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The Exploratory Dialogue in the South South took an in-depth analysis into the nutrition situation, challenges of the food systems and made critical recommendations to government on how to address the identified challenges. The tracks were discussed in the context of the zone and from the outcome of the discussions areas of interrelationship came out clearly. Cross cutting issues that will generally influence actions on all the tracks were identified as funding, provision of farming inputs, improving processing and preservation method of farm produce, research, innovations, women empowerment, ... قراءة المزيدprovision of rural infrastructure, channelling the energy of the youth to farm work, improving security of the area etc. Food production and consumption in the zone is based mainly on staples. Ignorance on the right food choices, poor purchasing power affects what people eat. People tend to consume more of what is available rather than on what the body needs. Transportation of farm produce out of the farm to areas where they are needed and where farmers would have value for their labour by selling at a profitable price was identified as a major issue in the region. A lot of food wastage occurs due to the perishability of farm produce, lack of preservation facilities and non-availability of off-takers in the area. The issue of food contamination was also highlighted. Farmers and food handlers still use traditional methods, dangerous chemicals on food to enhance colour and increase shelve life. Farmers are faced with limited access to production inputs, agrochemicals, livestock seeds and extension services, land degradation, conflict and banditry. The impact of COVID – 19 pandemics which resulted in restriction in vehicular and human movement at the wake of the pandemic affected agricultural production resulting in very poor harvest, reduced income, limited access to farmland, shortage of labour for farming and harvesting of plant due to be harvested. Climate change has also affected food production. Excessive dry weather at certain times of the year, flooding and erosion in coastal areas has led to soil degradation, reduced yield of farm produce. The effect of this poor yield is quite discouraging to up-coming young farmers whom might not have the emotional dexterity and resources to continue farming after some terrible losses1q. Weak institutional systems hamper effective implementation of government policies. (The need to establish independent monitoring and evaluation structures of government policies, actions and implementations/deliverables) was recommended. Government incentives (loan, grants, farm input) to farmers most times end up in the hands of non- farmers who will not use the incentive to improve agriculture قراءة القليل

- The need for upgrading traditional food system to scientifically valid modern technologies. - Cooperation of farming organization and government agencies for improved security and financing. - Consumption of non-conventional foods such as the use of sweet potato leaves for soup preparation. - Goat revolving loan scheme needs to be improved or replaced with a better scheme.. - Assisted farming in the case of ill health of a member farmer. - Anchor -Borrower programme: some say it is not doing well hence it needs to be Improved - Government buying of produce: some say it should only regulate h... قراءة المزيدence not be a key Player. A firm stand needs to be taken for the benefit of all - Population displacement due to insecurity (banditry) and flooding - Marginalisation of active population (youths and women) - Rural-urban migration - Politically motivated issues: politics should be removed from all the activities related to - food systems. - Programs targeted at improving food system should be channeled to thoseinvolved through their associations. - External influence: Development of local materials and adjusting to the peculiarity of our environment will enable growth and development - Openness and accountability should be prioritized قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Build Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks and Stresses What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? (short term actions) 1. Creating a neighborhood market system; enhanced storage facilities; sensitization of the member of the communities 2. Engagement of farmers through their association or directly for effective implementation; Establishment of feedback mechanism to ensure that the intervention reach the real target; Transparency and accountability; increase quantity and quality of extension teams 3. Creation of farm settlement scheme; Ag... قراءة المزيدricultural insurance for farmers; increase access to financial services 4. Entrenchment of gender justice in allocation; formulation of progressive society by women; Low interest rate to encourage women to participate in food value chain; sensitization of women to participate in farming 5. Awareness on weather forecast and climate change; Farmers helpline (call center) Policy on afforestation; Creation of major dams for irrigation and flood control; Creation regulatory agency/authority on fertilizer and pest control (Long-term actions) 6. Creation of green house for all year production e.g. tomatoes; Improvement of our health systems; Agricultural alternative strategies; Regional /Zonal market 7. Conflicts/Banditry (short/long term actions) Strengthen our Justice system; Land tenure to be review through land use act; improvement of our response system; formulation of peace and conflict committee; Policy on livelihood after unforeseen events; What contributions will our organisations make? Actor: Government (Federal, state and LG) Contributions Provision of vaccine, making the vaccine available to the people, sanitization of the people. Protection of life and properties, prompt response to issues, strengthen justices system, fairness in delivery of justices , maintaining the rule of law. Policy on afforestation at all levels, Government agencies creating awareness on the weather forecast and educating the farmers on crops to plant due to climate change, provision of major facilities for farmers, creating/empowerment of regulatory authorities. Review and enforcement of existing agriculture, commerce and trade policies to favour participation of women in food system, Provision of Insurance for farmers to encourage provision of farm produce, policy on creation of farm settlement. Promotion of women participation in agricultural value chain. Actor: Civil society, development partners, Academia Contributions Creating awareness on precautionary measures. Advocate and strengthen conflict resolution mechanism. Educating farmers on climate change and its effect on farm produce, support afforestation programmes, Educating farmers on climate change and its effect on farm produce, support afforestation programmes Promote population control programmes. Development of farmers’ database that will facilitate identification for interventions to reach them. How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful? - Set target, Create awareness and inform people about the about the benefit of the vaccine, proper distributions of the vaccine to maintain its potency - Number of people registered for the vaccine, Time to vaccination service, side effect of the vaccine and vaccination rate - Find out the cause of the issues, understand the interest of the parties involved, Keep record of the agreement to prevent feature occurrences. - Human right, Accountability, Public confidence, Social equity, fairness, sentencing of offenders. قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Advancing Equitable Livelihood in Nigeria What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? a) All political office holders / elected or appointed must have a farm. b) Promotion of youth and woman participation in agricultural value chain. c) Development of relevant data that facilitates identification and expand interventions that provide access to start ups and small businesses. d) Encouragement of mentorship linkages to identify successful individuals and internship programmes to build competencies of youth and vulnerable groups. e) Increase in... قراءة المزيد quality and quantity of extension terms to guide in group formation, training and relevant linkages. What contributions will our organisations make? 1. Civil society organisations are in a position to track, monitor and make government accountable to implementation of policies that would advance equitable livelihoods. 2. Necessary advocacy would be employed by representatives of government present in the group to ensure that lapses noted on the side of government. How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful? i) Design an M & E framework as a monitoring tool for the implementation of projects. ii) Design an exit strategy for farmers who are accessing loans. قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Boost Nature Positive Production at sufficient scale The actions that would have the greatest impact on boosting nature positive production at sufficient scale in the short term include: consistent policy and support for environment sustainable productivity enhancements, price and inputs support mechanism, re-aligning of anchor borrower and other support programs to better serve small scale farmers and sensitization of relevant stakeholders on adoption of gaps and climate sensitive agricultural production practices. While for the medium term, promotion of climate SMART agricul... قراءة المزيدture, promotion of semi urban agriculture to improve biodiversity and increase the supply of nutritious foods, provision of incentives for adoption of sustainable production systems, development of appropriate legislation and enforcement strategies for controlling unsustainable production practices and updating soil mapping in the NW states for crop and soil specific fertility management practices were identified. The translation of these actions to fruition is by governments, research institutes, industries, non- governmental organizations (NGOs), farmer organizations and other development partners. Measurement of the successes of these actions is mainly by participatory planning cum monitoring with reporting and communication of results. These would respectively take the determination of number of agricultural policies promoted, formulated and implemented, number of climate SMART agricultural technologies developed and promoted, quantity of food produced, proportion of agricultural output by semi-urban residents, value of input support provided in Naira, number of small-scale farmers enriched by the program, number of farmers adopting sustainable technologies and value of incentives provided, number of legislation developed and enhanced, number of states and production clusters covered, number of sensitisation workshops conducted, number of productive infrastructure developed (e.g roads constructed, storage facilities built etc). Divergences revealed in the anchor-borrower program and also in the extent of participation of government in the buying of produce can be managed by minimizing the trade-offs and optimising the synergism. Demographic issues observed with the most important impact on food production in the NW include population displacement due to insecurity (banditry) and flooding, marginalisation of active population (youths and women) and rural-urban migration. قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Shift to Healthy and Sustainable Consumption Patterns What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? 1. Productions of quality foods that are rich in the right nutrients. 2. Provisions of modern storage facilities to prevent post-harvest losses 3. Establishment of large and modern markets to create opportunities and accessibility to varieties of foods 4. Increase quality and quantity of food supplies to local consumers 5. Creations of awareness and encouragement of behavioral change; 6. Strengthening food safety regulations and compliance. 7. I... قراءة المزيدntegrated rural development to improve access to services, technologies and facilities needed for food production, storage and processing. Impacts in 10 years and beyond. 1. Government should invest on mechanized food productions; 2. All stakesholders in food productions and consumptions must invest on researches and data collections. 3. Effective monitoring and evaluations of the roles of the various agencies involved in food productions and consumptions. 4. Education of the masses on the right quality and quantity foods to be consumed. 5. Invest in researches on local food productions 6. Embark on the review of existing guidelines on consumption patterns 7. Behavioural Change in communication (culture and values)   What contributions will our organisations make? a. Effective formulation of policies to prevent food productions’ exposure to susceptible shocks. b. Stakesholders to assist in strengthening policies and extension services delivery c. Ensuring physical security, mechanization, research and development, food safety and foods fortification. d. Establishment of Modern storage facilities, constructions of modern transport facilities, build modern large market to make foods available, accessible and affordable as well as allow for choices of varieties by different consumers and to prevent post-harvest losses. e. should Harnessed all available water Stakesholders resources to create production and processing clusters to allows for individuals to make choices from numerous available foods supplies. How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful? 1. Proper monitoring and evaluations of government programmes and projects by all stakesholders. 2. Relevant agencies should ensure effective monitoring and evaluations of food productions, supplies and consumptions patterns. 3. Feedback on the levels of compliances to the various modern practices on food productions and food consumptions. 4. Increased in the quality of seeds available to farmers and this will reflect of the quality of food produced by farmers. 5. Evidence on the levels of awareness creations and review of educational curriculum to accommodate behavioural change in food productions and consumptions patterns. 6. Stakeholders must put in place accountability mechanism; 7. Effective formulations and implementation of Policies Interventions 8. Peer review at international, national and subnational levels in line with agreed commitments. 9. Regular feedback from farmers, consumers and rural dwellers. قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic ENSURING ACCESS TO SAFE AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR ALL THROUGH TRANSFORMATION OF FOOD SYSTEMS What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? Strand 1: Reducing hunger and inequality: Land access to women and youths, improved access to financial services (Credit, Insurance, Warehouse receipt system) to address limited access to quality agricultural inputs, and mechanization, promotion of clustered farming system with leverage to community leaders for guaranteed repayment), strengthened agricultural extension system, paradigm shift from traditional ... قراءة المزيدpractice to agro-business approach, security and conflict resolution mechanism to involve farmer participation, cropping calendar for staggered production of perishable crops and involving states to reduce gluts, leverage on meteorological data to agricultural practices, reduction of post-harvest loses (infrastructure, cottage processing, and better handling practices), social protection to the vulnerable by giving land loans and development of data base of regular problems Strand 2: Increasing availability and affordability of nutritious foods Promote cultivation of bio-fortified crops, encourage diet diversification (with emphasis on fruits and vegetables), increased productivity of animal source foods (Fish, dairy, and poultry), promote mixed farming practices, encourage production of improved varieties of crops and livestock. Strand 3: Ensuring safe food Encourage production of improved varieties of crops and livestock (resistance to infestation and infection and tolerance to harsh climatic conditions), promote safe use and handling of pesticides, herbicides, drugs, and vaccines), promote water sanitation and hygiene practices, encourage valued addition closer to production areas to minimize post-harvest loses and contamination, establish supporting infrastructure within production clusters to reduce post-harvest loses and contamination (perishables), consumer education to increased demand of safe and nutritious food, strengthened enforcement of food safety standards and regulation. Cross-Cutting Population control, encourage school enrolment to a girl child to at least up to secondary school level, capacity building, research and development, strengthened agricultural extension system to address production and nutrition challenges. Also, encourage of transport technologies that discourage loses such as the use of plastic crates to transport tomatoes instead of baskets. What contributions will our organisations make? - Setting up cooperative organization by the farmers (Farmers) - Policies that guide to resolving identified challenges (Government) - Research and development (academia) - Coordination of intervention that address food system issues (Government, Farmers, Development partners) - Compliance to safety production practices (Government, Manufacturers, Farmers) - Provision of guaranteed uptake of agricultural commodities (Government, Civil societies) - Ease of access to financial services (Government, Financial institutions, Farmers) How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful? Monitoring and evaluation of: Productivity rate, improvement of nutrition status, hunger index, accessibility and affordability of food, increase in size of land under cultivation, reduction in post-harvest loses, number of women and youths involved in agricultural activities, reduced incidence of conflicts and disruptions arising from natural disasters. قراءة القليل

The major focus of the exploratory dialogue was a comprehensive exploration of the Northwest zone of Nigeria Food Systems along the five action tracks on the UN food systems summit. Participants conducted a thorough diagnosis of the food systems, the functioning, major stakeholders, potentials, vulnerabilities, as well as opportunities for its transformation so that it can deliver high quality diet and affordable nutrition; be inclusive, efficient, resilient, and sustainable; and work for everyone. It was clear from discussions that excessive focus on agriculture and food security resulted in ... قراءة المزيدan unintended consequence of creating a less diverse food environment that is unable to provide an adequate variety and affordable, safe, and nutrient dense food. Food systems in Northwest Nigeria states are vulnerable to shocks, stresses, and disruptions. Our food systems are threatened by environmental effects and stresses due to the impact of drought, flooding, erosion, inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and conflict. Poverty, unemployment, and insufficient food reserves limit the capacity of our food systems to cope with shocks and stresses. The COVID pandemic has amplified the fragility, inequities and suboptimal functionality of our current food systems thus requiring significant transformations in polices, practices and business models that would make our food systems fit for purpose and enable the delivery of the most important functions rooted in robust evidence base, country context and emerging global trends and realities. There are significant food safety challenges across the food systems domain.Most investments in food safety have been for food exports. There are huge post-harvest losses within the food systems in the region and tremendous loses are recorded. Power imbalances at the household, community, national and global levels are consistently constraining the ability of our food systems to ensure poverty reduction and sustainable, equitable livelihoods. Despite many years of investment in policies, programmes, institutions, and the broader enabling environment, we see glaring indications of a broken food system. قراءة القليل

The major focus of the exploratory dialogue was a comprehensive exploration of the Northwest zone of Nigeria Food Systems along the five action tracks on the UN food systems summit. Participants conducted a thorough diagnosis of the food systems, the functioning, major stakeholders, potentials, vulnerabilities, as well as opportunities for its transformation so that it can deliver high quality diet and affordable nutrition; be inclusive, efficient, resilient, and sustainable; and work for everyone. It was clear from discussions that excessive focus on agriculture and food security resulted in ... قراءة المزيدan unintended consequence of creating a less diverse food environment that is unable to provide an adequate variety and affordable, safe, and nutrient dense food. Food systems in Northwest Nigeria states are vulnerable to shocks, stresses, and disruptions. Our food systems are threatened by environmental effects and stresses due to the impact of drought, flooding, erosion, inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and conflict. Poverty, unemployment, and insufficient food reserves limit the capacity of our food systems to cope with shocks and stresses. The COVID pandemic has amplified the fragility, inequities and suboptimal functionality of our current food systems thus requiring significant transformations in polices, practices and business models that would make our food systems fit for purpose and enable the delivery of the most important functions rooted in robust evidence base, country context and emerging global trends and realities. There are significant food safety challenges across the food systems domain.Most investments in food safety have been for food exports. There are huge post-harvest losses within the food systems in the region and tremendous loses are recorded. Power imbalances at the household, community, national and global levels are consistently constraining the ability of our food systems to ensure poverty reduction and sustainable, equitable livelihoods. Despite many years of investment in policies, programmes, institutions, and the broader enabling environment, we see glaring indications of a broken food system. قراءة القليل

GROUP 1 The Food Systems in the South-South region is inherent with divergences in; a.) Production, processing, storage, packaging and distribution approaches • There is need to develop standards to enable competiveness • Improve shelf life of foods • Provide data and empirical information on the value chain b.) Consumption patterns • Data and scientific explanation c.) Ecological integrity • Embark on ecological restoration, build resilience, frameworks and mechanisms for climate change mitigation • Balance conservation with livelihood d.) Cultural and traditional orientations •... قراءة المزيد Taboos • Mythologies and belief systems • Gender inequality GROUP 3 There were disagreements on whether to include some cross-cutting issues that were not directly related to CSA; however, after extensive discussions, it was agreed that the issues were directly or indirectly related to the topic under discussion GROUP 4  Farmers loans: it was argued whether or not commercial banks in Nigeria have packages (like loans) for famers. A banker informed that banks have such facility while other group members (largely value chain actors) emphasized that agricultural loans should have lower interest rates and different moratorium considering that farmers engage in different crop production and yield period varies. GROUP 5 * The south-south region has comparative advantage in the production of fish, crayfish, prawns, etc. * Contrary to FAO claims, women are equally involved in crop farming as well as processing, marketing and distribution of agricultural produce قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Building the Resilience of Food Systems in Nigeria to withstand Vulnerabilities, Shocks and Stresses What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? * Long-term solution is to raise agricultural productivity * Review the land use act to allow both gender equal access to agricultural lands. * The vast mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta should be sustainably managed for agricultural and artisanal production. * Cluster farming should be encouraged to allow for agricultural mechanization * The Forest Reserves in the South-South Region such as the Cr... قراءة المزيدoss River National Park should be managed in such a way that host communities are not denied access to agricultural lands. * Enrolment in farmer cooperatives in the region is unacceptably low. Farmers should be encouraged to join cooperative societies to enable them benefit from CBN and World Bank assisted projects such as Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, APPEALS Project and NIRSAL. The politicization of these schemes should be discouraged. * Developing mechanisms for establishing weather index insurance schemes for farmers. Current programmes to improve the density of operational weather stations in the zone, thereby improving weather forecasting to farmers. * Provision of irrigation facilities for dry season farming * The agricultural extension services departments in the various state ADPs should be revived and enhanced to facilitate dissemination of improved agricultural practices. Value chain heads should be trained and re-trained to enlighten farmers on best agricultural practices * States in the region should establish agricultural produce processing hubs for value addition and curbing of post-harvest wastage. * Social safety net policies to reduce vulnerability especially for children and women should be encouraged. * Reintroduction of commodity boards and agricultural buy-back policy. * Taming the insecurity problems in the region: militancy, kidnapping and communal conflicts * Improved access to finance for small-holder farmers, especially women, to enhance productivity * Create a robust marketing network that directly and seamlessly link farmers to the market and private sector. * Social Consumer protection: Social insurance/support for producers to de-risk production. قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Advancing Equitable Livelihoods What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion topic? Considering the peculiarities of the three focused States (Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Rivers), suggestions to uplift the livelihoods of farmers and other value chain actors in the region were discussed. Actions proposed to have impact in the next three years include: 1. Tackling Insecurities: The group proposed regional security, particularly amongst the focused states who share almost similar security challenges and implored stakeholders (Government, Private sector,... قراءة المزيد local/community leadership, etc.) to collaborate in tackling insecurity in the regions. 2. Setting up Off-taking infrastructures: To address the problem of bonded contracting faced by local farmers, government in collaboration with private investors would set up accessible central centers to off-take produce directly from farmers at best market prices and to end post-harvest losses experienced by farmers so as to improve their income level. 3. Pricing Policy: Team members called on stakeholders to initiate policies that would stabilize macro-economic variables like taxation, inflation, exchange rates. -They identified the need to cap a Guaranteed Minimum Pricing policy as a requisite to tackling the problems of bonded contracts on small holder farmers. 4. Enhancing Social Capital Formation: it was noted that most farmers and value chain players lack stable financial support perhaps due to low knowledge of finance so they need financial leverages including zero interest facility and targeted agricultural loans (with low interest rates). -Capacity building on financial management was also identified for enhancing social capital. 5. Youth Involvement in Agriculture: the introduction of Smart-Agric as part of entrepreneurship course in curriculums or as skill development initiative would entice young people to engage in agriculture. 6. Climate Action: optimization of the meteorological agency by establishing sub-national hubs where timely weather condition and forecast would be disseminated in local languages to farmers to support their planning was identified as well as training of value chain actors on climate change adaptation and mitigation. How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful? The following indicators were highlighted:  Improved income level  Increase in yield  Reduction of farmers per area What contributions will our organisations make?  Representative of Educational and financial institutions sought for collaborations to train farmers قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Boost nature-positive food production at scale What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? 1) Increase budgetary allocation: A policy stipulating the minimum budgetary allocation to agriculture. 2) Policy harmonization within the land use sectors to maximize use of available land 3) Encourage Climate-Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices, e.g.:  encourage crop rotation, intercropping and homestead gardening; as well as Agroforestry system, which has multiple uses, including protecting the soil;  integrated farming to incorporate animal hu... قراءة المزيدsbandry/livestock farming; this is the success behind the Songhai farms;  Use of improved varieties of input, e.g., stress- tolerant, high-yielding varieties, etc.  Discourage the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides and encourage organic farming  Using the ash obtained from palm tree wastes to enrich nutrient depleted soils;  Use of cover crops like legumes to control weed.  Introduction of local/traditional irrigation system 4) Introduction of out-grower’s scheme, for youth participation in Agriculture 5) Availability if data was conceived to be key for evidenced-based policies and programmes 6) Bio-security to maintain hygiene and health in livestock production What contributions will our organizations make? Many of the organizations participating in the discussion have one or two things to contribute. 1) Veterinary section: prevention and control of Zoonosis; 2) Boarder Commission: Advocacy and advice against conflict, crisis and wars before onset of farming 3) Department of Forestry: Building capacity of local communities to engage in agroforestry in nature-based production, raising seedlings and maintaining plantations; forming forest management committees 4) Economic Planning: Development of medium-term plan for agriculture. 5) Private sector: eliminate affluent/waste to environment by use of filters; treatment of waste water; backward integration for economic sustainability; incorporation of cassava flour into wheat flour; encourage local grain plantations and harvest; Ensure that animal feeds are produced under controlled hygienic condition; 6) Ministry of International Cooperation; Source for fund for sustainable agricultural practices; 7) ureau of Statistics: Conduct meta-evaluation and evidence-based monitoring and evaluation. 8) Ministry of Climate Change & Forestry: deforestation initiatives, especially tree planting: helping soil fertility; reducing heat & desertification; advocate against harmful practices such as bush burning and poaching. How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful?  Through periodic monitoring and evaluation. The following indicators will show success  Improved yield, access to credits/inputs  Improved nutritional status and health  Inclusive participation and community ownership of programmes  Economic enhancement  Reclamation of degraded land  Reduced carbon dioxide emission قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Shift to healthy and sustainable consumption pattern What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? • Regulation of advertisement and marketing of unhealthy food (sugary beverages, ultra-processed food) through increasing tax/tariffs. • Nutrition education highlighting the dangers of unhealthy diet targeted at communities and schools, empowering community members and school children to demand for healthy food. • Mainstreaming of nutrition into all agricultural programme and education system. • Provision of enabling environments for civi... قراءة المزيدl society organizations involved in community mobilization and sensitization on healthy nutrition, to access free or subsidized airtime for nutrition education. • School feeding programmes should be implemented more effectively and monitored to ensure meals are provided with adequate quality and in the right quantities. • Encouraging local farmers to prepare and package locally made complementary food to strengthen complementary feeding for children under the age of five. • Provision of good storage facility to address waste recorded by small scale farmers who are cannot afford proper facilities to preserve their produce. • Encouraging appropriate technology for food preservation at household, retail and service levels to minimize wastage. • Building relevant infrastructures to aid food logistics management e’g. good road network to shorten supply distance and duration to avoid spoilage and wastage. • Establishing food collection centers within LGAs to enable fast and easy access will minimize need for storage and reduce wastage. • Building infrastructure for food processing and developing sustainable systems for food recycling and conversion of waste for productive use. • Institution of proactive measures to increase consumption of nutritionally adequate food e.g. increase farmers’ (especially women) access to land for farming and animal rearing to improve animal-sourced intakes for children. • Food safety policy should be developed to ensure producers/ food processors are properly guided on food standard and also to protect the consumers from unhealthy food • Robust public-private partnerships that support quality input and effective distribution of farm produce under the regulation and oversight of relevant government organs. • Multi-stakeholder engagement for an all-inclusive policy formulation • Investing in, and scaling up evidence-based and proven interventions for reducing malnutrition (under and overnutrition) among children under five, e.g. management of severe acute malnutrition at community level, conditional cash transfer for healthy food consumption etc. How can donor agancies and private sector organisations help? • Robust and mutually beneficial partnerships between private sector organizations and local small scale farmers with a focus on healthy food consumption should be developed with government’s oversight and regulation. • Local and international NGOs can support the design and implementation evidenced-based interventions targeting the most vulnerable, especially children and women, to improve nutrition. • Support innovative ideas and proof of concepts that will result in the shift from unhealthy to healthy and sustainable consumption. قراءة القليل

Discussion Topic Access to Safe and Nutritious Food What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? • Contextualize the concepts of Access, Safe and Nutritious Food in the specific milieu and needs of communities and households. These will aid policy/decision making. • Equitable access to factors of production especially for women in both urban and rural communities will enable and enhance the availability and affordability of nutritious food. • Innovative knowledge in the production and processing of food will improve household nutrition • Development v... قراءة المزيدalue chains will improve access and food safety • Advocacy and sensitization on the need to have nutritious food using local and readily available ingredients • Promotion of community and school feeding programme Strand 1: Reducing hunger and inequality The conclusions are;  More families and households are becoming increasingly hungry with widening inequality. The reasons include; i.) Shift in family system, means and mode of production ii.) Constraining land tenure system iii.) Collapse of extension services • Education of households on income and livelihoods • Equity in access to land and means of production • Support private sector extension services • Use of data and empirical evidence Strand 2: Increasing availability and affordability of nutritious food Involves the following;  Value addition  Improvement of household incomes and alternatives  Fortification of food  Encourage all year production  Improvement on infrastructure  Adoption and adaptation of technology and science Strand 3: Ensuring Safe food Food safety will entail;  Availability of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services  Attainment of Open defecation free status  Accreditation and certification of farms and value chain operators for competitiveness  Regulations/Guidelines  Legislations What contributions will our organizations make? • Dam and irrigation services available to farmers for sustained food production • Agro-logistic support • Finance and risk mitigation • Technology and technical assistance • Knowledge Management • Reporting systems • Monitoring and Evaluation systems • Data and Information Management platform • Coordination, facilitation • Capacity building for stakeholders • Advocacy and sensitization How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful? 1. Supervision, Monitoring, tracking and evaluation 2. Comprehensive regional roadmap and implementation strategies peculiar to the states. 3. Outputs, Outcomes, Results and Impact قراءة القليل

• Privatization of Government investments in the Agricultural sector for Management and sustainability • Need for review of Agric policy and framework for a sustainable food system as policies are obsolete • Need for integration and coordination into the Policy • Integration of women in the agricultural sector • Empowerment with interest free loans and inputs to farmers • Timely distribution of inputs to farmers in terms of crop and animal farming • Engagement with traditional rulers and Local Government Chairpersons to provide lands to women • Leasing of demonstration farms to... قراءة المزيد women to encourage more women to farm • Need for the South-South zone to diversify to onions farming and goat herding. • Research on land productivity should be carried out • Research and education on Agric Extension should be encouraged • Research results and findings should be made public and Government should be engaged for effective dissemination • Bio fortification of foods and nutrition research should be encouraged by Government • Nutrition education and awareness should be strengthened at Antenatal levels • Need for integrated farming (crops, fishery, animal, livestock farming) for profiting at irrigation outlets • Agro logistics is key • Proper farmers’ data/records to be maintained by relevant bodies • Need for central farmers’ data that is accessible to all Agric sector stakeholders • Value chain and development financing by Central Bank of Nigeria should be encouraged • All stakeholders should be carried along from programme conceptualization, inception and research instead of imposing research findings • Road map development for the sector • Business plan development training • Idea sharing by Chief Executives in the sector is key • Need to capture information on all informal/private sector players in the Agric sector قراءة القليل

The main focus of this exploratory dialogue was to look at the South-South region’s Food Systems in tandem with the five action tracks and levers of the UN Food Systems Summit. Participants conducted a thorough diagnosis of the food systems, the functioning, major stakeholders, potentials, vulnerabilities, as well as opportunities for its transformation so that it can deliver high quality diet and affordable nutrition; be inclusive, efficient, resilient, and sustainable; and work for everyone within the region. It was clear from discussions that excessive focus on agriculture and food securi... قراءة المزيدty resulted in an unintended consequence of creating a less diverse food environment that is unable to provide an adequate variety and affordable, safe, and nutrient dense food. Food systems in Nigeria are vulnerable to shocks, stresses, and disruptions. Our food systems are threatened by climate change and stresses due to the impact of drought, flooding, erosion, inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and conflict. Poverty, unemployment, and insufficient food reserves limit the capacity of our food systems to cope with shocks and stresses. The COVID pandemic has amplified the fragility, inequities and suboptimal functionality of our current food systems thus requiring significant transformations in polices, practices and business models that would make our food systems fit for purpose and enable the delivery of the most important functions rooted in robust evidence base, country context and emerging global trends and realities. There are significant food safety challenges across the food systems domain. Most investments in food safety have been for food exports. Because of unsafe food, 1 in 11 Nigerians fall ill yearly, 21 million cases of foodborne diseases are documented and the annual loss of human capital due to foodborne diseases is estimated at about $16 billion. Most times, the vulnerable group are the most affected by the challenge of food safety and also the most nutritious foods have the most complicated challenge around food safety. It is therefore important to note that as Nigeria allows unsafe foods are allowed to pass through the borders to the people, the sovereignty of the nation is surrendered to others. There are huge post-harvest losses within the food systems; we lose more than half of what we produce, and this comes with significant impact on the environment. Inequality and power imbalances at the household, community, national and global levels are consistently constraining the ability of our food systems to ensure poverty reduction and sustainable, equitable livelihoods. Despite many years of investment in policies, programmes, institutions, and the broader enabling environment, we see glaring indications of a broken food system. قراءة القليل