Lagos hosts South-West workshop on food systems transformation

Lagos State government has played host to the South-West stakeholders at the national level, including development partners as well as Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the implementation of Food Systems Transformation Pathways 2022.

The workshop on the implementation of Food Systems Transformation for Nigeria was developed from the Exploratory Dialogue on United Nations Food System Summit held across all the six geopolitical zones in 2021.

Speaking at this year’s event in Lagos which was concurrently held at other five geopolitical zones, the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the need for States to be adequately sensitized on the implementation of the Food Systems Pathways becomes imperative in order to ensure food security and sustainable economy for Nigeria.

Governor Sanwo-Olu who was represented by the Commissioner for Economic Planing and Budget, Mr Sam Egube explained that the hosting right of the sensitisation workshop was tied to the achievements and acknowledgment of the positive impacts of the Lagos State policies in Agriculture.

He noted that Food Systems are a considerable part of the national economy and have contributed significantly to many developmental issues and improving such systems can influence positive changes that will address multiple challenges.

The Governor however hinted that the State 5-Year Agricultural and Food Systems Roadmap 2021– 2025 is a pointer towards a rapid scaling up of production and processing capacity as well as improve competitiveness in Lagos, and by extension Nigeria.

“The Lagos State Agricultural and Food Systems Roadmap is a deliberate effort to develop the agricultural sector by way of interventions from the public and private sector, as well as, international technical and donor organizations where it has competitive and comparative advantages towards enhancing the States self-sufficiency in food production.

“Our aim is to make the entire agricultural sector more attractive and for core investors to be the main drivers. As a State Government, we will continue to provide infrastructure and incentives to support all private sector initiatives where required, on public private partnerships.

“History has shown that any society that is unable to provide food guarantee, its security is open to abuse and utmost danger. We in Lagos have decided to take the bull by the horn as we are moving forward on guaranteeing food security for our people with different agricultural and food value chains, such as, Agricultural Value Chain Enterprise Activation Programme where over 10,000 youths trained in Agriculture have business enterprises activated and the etablishment of Rice Mill in Imota that will produce over 2.4 Million bags of Rice (50kg) annually.” he said

Partnership

He maintained that series of collaborations with international organisations and donors have so far yielded fruits in the development of Agriculture in the State.

According to him “Partnership with private sector for the establishment of Lagos Aquaculture Centre of Excellence (LACE) with the capacity to produce 50 million fingerlings process over 2,000 table size fish annually and off take from over 5,000 nucleus farms.

“Food Market System Transformation Initiative with the establishment of Central Food Security System and Logistics Hub at Ketu-Ereyun, Epe and, mid-Level agroproduce hub at Idi-Oro, Mushin, establishment of cage and pen culture on water bodies in various locations as a means of food empowerment with 500 youth and empowerment beneficiaries.”

Appreciation

Governor Sanwo-Olu appreciated the efforts of the Nigerian Government towards ensuring that the Food Systems Summit in conjunction with the United Nations is developed to guide governments and other stakeholders to identify and implement reforms that would transform food systems towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He assured of the State’s commitment to achieving a food secured Lagos and Nigeria through partnership with all national and sub national entities as well as private sector and international technical and donor organizations.

Harvesting ideas

In her remarks, the National Convenor and Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Mrs Olusola Idowu said that the purpose of the dialogue was to harvest ideas and come up with recommendations or solutions to food challenges with a view to changing the narrative of food and nutrition in Nigeria.

She noted that the government at sub-national level is critical to the success of the implementation of the Food System Transformation Pathways as this explains the reason for holding the sensitization workshop in all the six geopolitical zones of the country.

She said: “The workshop provides an opportunity to present and to discuss the identified priority actions selected for implementation from January 2022,so as to also define and assign roles and responsibilities for effective implementation of the priority actions.

“It suffices to state that the role of the private sector is important because it has critical roles to play in the transformation of our food system. The involvement of the private sector in our food system, has helped to improve the entire food value chain – production, transportation, marketing, processing, distribution, among others.

“The sector has gone far in the establishment and running of Farm Estates as well as Agro-Allied structures that will support food availability, security and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the year 2030.”

National Economy

The Commissioner for Agriculture in Lagos, Ms. Abisola Olusanya said that food systems are an important part of the national economy and have contributed in many ways to developmental challenges.

Olusanya mentioned that improving food systems may help solve a number of issues common to most developing countries such as food insecurity, unemployment, among others.

She added that Lagos has activated programmes towards implementing numerous projects to address hunger, malnutrition, unemployment, and underemployment and boost food production and supply systems in line with her Agricultural and Food System Roadmap.

Speaking on the implementation of the actions on food systems transformation by the States, the Commissioner submitted that it would be based on the political will-power of the respective States, stressing that the Lagos State is on track on the implementation, but currently working on market systems.

“Market system is very important because when you consider production you consider processing, and marketing.
Marketing is an angle which we are tackling which will dovetail backward to processing and then to production.

“Lagos has already taken the lead ensuring that in terms of our market systems, we have started with central logistics hub back to the middle level, wholesale processing hub and the last man hub for food production.” she said

UN support

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mathias Schmale commended Nigeria for its accelerated pace in addressing the national food systems transformation pathways.

Schmale emphasised that Nigeria needs a radical transformation of its food systems in order to achieve all SDGs, stressing for continued collaborations with relevant international organisations.

She reiterated the UN commitment to continuing working with Government and to strengthening collaborations with all stakeholders in support of this transformational journey with the aim to achieve a sustainable food system that works for all and ensure the achievement of all SDGs in the next decade.

Others who spoke at the event emphasised on the objectives of the implementation of food systems transformation pathways which include; reduction of poverty, unemployment, ensuring food security, reducing malnutrition and food importation and promotion of sustainable trade.

Emmanuel Ukoh