by Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government is studying in cooperation with the states The process of feeding yourself An initiative to encourage the establishment of urban farms and small home gardens.
The Vice-President, Mr. Yemi Osinbajo, confirmed this at a high-level meeting on nutrition attended by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, state governors, and representatives of development partners including UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Alico Foundation. Dangote Foundation, and convener of the United Nations Food System Dialogue, Ms Olusola Idowu is also the Permanent Secretary, Budget and National Planning.
The The process of feeding yourself The scheme is one of three major plans emerging from the Food Systems Dialogues supported by the United Nations, to advance the fight against malnutrition that will be led by the National Economic Council and the National Nutrition Council.
Others provide support to farmers across the country, particularly by providing useful information on weather and soil patterns that will improve crop yields, as well as encouraging state governments to ensure rapid release of the nutrition budget and related activities.
At the meeting, presentations were made by the Deputy Secretary-General, the Dialogue Coordinator, the Oyo State Government which already has an integrated agricultural model, and the Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) on how to make use of weather information for farmers.
According to the vice president, “there are practical steps that states and the federal government can take in the next 12 months.
“I think some of the suggestions are important, particularly those that came from the UN Food System Dialogue.”
The Vice President listed the various stages as: creation of investment centers in agribusiness or agricultural settlements; creation of urban farms and home gardens by individuals and schools; adopting weather information to support agriculture; Take advantage of the support of UN agencies and other partners for nutrition activities, and call on agencies, departments, departments and countries to release funding for nutrition activities.
“States and the FGN will be promoting what the advocate describes as ‘the process of feeding yourself.’ This is more than creating urban farms and home gardens. This is simply something we believe should be a collective appeal to citizens of the United States, and the encouragement we can give them so that individuals develop And schools have their own farms or their home gardens,” the vice president noted.
Obviously, this not only helps individuals and families, but the surplus can be sold to others and generally improve food security.
Establishing agribusiness investment centers, agricultural settlements, farms, or any variety of these types of integrated agricultural arrangements will improve food and nutrition security. What we recommend is the type of model that Oyo has or whatever variety the states have. It is clear that this type is recommended because of the way it is organized and the clear good result they got.”
Speaking specifically about funding for nutrition and related activities by the Department of Defense and the states, the vice president noted, “This is something we have made clear even in the National Economic Council meetings.
“It is one of the Action Points as identified in the Food Transformation Pathways that we have already released, and we hope that these budget releases are directed specifically at the Action Points identified in the Transformation Pathways because these are ways in which we have identified that we can maximize momentum in food security.”
We urge countries to allocate an adequate budget for nutrition. Each country and MDA country should adopt the list of national priorities, and make budget allocations for those who have not completed their annual budgets for 2022. “I think there is still time for adequate budgetary allocations for nutrition in the 2022 budgets,” the vice president added.
Mr. Osinbajo urged state governments to adopt partnerships that could be effective in scaling up nutrition and related activities.
It is also clear that we can benefit from the support of UN agencies and other partners such as the Department of Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development (FCDO), USAID and the World Bank as well as our development partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Aliko Dangote Foundation.
“The Aliko Dangote Foundation was able to show what they were doing especially with the de-risking facilities that farmers can use in different regions across the country,” he said.
For his part, Chairman of the Nigerian Conservative Forum, Mr. Kayode Fayemi, said that despite dwindling financial resources, countries would continue to “push the boundaries of improvement in nutrition issues”.
Also on a brief note, the President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Mr. Sanusi Lamido, urged the concerned authorities to make use of technology to meet the challenge of lack of rainfall to boost agricultural activities in parts of the country.
Apart from the Organizer of the Food Systems Dialogue, Ms Olusola Idowu, Managing Director of NiMet, Professor Mansour Matazzo, Executive Adviser to the Governor of Oyo State of Agriculture, Dr. Dipu Akande, representatives of FCDO and Aliko Dangote Foundation also made presentations at the meeting.
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