|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The above-stated topic which formed the focus and fulcrum of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST) 2017 Conference held in Abuja should be of interest to both the federal and state governments. This is because of the direct impact doing the needful would have on the food/nutrition and economic status of the average Nigerian. More so, in an era of the much-touted economic diversification to agricultural development away from crude oil.
Experts have defined value chain as the spectrum of activities required to transform a product or service from the initial conception stage, through different stages of production to the final product that is delivered to consumers (Kaplinsky and Morris 2000, 4).Food Value Chains (FVCs) are however, divided into four categories based on the types of participants and their interactions, target markets, and the types of products that are offered to the end consumers (Gómez and Ricketts 2013). These categories are as follows: “modern,” ” traditional, “modern-to-traditional, ” and ” traditional-to-modern.
Essentially, one is concerned about how available food products can be transformed from the raw stage through processing and preservation using technology to products that can be consumed or sold to increase the earnings of those in the value chain. How effective these actions improve on the food and nutrition security of the consumers is significant. That include the farmers, harvesters, processors/millers, through marketers to the end users.
With regards to Nigeria and other developing countries traditional food value chains as defined by Gómez and Ricketts (2013), deliver nutrients to consumers most cheaply. Over the past 60 years, linking smallholder farmers to global and domestic market opportunities has been an important policy and programmatic focus for governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private companies alike. Recently, approaches to creating market opportunities for smallholder farmers have included ‘value-chains for development.’
Specifically in 2014 the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had a Micronutrient Initiative, with the theme Nigeria’s Saving One million lives Initiative and came up with a damning Report. It stated that Nigeria was one of the six countries that accounts for half of all child deaths from malnutrition worldwide. Every year, one million children under five die, 45person of them due to causes attributed to malnutrition. Prevalence of child malnutrition vary significantly across the six geopolitical zones.
It also claimed that children living in the North West and in the North East stand out as being particularly disadvantaged (percent stunted in North West and North East is 50 and 47 respectively, compared to 29 in North Central, 20 in the South-South and in the South West, and 10 in the South East). Similar patterns emerged for underweight and wasting.
Similarly, “malnutrition prevalence among women of reproductive age are also high and geographically non homogenous. The prevalence of malnutrition among women ranges from 2 percent in the South East to 10 percent in the North East and rates are particularly high for adolescents (15-19 years) as compared to women aged 20-49 years (16 versus 3 percent). A positive association was also noted between women and child nutritional status.
“This situation has profound implications for health and human development, and presents a major obstacle to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals4 (MDG) in the country”.
Population representative surveys conducted between October 2016 and January 2017 in Borno and Yobe states, found a serious nutrition situation, according to the IPC for Acute Malnutrition. The majority of survey data comes from the Nutrition Surveillance Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in coordination with the National Population Commission (NPC), the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), and the Nigeria Nutrition in Emergency Working Group (NiEWG)1 in partnership with UNICEF in November. The surveys covered both resident and IDP populations in accessible survey domains.
The way to go is for the federal government to increase funding for researchers to identify areas that require more attention from them and decision-makers. There is the need to develop a FVC typology that takes into account the participants, the target market, and the products offered. In addition, researchers should propose selected hypotheses on the relationship between each FVC category and elements of the triple malnutrition burden.
With rapid urbanisation and strain on income growth given the recent recession we have to engage in the expansion of modern retailers, processors and distributors. Notably, the demand for products such as meats, dairy, fruits and vegetables is increasing. Markets for processed/packaged food categories is expanding Many rural residents depend on FVCs because most of them are net-food buyers and are employed in the food sector.
There are other challenges. For instance, lack of postharvest and distribution infrastructure imply higher price variability and limited year round availability (Gómez et al. 2011).Post-harvest losses (in volume and in quality) are huge. (Kader 2005).Seasonality in crop/livestock production affects disproportionally food retail prices in traditional FVCs (Kumar and Sharma, 2006).
Food products rich in micronutrients and staple foods rich in calories tend to be more affordable in traditional FVCs. Improvements should target how to deliver nutritional benefits to rural residents who are largely missed by modern FVCs. It is important that nutritional benefits accrue to low income people in urban areas as FVC retailers enjoy cost and location advantages .There should be more flexibility to target consumers willing to settle for lower perishable food standards.
Also, lack of access to adequate post-harvest/distribution infrastructure may limit year round availability and result in high intermediation costs. That means that efforts must be stepped up on the issue of food preservation right to the rural areas.
Researchers have shown that supermarkets have become dominant in global food supply chains. Consumers usually refer to convenience and variety with high quality at low prices as one of the main factors for preferential purchasing at supermarkets. During the 1990s, there were rapid changes in the retail sector in Brazil, including increased concentration of food retail sales at five major supermarket chains. Low income households buy processed foods in supermarkets, but not perishables. High standards make micronutrient-rich foods available in supermarkets less affordable the poor.
More public enlightenment is therefore, needed by NIFST, the Nutrition Society of Nigeria and NGOs for the consumers to know the benefits from increased micronutrient intakes associated with the dietary diversity. But they are unlikely to reach all consumers because of ignorance and poverty.
The gap between research findings and their effects on policy formulation must be closed. This is another time to act.
Ayo Oyoze Baje
