Transforming food systems require public, private investments – Osinbajo

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The vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, said on Tuesday that transforming Africa’s food system is an obvious task requiring the active mobilisation and prioritisation of both public and private investments.

Osinbajo stated this in a virtual presentation at the preparatory meeting of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021.

The pre-summit is a prelude to the culminating global event scheduled for Rome, Italy in September, 2021.

He said it was in realisation of the importance of the synergy between public and private investment that the federal government resolved in complementing existing development plans, sectoral strategies, and prioritising investments in specific innovations and technologies to transform food systems in the country.

Sharing insights on Nigeria’s efforts, the vice president noted that “the government is committed to addressing the drivers of food insecurity such as food inflation, changing consumption patterns and climate change.

“At the same time and as an outcome of 40 different food systems dialogues in which up to 5,000 people participated, Nigeria is prioritizing investments in specific innovations and technologies to scale up and transform food systems.

“These actions complement existing development plans and sectoral strategies such as our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, the National Policy on Food and Nutrition, and the National Policy on Food Safety.”

He added that a specific aim of “our recently launched national poverty reduction with growth strategy is to address hunger, malnutrition and poverty as part of our target of lifting a hundred million Nigerians out of poverty within a decade.”

 The vice president further stated that at the heart of the government’s post-COVID-19 response is the Economic Sustainability Plan, noting that the “plan has a major component, which is the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Programme (AFJP) where we seek to leverage suitable technologies to build a resilient food system for Nigeria.”

 “Our Nutrition Policy addresses the issues of sustainable and nutrition-sensitive food systems – and the country has prioritized key nutrition actions that are impactful, cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable.

 “An integral part of our food systems’ transformation strategy is to create an enabling and supportive environment to implement these policies in a participatory manner involving farmers, investors and State Governments,” the VP added, assuring significant improvements in crop yields, affordable and healthy diets, among others.

 Making a case for initiatives that support Africa and other developing countries, Osinbajo said “when, as in our country and several others, population growth exceeds growth in national income, food supply would not meet the needs of people, especially when distribution systems are inequitable.”

 According to him, “post-harvest losses in Africa, and particularly in Nigeria, are more than 20 per cent of production for several food groups. And this is due mainly to poor storage, poor rural infrastructure and non-automation of food processing, amongst other things.

 “The situation in many African countries is given increased urgency with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to growing levels of acute food insecurity.  This is of great concern to all of us, especially if we recall that prior to the pandemic, the prevalence of severe food insecurity was as high as 22 per cent.”

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