The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has called for sustainable inclusive food system transformation in structure, governance and administration.
Mr Fred Kafeero, FAO Country Representative in Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said Nigeria with a population estimated to hit 400 million by 2050, said large food deficits remained a cardinal challenge to the food system.
He said Nigeria had the potential to feed its growing population into the coming decades, adding that food self sufficiency could be attained.
According to him, to achieve it is not only through production technologies but also entrenching sustainable and inclusive food systems in the structure, governance and administration.
He said this was highlighted in the recently released Nigeria food system assessment profile conducted in 2022 where gaps such as low yields, post-harvest losses, food safety concerns were discovered.
Others he said include climate change impacts, coupled with weak implementation of relevant policies and legislation, adding that all combined to stagnate the predominantly rain-fed agriculture production.
“The assessment was part of a joint initiative launched by the European Union (EU), FAO and the French Research Centre for Agricultural Development (CIRAD) in collaboration with the Government of Nigeria.
He said the purpose was to identify key constraints and entry points for understanding the bottlenecks to sustainable food systems.
He further said it also proposed innovative policy and investment solutions to make food systems more sustainable and inclusive.
He listed four key challenges hindering the country from transitioning towards a desirable sustainable food system.
These according to him, includes food system vulnerability to internal and global shocks; underdeveloped agrifood value chains, food system vulnerability to climate change
Others include: natural resource degradation; and poor diet quality and high prevalence of food and nutrition insecurity.
