A professor of Aquaculture nutrition at the University of Lagos, Prof Ademola Aderolu, has proffered workable measures to ensure food security and guarantee price stability in Nigeria amidst rising inflation.
Aderolu, who spoke at the 24th Inaugural Lecture for the 23/24 Academic Session on the theme “Food-Feed Struggle, the Nutritionist as an Umpire,” which took place at the University campus in Yaba and was attended by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, among others, noted that the lack of synergy among the major stakeholders in the country’s agricultural chain had aided food insecurity.
According to him, efforts by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the federal government to ensure food security may not quickly yield the desired result, considering the disconnect between academia, industry, and the tiers of government across the country.
The University don, while describing academia as the “Gown” and the other stakeholders, including the government, as the “Town,” pointed out that with strong cooperation, the country would not face challenges in feeding its people irrespective of the projections for the population explosion globally.
He pointed out that the disconnect between the “Town” and the “Gown” had affected the country’s ability to transform from a food importer to a primary food exporting route and contributed to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Aderolu argued that Nigerians expect the federal government to make policies to drive the sector. At the same time, academia furnishes the government with authentic evidence through research to aid decisions on policy formulation and programme design.
He pointed out that due to a lack of synergy, each stakeholder operates in isolation.
Government policies do not address needs, while research from the universities now gathers dust on many shelves or journals without fulfilling their desired purpose.
He noted that this challenge was further being made worse considering the spate of kidnapping and farmer-herder clashes as well as other challenges which had continued to threaten food security in the country.
“But if the government comes to the industry and says, I am giving you all a mandate if you can get us to produce fish feed for a particular price, I will give you such an amount outside your salary. Watch us and let us see if you will get results,” Aderolu said.
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