To tackle vitamin A micronutrient deficiency in staple foods across Nigeria, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has committed the sum of $10 million, working with local farmers for the production of nutritious biofortified foods in the cassava, maize, rice and other staple crops value chains.
Country Director of GAIN, Dr. Michael Ojo, said that ensuring food and nutrition security is one of the most pressing challenges for sustainable social and economic development in Nigeria, and biofortification of essential staples with deficient micronutrients remains critical.
He stated this at the Close-Out Ceremony of the Strengthening Nutrition in Priority Staples (SNiPS), a five-year project being implemented by GAIN in partnership with GIZ and the Green Innovation Centre for Agricultural and Food Sector, yesterday in Abuja.
He said, “GAIN commits to scaling proven models from SNiPS, strengthening supply chains for nutritious foods, expanding partnerships with MSMEs, and advancing policies that make healthier diets a reality for every Nigerian household.”
The country director pointed out that overall, the total budget for the project is about ten million US dollars.
“Our journey was not without challenges,” he said. “We confronted limited farmer access to financing, unpredictable weather patterns that affected yields, and initial resistance from consumers unfamiliar with biofortified varieties.
“Other challenges include observance of regulatory processes and slow market entry for small businesses.”
The aim of the SNiPS project, according to him, is to improve access to and consumption of safe, nutritious foods in Nigeria through increased consumption of nutritious food by small farmers, their families and the wider population.
Speaking on the importance of sustainability to boost food security, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, assured that government has put in place mechanisms to ensure that the project cascades to other states apart from the key priority states of Kaduna, Oyo, Benue and Nasarawa states.
Represented by the Director, Nutrition and Food Safety of the ministry, Nuhu Kilishi, the minister said that raising awareness, especially among farmers, about the benefits of consuming these foods and expanding production has helped to sustain the biofortified crops value chain in Nigeria.
He said, “SNiPS is so important because it has three major pillars that drive agricultural transformation and food security, and the first pillar is to ensure that we have staple crops that are rich in deficient micronutrients that farmers can plant.
“The second pillar is that the project is expandable to other farmers, and the third pillar is that farmers are able to process their foods for economic benefit.”
The minister urged farmers to own the project even as efforts are being made to cascade it to other states of the federation.
Source - https://guardian.ng
