Experts In Cautious Optimism As Climate Change Threatens Food Safety

From the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and its affiliates, it is cautious optimism because climate change is threatening food safety.

The concern is much more on the developing countries, Nigeria inclusive.

 This cautious optimism is dominant in its “The state of food systems worldwide in the countdown to 2030”, published recently by The Food Systems Countdown to 2030 Initiative (FSCI).

The publication which provides the first science-based monitoring to guide decision-makers in agriculture chain, say transformation is needed urgently to reduce environmental impact on the sector if they were to mitigate the impact of climate change.

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With vulnerability in its agriculture system, especially in the area of preservation and storage of agriculture products, there may be more reasons for Africa, of which Nigeria is key, to indeed hold a cautious optimism.  

Experts’ concern centre on amongst others, the lack of equitable access to healthy diets, especially for the most vulnerable population through sustainable and resilient agriculture and food systems.

The Eagle reports the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluding in a 2022 report that “Food supplies and prices are especially vulnerable to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa because of a lack of resilience to climatic events, food import dependence, and excessive government intervention”.

According to the fund, “most people live in rural agricultural and fishing communities that can’t afford infrastructure to protect them from adverse weather. For example, they depend on rain to water their crops, and less than 1 percent of arable land is equipped with irrigation.

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The IMF standpoint resonates with the cautious optimism that just characterizes the FAO and affiliates’ submission in the midst of climate change.

 “The first annual Countdown report shows that no single region has all the answers. Europe and North America do well on undernutrition but poorly on indicators of unhealthy diets. In contrast, Africa and South Asia do relatively well on some environmental indicators but poorly on indicators of livelihoods.

“The data show very clearly that every region has significant room for improvement”, submits Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

Contributing, Mario Herrero, Professor and Director of the Food Systems & Global Change Programme, Cornell University, said: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

“That’s why we need a monitoring system that shows strengths and weaknesses at national, regional and global levels across all parts of agriculture and food systems.

Thinking along similar lines, José Rosero Moncayo, Director, Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), said: “We are at the beginning of the process and there are still gaps in the data that we need to fill to ensure we are effectively monitoring progress across all dimensions of agriculture and food systems.

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“Filling those data gaps is a top priority for ourselves, and the global science and policy communities concerned about the future of agriculture and food systems.”

While agriculture and food systems play a vital role in meeting all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet the SDGs are insufficient to monitor these systems, the FAO adds, expressing optimism that its FSCI would this gap.