Emmanuel Edukugho
8 January 2009
Hunger and the malnourishment that accompanies it diminishes ability of people to learn, work, and care for themselves and their family members which could threaten the realisation of Vision 20-2020 and President Umaru Yar'Adua's seven-point agenda.
National President, Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology, looking at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and targets set to meet them by 2015, with MDGI: Eradication of extreme hunger and poverty as first, he said: "If left unaddressed, hunger sets in motion an array of outcomes that perpetuates malnutrition, reduces the ability of adults to work and to give birth to healthy children, and erodes children's ability to learn and lead productive, healthy, and happy lives."
Speaking in a lecture delivered at the Oluyole Club 40th Anniversary celebration, End of Year Party/Bursary Awards held last Saturday at Kankafo Inn, Ibadan titled - "Millennium Development Goals and National Food Security: Challenges and Possibilities," he recalled that MDGs are an ambitious agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives that world leaders agreed on at the Millennium Summit in September, 2000. For each goals, one or more targets have been set, must for 2015.
According to him, food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation.
In an introductory remark, the Bellstech VC said he was thrilled by the objectives of Oluyole Club and the bursary awards to university students who are indigenes of Ibadan.
"Access to education is one of the challenges of the club. Some of us in academics got in there when states and federal governments took education seriously. I just found my name in the newspaper as being awarded federal government scholarship. The approach of the club is a challenge to government. Government scholarships and bursary awards should be reintroduced otherwise our education will be in disarray."
He traced the idea of MDGs to early 1980s, the objectives aimed at reducing to barest minimum poverty and ensure enhanced living. The year 2015 was taken as yardstick when all the targets will be met. The development goals are eight and food security cuts across all of them. He turned to two commonly used definitions of food security coming from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
For FAO, food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
On interplay between MDGs and food and nutrition security, Adeyemi looked at MDG 2: Universal Primary Education, pointing to education as being crucial to both human and economic development.
He asserted that feeding children in school has paid significant educational dividends.
School feeding in Bangladesh, for instance, has resulted in a 35 per cent overall increase in enrolment (and a remarkable 44 per cent increase in girls) in comparison with only 7 per cent increase in schools where the programme was not available.
Similar improvements in school enrolment, attendance, and retention rates have been observed in a number of other education-supporting food programmes in the developing world.
The scaling up of such programmes in many developing countries would go a long way toward simultaneously achieving the MDGs.
But he decried the lack of school feeding scheme in Nigeria, except Nasarrawa State which had the best in the country. Asian countries are far more responsive than Sub-Saharan African states.
As regards the linkage between Education and Agriculture, it was stated that there are further favourable linkages between the two.
"By raising incomes and allowing farmers to hire labour or invest in labour - saving agricultural technologies, raising agricultural productivity will enable rural parents to send their children to school.
What's more, improvemnts in labour - saving technologies in agriculture that reduce the number of hours worked and enhance income per hour of work will free-up women's time for child care.
More time away from farming would also allow women the option of choosing skilled work in the non-agricultural sector.
Adeyemi touched on MDG 3: Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, and that many women are farmers, depending mainly on agriculture to secure food and earn money for their families. Improvement in agriculture, therefore, can contribute in a fundamental way to increasing incomes and economically empowering women.
MDG 4: Reduction in child mortality. The links between food production and child mortality are indirect but important. About half of all child deaths occur because of malnutrition, which prevents children from fighting off even common childhood ailments.
MDG 5: Improvement in maternal health. Agriculture can benefit maternal health directly by improving the quality of women's diets.
Both the quality and the quantity of food available to women affect their health, and the impact of malnutrition on reproductive health is well documented. Women whose immune systems are weakened because of insufficient food intake have a higher likelihood of infections and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Maternal health also depends on having achieved food security in girlhood, well before conception.
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other disease. Agriculture, food and nutrition security play important but still underrated roles in addressing HIV/AIDS.
Without proper food and nutrition, people living with HIV will transit to AIDS more rapidly, because individuals with HIV require up to 50 per cent more calories than healthy individuals.
MDG 7: Ensuring environmental sustainability. Many food production practices that push productivity tend to do so at the expense of the environment. Pressures to increase food production with inappropriate policies in the past have resulted in soil degradation, greater concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, marine pollution, over exploitation of fisheries, and loss of valuable habitats.
(He referred to Nigeria for instance where there are burning of bushes for land to plant crops without regenerative concern, de-forestation, gas flaring in the Niger Delta resulting in high toxic micronutrients).
MDG 8: Development of a global partnership for development. The fund MDG attempts to capture this need has many different targets. One of these involves creating jobs for young people.
Jobs in rural areas and small towns are particularly important, and the economic, political and institutional conditions that facilitate food production development can make a strong contribution here.
(He advocated for real global partnership, not beggar relationship, going cap-in-hand asking for assistance. There is need to reduce our debt burden and have ability to produce food).
A review of performance of MDGs in 2007 indicating status of each, cannot be said to be encouraging.
MDG 1 - Insufficient information.
MDG 2 - Very likely to be achieved, on track
MDG 3 - Possible to achieve if some changes are made.
MDG 4 - Insufficient informa-
tion .
MDG 5 - Insufficient information.
MDG 6 - Possible to change if some changes are made.
MDG 7 - Insufficient information.
MGD 8 - Insufficient information.
Policy inconsistency was identified for poor agricultural production in Nigeria, even with so much land and water available.
"Land is no problem. Land used for farming presently not exceeding 30 per cent. So about 70 per cent of arable land not used.
There is need for educated farmers to replace the aged farmers. Holders of degrees and HND in agriculture are roaming the streets. I support establishing of farm settlements, but not by government. There should be agro-allied processing industries for our own indigenous crops."
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