Federal Government has advocated adoption of improved agricultural technologies to enhance food security and boost efficient industrial development process.
The Minister of Trade and investment, Niyi Adebayo, made the call on Tuesday at the ongoing 46th conference of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST).
The theme of the conference was “Advancing National Development, Wealth Creation and Food Security through Food Processing and Preservation”.
The minister, who was represented by the Director, Commodities and Export Department, Mr Suleiman Audu, said the widespread of malnutrition in the country especially in the rural areas was a pointer to chronic food shortages.
He said that the shortage of food and malnutrition security in Nigeria had not been adequately and critically analyzed in spite of various approaches addressing the challenges.
” Such approaches adopted so far include creation of enabling environment that could encourage investment especially in food production and processing, research innovation and technology upgrades.
” Others are national policy in Food and Nutrition which aims to attain optimal nutritional status for all Nigerians with particular emphasis on the valuable groups such as children, adolescents, women, elderly and groups with special needs,” he said.
Adebayo urged the conference to fashion out sustainable ways to advance national development through wealth creation and food security that would compete favorably with crude oil.
The keynote speaker, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Nigeria, Mr Alfred Olajide, said that Nigeria needed to avoid wastage of her agro produce and improve on her agro export packaging.
Olajide, who was represented by the Director, Public Affairs, Mrs Amaka Onyemehikwe, said each year, Nigeria struggles to increase agricultural production, saying, “the more we produce, the higher the post-harvest losses and poor remuneration for farmers.
” Today, the country is a net importer of agricultural produce, with imports totaling 630 billion naira (CBN, 2013).
” Today, we are faced with the reality of inadequate application of science and technology for food production and processing for high value addition to ensure sustainable food security and wealth creation.
” We read in the national dailies that about 76 per cent of our agricultural produce are rejected by the European Union (EU) and other international markets.
” This means that we have a significant work to do, and urgent steps must be taken by all stakeholders in the sector to address the challenges facing the processing industry sector,” he said.
Olajide said with the increasing investments in the sector, it would lead to an increase in food security, wealth creation and advancement in national development.
The National President of NIFST, Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe, called on incoming Nigerian leader to also accord the issue of national development and food security a top priority.
“We have a responsibility to rise to the occasion, make serious and immediate impact on the matter. We are making this call within a period of campaign for the election of new leaders in Nigeria.
” It is very important that our upcoming leaders to sustain efforts to boost national development, food security, and wealth creation,” he said.
The FCT Chapter Chairman of NIFST, Mrs Veronica Ezeh, said the conference could not have come at a better time than now.
“It is coming when food processing and persevation techniques were still evolving in spite of considerable market potential of Nigerian food products,” she said.
