By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
The Federal Government has commenced a dialogue across the six geo- political zones of the country to improve nutrition security, reduce hunger and malnutrition in the country.
According to a release from the ministry of Budget and National Planning and made available to Daybreak yesterday, the ministry recently flagged- off the National Food Summit Systems Dialogue tagged ” Exploratory Dialogue” at the six geo- political zones of the county.
According to the statement the Dialogue involves the exploration of challenges facing food system within the geopolitical zones and raising quality, purposeful and productive home-grown solutions to them.
Permanent secretary of the ministry Olusola Idowu said that the outputs from the various dialogue, particularly the Exploratory Dialogue would help the government to develop a plan of action to improve nutrition strategy, reduce hunger and prevalence of malnutrition in line with the national food as well as nutrition policy in Nigeria.
Idowu said, ” it is envisioned to create more inclusive , healthier food systems and encourage a collaborative approach towards building sustainable food systems.
She pointed out that the outcomes from all the Dialogues would be presented at the forthcoming Summit scheduled to hold in New York in September 2021 as part of the Decade of Actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo- Olu who was re-presented by the state Commissioner of Economic Planning aid that for a successful food , Samuel Egbe appealed to financial institutions to make loans and grants readily available to farmers and other stakeholders within the system in order to expand and implement those ideas which could make food system more sustainable in the country.
