Stunting is a common symptom of plant disease, resulting in reduced size and loss of vigour. It also affects humans as stunting may be caused by viral, bacterial, fungal, or nematode (eelworm) infections and by noninfectious (abiotic) means including an excess or lack of water, imbalance of soil nutrients, excess light, chemical or mechanical injuries, insect or mite feeding, and too-deep planting. It has been discovered that 11 million Nigerian children are affected by this disease. JOHN OBA reports.
The Head of Cooperation, European Union (EU) delegation to Nigeria and West Africa, Mr Bran O’Neil, and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), representative, Dr. Richard Seki, has stated that over 11 million children in Nigeria are suffering from stunting disease.
Speaking in Abuja during the High Level Policy Dialogue on Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture in Nigeria, Mr O’Neil, said availability of food does not translate into accessibility to many poor people, saying Nigeria have the capacity not only to feed itself but the entire continent.
He said: “Nigeria is a great agricultural country, you can produce more than you need and feed the African region, you can become the food basket of African, but the nutrition value of food production is very important. It is only the issue of availability of food, there is also the issue of accessibility of food to the poorest of the poor.
“So we have two things here, increasing the availability of high nutritional food and increasing the access to the poorest of the poor.
There are too many malnourished children in this country,over 11 million children are suffering from stunting and many also are suffering from chronic malnutrition and you have to deal with that as well. Nigeria can build and produce enough food and feed their children with balance diets to stop the spread of malnutrition.
The envoy stated that the EU is ready to partner with Nigeria on this and wants the government should go into private public partnership (PPP) to increase the availability high nutritional value food and the acceptability of the committee report in the entire Africa.
On its part the FAO said malnutrition situation in Nigeria is troubling, despite the fact that the country has reached the MDGs 1C, adding that stunting and macro nutrients deficiencies in Nigeria, especially the northern parts are still high.
“The nutrition situation in Nigeria is still troubling, those Nigeria has already reached the MDGs 1C but this has not captured half of the population suffering from hunger, this has not been translated into successful nutritional outcome. Stunting and macro nutrients deficiencies are still high. FAO, has a leading organisation on food nutrition and security strongly believe that one solution to address this situation is to promote nutrition stunting in agriculture and food base approaches,” he said.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said over 23 million out of 66 million children that go to school hungry in the world are from Africa but that the problem can be solved.
“The reality is that today, 66 million school age children go to school hungry in the world and over 23 million of these are in Africa. Yet this problem can be easily solved. According to the World Food Programme, it will only take $3.2 billion a year to solve this problem and guarantee access to food to all the 66 million school age children in the world.
“While we build high rising buildings and skyscrapers, highways and massive infrastructure so badly needed to further spur growth, Africa is forgetting to feed its own children. Of the 21 countries in the world with prevalence of 40-60 % stunting in the world, 16 of them are in Africa. Not much progress has been made on reducing stunting on the continent, with the percentage of stunted children in Africa reducing from 47% in 1990 to 40% in 2011.
The percentage of pre-school stunted children in Africa has increased from 14.5 million to 60 million and projected to rise to 64.2 million by 20,” he said.
He said for Africa to address the challenge of malnutrition and stunting, there is an urgent need for Africa to produce more of its own food.
Dr Adesina said: “Africa, which has 65% of all the arable land left in the world to feed the 9 billion people in the world by 2050 has difficulty feeding itself, spending $35 billion a year importing food that it can produce in abundance. Africa has no business with importing food. Africa should become a global powerhouse in food, feeding itself and feeding the world.”
He noted that Nigeria still has 37% of under-5 children that are stunted and that the regional disparities exist with malnutrition and stunting.
The Northwest region has the highest level of stunting with 56%, followed by the North East with 42% and the North central with 29%. The regions with the lowest levels of stunting are Southwest with 22%, South-south with 18% and the southeast with 16%. Greater efforts are needed to drastically reduce these high levels of stunting.
“While increased access to food is important, several factors such as low incomes, lack of access to clean water, sanitation, and deworming and unbalanced diets worsen malnutrition and stunting. Therefore, solving the challenge of malnutrition requires an integrated approach and close partnerships across ministries of agriculture, health, education and women affairs.
“This is why the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has now prioritized the issue of nutrition.
We will not only produce more food, we will work to ensure that we produce a lot more nutritious food and expand access to nutritious foods to children in particular. We have developed a new Food and Nutrition Strategy that will accelerate nutrition-transformative agricultural policy in Nigeria. The draft of this document will be presented and discussed today,” he said.
The minister revealed further that to expand access to nutritious foods, the country have prioritized bio-fortification. “Much progress is being achieved as we have accelerated investments in biofortification through our national agricultural research institutions, in partnerships with international development partners, especially the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, the Global Alliance for Improving Nutrition, Harvest Plus and the International Potato Center.”