Agric stakeholders partners with government on nutritional and food security
Ene Okwanihe, Abuja
Stakeholders in the Agriculture and Environment sectors are poised to establish multi stakeholder Gender sensitive Platform for advocacy on nutritional food security in Nigeria.
The Founder Women Farmers Advanced Network (WOFAN) and Lead consultant on UNDP-GEF food security project Hajia Salamatu Garba said the platform became necessary to foster food security and enhance sustainability resilience of food production systems in the country.
Garba said the project is to be implemented in 5-year and it is supported by United Nation’s Development Programme(UNDP) and Global Environmental Facility(GEF) in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD).
According to Garba there was a need to come together as stakeholders in the agriculture sector to see how to enhance policy and institutional enabling environment to achieve improved food security in a resilient and value chain driven manner.
She appealed to the members of the group to put the interest of the group in their hearts and work to ensure that the aim of the project succeed.
“ Most project dies after 1-2 years because people make money their priority and not the interest of the project”
“ Let us not be sentimental, we should see the project as our own people , let us commit ourselves to see that this project work.” She added
The Project Manager Resilient Food Security Project Ms Rhoda Dia said the overall goal of the project is to enhance long term sustainability and resistance of food production systems in Nigeria.
She noted that there was need to enhance the policy and institutional environment for achieving improved food security in a sustainable resilient and value chain driven manner.
According to her, the multi stakeholder gender sensitive platform is to advocate for sustainable agricultural and improved food and nutrition security in the country.
“The platform would enable consistent advocacy for a fairer deal for small scale farmers for improvements in decision making on food production processing utilization and marketing” she noted
Mr Oladipo Osibo, UNDP Nigeria Climate Change Unit Representative said women must play a dominant role in nutritional food development and wealth generation.
He further commended them for availing themselves the opportunity to serve and ensure that Nigeria addressed the issue of food insecurity and poverty.
Mr. Peter Dama, Chairman Rice Miller’s Association of Nigeria(RIMAN) commended the UNDP-GEF project and WOFAN for bringing together different stakeholders in the agriculture sector to foster sustainable food security.
He noted that there was need for stakeholders in agriculture to stand up to their duty and see how women can be empowered to improve food production, processing and marketing.
