Towards Hunger And Poverty Eradication

Food scientists have in varying reports raised concerns over hunger that kills more people than many other dreaded ailments.

They observe that hunger creeps in when people lack the opportunity to earn enough income to get education and acquire skills and provide basic needs for living.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO), in ?its search for solution to hunger and poverty states that a large proportion of the world’s population has often experienced severe hunger.

It says this has arisen from disruptions in food supply caused by war, plagues or adverse weather changes.

It is in the light of the grievous effect of hunger on mankind that every nation across the world is working towards achieving food sufficiency to feed the ever increasing populations.

The World Hunger Day 2013, is another UN strategy aimed at fighting hunger and providing sustainable solutions to poverty in the world.

?”Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition’’ is the theme for this year and part of its objectives is to end hunger and poverty in 13 countries in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.

It is also aimed at creating awareness in countries plagued by hunger and celebrating the achievements of countries working towards hunger reduction.

The countries comprise Bangladesh, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, Ghana, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Senegal and Uganda.

Irrespective of this intervention, stakeholders observe that through awareness campaigns, more organisations will be encouraged to work in partnership towards hunger and poverty eradication.

In Nigeria for instance, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda is seen as a major tool for making progress in the enumerated areas.

Observers note that with the introduction of the agenda in 2011, it is expected that necessary action will be taken to achieve a hunger-free?country through an agriculture sector capable of driving income growth and enhance food security.

The National Financial Secretary, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Dr Tunde Arosanyin, says Nigerian farmers are critical to ensuring food sufficiency.

He lauds the efforts made by farmers and the government on the agenda but insists that more efforts will be needed to achieve Nigeria’s goal on food security and poverty eradication.

According to him, the synergy will promote private investment in agriculture, generate employment and transform Nigeria into a net exporter of agricultural commodities.

“We are doing our bit to see how we can harness an enabling environment to put food on the table of every Nigerian. Presently, the food security situation in the country is still not good enough; according to UN, 35 per cent of 167 million Nigerians are hungry; they go to bed on empty stomach. It is still disturbing that for a country like Nigeria with all our endowments: the rain, the sunshine, the vast land that is suitable for agricultural purposes, we still spend close to 12 billion dollars on food importation, he said.

To augment the efforts at hunger and poverty eradication, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) advocates enhanced involvement of the private sector in undernourished countries.

In Ghana, for instance, the institute provided input into a draft bio-safety policy expected to facilitate the introduction of agricultural biotechnology.

In India also, IFPRI also developed rural business hubs research under U.S Agency for International Development’s partnership for innovation and knowledge in agriculture.

Observers note that efforts such as this should be extended to Nigeria, even though there had been several calls for the passage of bio-safety bill into law.

But IFPRI notes that problem of food and nutrition security in Nigeria has not been adequately and critically analysed, in spite of various approaches at addressing the challenge.

It wrote in its assessment of food security in Nigeria that “food insecurity and malnutrition in rural areas of Nigeria resulted from non-implementation and/or faulty implementation of the National Food and Nutrition Policy and National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition’’.

The enormous amount of money spent in attempting to assure the food security of Nigerians without success calls for a fundamental review of the past approaches and achievements.

Although there have been a number of individual and institutional efforts and attempts at generating databases on food and nutrition security for Nigeria, these efforts are hampered by inadequate funds to implement large-scale surveys.

It suggests the need to understand and appreciate the distinctness of nutrition and prioritise its appropriate integration into all sectors and departments working on food security in Nigeria.

It also recommends a strategic partnership and collaboration of all stakeholders to produce datasets that will inform new directions and a plan of action to seek a comprehensive integration of nutrition and coordination of food security interventions among partners.

A hungry man, they say, is an angry man, and if the problem of hunger is removed from man’s wants, his entire problems are almost solved. The need to comprehensively solve the challenge of hunger globally, can not therefore, be over-emphasised, observers say.

Garba, writes for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).