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The Federal Government has been urged to intensify efforts to address the prevailing hunger in the country by providing a conducive environment for farmers to thrive so that they can focus on making available affordable, quality foods for the citizens.
The appeal was made by medical experts in Lagos during interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in commemoration of the 2024 World Health Day.
NAN reports that the WHD is celebrated annually on April 7 to mark the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organisation in 1948.
The theme for 2024 WHD is ‘My Health, My Right’ was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have equitable access to health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.
Speaking, a Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Ramon Moronkola, said to ensure healthy living, food should be taken in the right proportion of both quality and quantity.
The expert, who works with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, said there are certain amounts of food that the body needs to sustain growth and development both in children and adults.
According to him, access to a good quality balanced diet is key to the health of the citizens, saying that the government should endeavour to increase the purchasing power to enable people to afford good quality foods as well as a balanced diet at all times.
Moronkola said, “The WHO has mentioned access to good nutrition as part of the key components of the WHD celebration.
“The quantity and quality of food affect brain development as a child grows. A child that is deprived of protein can develop different kinds of malnutrition diseases like kwashiorkor.
“Even for adults, the quantity and quality of food to be taken are very important. If an individual takes a balanced diet that contains more fruits and vegetables in the right proportion, it helps to prevent diabetes, hypertension and even the development of cardiovascular diseases.
“It is very important to talk about this because the economic hardship we are seeing recently is really making it difficult for people to have access to good nutrition. People don’t have access to food because food is expensive.
“Is it someone that has not been able to afford the basic food, that will now be talking about ensuring consumption of fruits and vegetables?
“So, the government should be bordered about the low purchasing power of the people and seek ways to increase it so that people can afford good quality meals.
The expert urged the government to ensure that all support given to the farmers is properly utilised.
According to him, the government should ensure that farmers have access to good seeds and products that will yield abundant harvests in terms of quality and quantity of the produce.
He added, “Government has a role to play in ensuring that food is available. The government will do this by ensuring that wherever the food is coming from, be it from the farm, it should be able to intervene.
“The health implication is that when people develop infections and diseases from abnormal food intake, the country will end up having a diseased population; which will invariably overwhelm our health system.”
Meanwhile, a Medical Imaging Scientist, Dr Livinus Abonyi, lamented that terrorism and a poorly regulated economy are threats to achieving food security in the country.
The Lecturer at the Lagos State College of Medicine, said the economy has been poorly regulated and this has resulted in ineffective management of the Nigerian financial system.
This, Abonyi noted, has led to the free fall and near-worthless value of the naira, resulting in uncontrollable inflation.
“To ensure food security in a vast and endowed country like Nigeria requires addressing two key factors ravaging the system.
“Major factors are terrorism and armed banditry. These factors are responsible for the sacking of most farmers from their farmlands, while others have been killed and can’t tell their stories.
“Another crucial factor is the ineffective management of the Nigerian financial system. The cost of transportation is currently a factor in the movement of goods and services in Nigeria.
“It, therefore, implies that movement of farm produce where farmers have weathered the storm to farm, against the threat of terrorists, kidnappers and bandits, has become a debilitating challenge,” he lamented.
The expert further said the high cost of transportation was responsible for the hike in the prices of food commodities across the country and emphasised that the solution to the hunger and other challenges in the land depends on restoring the security of the country.
According to him, there is no justification for the government’s intervention in the form of loans, fertilizer provisions or inputs of any kind into agriculture when the security of life and properties of those who would work on the farms cannot be assured.
Abonyi added, “Security has to be ensured for the economy to thrive. Food production is a key component of the economy. If Nigeria is to depend more on importation of food products in order to feed the citizens, then, anarchy is considered inevitable.”
(NAN)
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