer solutions to the impending challenge that the country would faced in no distant future.
Corroborating Obasanjo’s position, former Governor of Adamawa State, Alhaji Murtala Nyako who canvassed for greater youth involvement in agriculture, underscored the importance of nutrition to the peace and security of the nation, stressing that a well-nourished population is calmer than one that is not.
He added that the restiveness being experienced across the nation was correlated to poor nutrition among children who ended up stunted with low intelligence quotient.
Also speaking, Sultan Mahammadu Sa’ad Abubakar commended the Nigeria Zero Hunger initiative and lauded Obasanjo for taking the driver seat to move the initiative forward.
He called on the Federal and State governments to fund agricultural research and development as well as extensions services.
The Deputy Director General for Partnerships and Delivery at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Kenton Dashiell said the task of ending hunger required partnerships and collaboration among all actors in the agriculture value chain.
He disclosed that the participating states of the zero hunger forum — Benue, Borno, Ebonyi, Ogun, Sokoto and Kebbi— were on track and had made progress towards the attainment of zero hunger.
While commending the efforts of Sokoto state, especially in agriculture financing, Dr Dashiell said Sokoto and Kebbi were among the few states in Nigeria that had met the Maputo Declaration of allocating 10 percent of annual budgets to agriculture.
Efforts by Sokoto state to tackle malnutrition were also appreciated especially the investment in the Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) towards addressing malnutrition in children.
The communique, which was released on Monday, noted that addressing malnutrition was key for Sokoto state, for which the government was advised to partner with the private sector in the establishment of food manufacturing industries that would produce Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) using local materials and targeting children.
It was also agreed that awareness on breast feeding should be intensified and that women should be supported in nutrition-enhancing enterprises that would provide nutritious food options to the population and at the same time serve as income generating activities for women.
The Governor of Sokoto State, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, appreciated the NZHF for giving the hosting the hosting right to Sokoto and reiterated the commitment of the states towards ending hunger.
He promised to constitute a technical committee on zero hunger to help the state achieve the targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals especially goal number 2 also known as Zero Hunger.
