“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf.
Access to food is a fundamental human right! However, despite the progress and recovery that have been made in recent years, the world’s level of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition has remained very high. Among other factors, persistent food price inflation in many countries, including Nigeria, has undermined purchasing power and access to healthy diets, especially among vulnerable groups such as low-income households, women, and rural communities, thereby increasing people’s frustration.
In response to these challenges, this article highlights laudable initiatives that have recently been put forth towards sustained investments in resilient agrifood systems in order to promote sustainable agriculture, build long-term food security and improve nutrition, thereby making healthy diets affordable for all.
Recently, specifically on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, the Governor of Lagos state, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, launched the ‘Produce for Lagos’ Programme and ‘N500billion Offtake Guarantee Fund,’ an initiative of the state government aimed at boosting food security, reducing imports, and enhancing agricultural productivity across Nigeria. This initiative, he said “will boost agricultural production and reduce reliance on informal and uncoordinated supply channels, create jobs for our youth and increase economic returns for all ecosystem stakeholders.” This is indeed a very commendable initiative!
Also, during launch, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, announced a N25 billion commitment to support the ‘Produce for Lagos’ Programme. Elumelu’s pledge represents the single largest financial contribution from the private sector to the initiative, which is aimed at enhancing food security, addressing supply chain inefficiencies, and improving access to agricultural produce across Lagos State. This is indeed a very laudable gesture and should be highly commended and encouraged indeed!
Furthermore, just 6 days later, on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, the Federal Government unveiled a 10-year Strategic Action Plan (2026–2035) to transform its agricultural sector, with Vice President Kashim Shettima declaring that the youth-led innovation will be central to the country’s food systems transition. The plan is part of Nigeria’s national strategy to implement the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) Kampala Declaration (2026–2036), adopted by African Heads of State to strengthen food and nutrition security across the continent.
However, it is also important to note that preventing further spread of acute food shortages must start with producing food where it is needed the most. Prevention of hunger and famine must begin in the rural areas where people coping with high levels of food insecurity live. The focus in such areas should be on growing food where it is needed the most, and keeping animals alive. This can help to stabilize and increase local food production in order to prevent a breakout of famine. In more isolated rural areas especially, the critical role of local and backyard food production in keeping families alive cannot be overemphasized. The importance of sustaining livestock can also not be overstated.
It is also important that both private and public schools at all levels establish viable school farms. The knowledge obtained from practical sessions on the school farm helps not only to reinforce what is taught in the classrooms. It also teaches pupils, and students alike, about eating healthy, about how food arrives in our homes from the farms, and so forth. It also equips the pupils/students with first-hand knowledge of how to run agribusinesses. This is especially important in cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit in the students. Secondary school curricula, for example, need to cover issues such as: “where do foods come from?”, “how food is produced”, “what makes up a food product” and “which foods are manufactured”. School-leavers need to know about the way that food is distributed, imported and exported, as well as impacts on the local businesses and local farmers. They need to know the role of industry and jobs, and people that are involved and affected.
Also, having in mind that dietary behaviours during adolescence contribute to the establishment of lifelong eating patterns, food-related education programmes such as nutrition education, should be incorporated into the school curricula. Schools are ideal settings for nutrition education because they reach most youth, and nutrition fits into several subject areas including health, science, and consumer science/education. School-based nutrition education curricula should aim to improve students’ knowledge, skills and behaviour aligned with the dietary guidelines. Proper nutrition education can help young people to attain the knowledge and the skills that they need to make proper food choices and develop lifelong healthy eating patterns. Nutrition education programmes should not be limited to health-related aspects of food consumption. There is also a need to educate students, or more broadly consumers, about food systems-related issues covering: production, processing, packaging, distribution, retailing, consumption, and wastage of food.
However, as long as the present system of human rule lasts, hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition will continue to exist. They cannot be permanently eradicated by any form of human government or any economic or social system. The record of history bears this out. Throughout the thousands of years of human history, every type of government and every type of economic and social system has been tried, yet hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition still remain with us.
Nevertheless, there is good news! While human relief efforts have been unsuccessful in bringing these problems under control, God will give attention to the root of the problem. God’s own inspired Word clearly teaches that there will be a complete end to hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The Bible comforts us with the hope of a time when there will be no food shortage and hunger. In Psalm 72:16 we read: “There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth; on the top of the mountains there will be an overflow.” (See also: Isaiah 49:10 and Revelation 7:16, 17). Focusing on such a hope can give a person the strength to endure!