Nigeria is the 7th most populous country in the world. With over 200 million people to feed, the nation is facing heavy food scarcity as a result of climate change, ethno-religious conflicts, storage difficulties, and pests and diseases. One of the ways to fight against this is to ensure food security.
According to FAO, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food, which meets their dietary needs and preferences for an active and healthy life.
Some of the factors that threaten food security are agricultural diseases, climate change, food waste, and many others.
According to UNICEF, 1 out of every 9 people are malnourished. This means that about 805 million people still don’t have enough to eat.
We may not be able to solve some of these issues. Nevertheless, we can still work together towards achieving food security by playing our own little part. Some of the ways we can do that are:
- Buy that Imperfect Fruit:
When it comes to fruits and vegetables, some people make selection decisions based on its physical appearance. A perfectly nutritious food item can be cast away due to its “ugly” appearance. This contributes to the issue of food wastage.
According to Johnathan Bloom, author, activist, and creator of WastedFood, the three main factors of food waste are; abundance, beauty, and cost. This means that a lot of people take the look of their fruits and vegetables seriously and could discard food if it doesn’t meet their aesthetic standards.
Currently, about 1/3 of the food produced for consumption yearly, either gets lost and wasted. When that “ugly” fruit or vegetable is wasted, all the resources such as water, manure, and labor, which was used to make it, are equally wasted.
In America, about 6 billion pounds of produce go unsold annually largely due to aesthetic reasons. This means that lots of water and resources are wasted due to the “ugly” produce problem.
We can contribute towards food security by buying imperfect food produce. We can also make videos and showcase how to make smoothies, recipes, salads, jams, juices, and other food produced from imperfect agricultural products.
- Share Knowledge with Farmers:
The world is evolving technologically and the agricultural sector is catching up. Some of the farmers in the sector are not well versed in technological advances, better marketing strategies, and more improved ways of food production.
Farmers need to be trained to make the best use of the technology around them. This will help bridge the gap between technological advancement and the farmer’s capacity to apply this technology.
This knowledge will help farmers work towards achieving food security. For instance, training farmers on more effective ways to manage pests and diseases will lead to less food loss, thus increasing income potential and enhancing food security.
3. Store Food Properly:
When food is not stored properly, it spoils, and this leads to food wastage. Simply putting food in the refrigerator is often not enough as different food items require different temperatures. There are also certain fruits and vegetables which do not require refrigerating and will spoil upon refrigeration.
It is important to know your food item and what storage option is most appropriate for it to avoid food wastage.
4. Keep Track of What you Throw Away:
Keeping track of what food you ended up not consuming helps you make more informed decisions when making your next purchase. For instance, if you keep a log and it reveals that you always end up throwing out bananas whenever you buy and store them, you might think twice about buying bananas next time.
Which of these habits will you be adapting to contribute to food security?
