Over 10 communities and five secondary schools in Ondo State have been trained by the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) of the Federal University Technology, Akure (FUTA).
The training covered information dissemination, management of poultry from day-old chicken to productive age, fish pond from fingerlings acquisition to table size, and cassava multiplication.
The WAAPP-FUTA project, sponsored by the World Bank, started in 2013 but took off in 2014 to help alleviate poverty in the country.
FUTA Vice Chancellor, Professor Adebiyi Daramola, expressed concern that the severe poverty and hardship in the country, which come with hunger, misery, disease and starvation, may not abate until there are mechanisms to address these challenges through effective food processing.
According to him, the increasing gap between population growth and food supply is the most serious threat to the survival of humanity.
Daramola, represented by Deputy Vice Chancellor (Development), Professor Tolulope Akinbogun, said the training would help bridge the gap between food supply and requirement.
“With these programmes in place, it becomes imperative that food insecurity should be a thing of the past.
“I think there is need for Nigeria to have a Food Research Agenda that will be pursued since a well-articulated and founded research agenda will deliver the necessary capacities for knowledge-based development,” Daramola added.
WAAPP-FUTA Coordinator, Professor Taye Amos, explained that the most critical challenge facing governments globally is how to feed the world’s seven billion people and reduce poverty.
He said the trend in world hunger has not abated, with Africa the worse hit, as 40 per cent of its population live on less than $1 a day and one in three persons undernourished.
With one in every four persons in Africa as a Nigerian, Amos stressed, the need to look at the food situation is very critical.
He said there is a high rate of increase in food prices due to a deficit in local production and the programme is one of the steps towards mitigating the problem.
WAAPP-FUTA Training Coordinator, Professor Yomi Alfred, noted that the training is timely and urged the participants to help increase food production to feed the nation and in the process make money.
To ensure sustainable food security and economic growth, he added, a nation must love to eat what it grows or grow what it loves to eat.
“In order to guarantee sustainable food security, therefore, post harvest losses must be attacked by developing an integrated post harvest system that incorporates processing and preservation.
“This will lead not only to enhanced income and profit for producers but also to better accessibility and affordability, accruing as profit to consumers,” Alfred said.