Food Insecurity: Charity Organization Rounds Up Monthly Nutrition Support Outreach, Calls For Stakeholders Intervention

 Zaks Foundation for Humanity (ZFH), an Abuja-based Non Governmental Organization (NGO), has rounded off it monthly Nutritional Assistance Program (NAP) for the most vulnerable people for the month of June, 2023.

Speaking at the penultimate distribution of the food packages in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, on the 27 of June, 2023, the Chairman of the NGO Mr Aliyu Ahmed lamented the worsening food insecurity and hunger pervading the entire country.

 Mr. Aliyu stated further: “as millions of Muslims in Nigeria will be celebrating Eid al Adha, also known as the “Feast of Sacrifice,” let us take time to reflect on the millions that are going through food insecurity and hunger around the country” According to him, “ Nigeria ranks as number 103rd out of the 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index with a score of 27.3%”. This, according to him, is a level of hunger that is serious, unacceptable and yet is often ignored or neglected. 

According to Mr Aliyu Ahmed, ZFH has been at the forefront of the fight against hunger in Northern Nigeria, where seventy two percent of the extremely poor Nigerians live.

He further stated that, as part of its activities to mitigate hunger, ZFH has been implementing its Resilience for Agricultural Innovation and Development (RAID) program, which aims to develop and improve agricultural value chain in the grains, legumes and other sectors among the small holder farmers and agricultural wage laborers in North Central Nigeria. 

He stated that, with the commercialization of the genetically modified cowpea event 245F, containing Cry 2AB gene, conferring resistance to Maruca Pod Borer,  ZFH was commencing its introduction to small holder farmers. The introduction, hopefully, according to him, would increase their crop yields by 20 to 100 percent and would help Nigeria to achieve food security and reduce malnutrition in the country, since many people depend on it as rich source of protein, vitamins (thiamine) and minerals such as iron. This, he said, “would translate to healthy life and increased productivity among the people as well as strengthen the continuation of ZFH’s monthly Nutritional Assistance Program (NAP) for the elderly, women and children as we shall off-take and use some of the produce from the farmers for the NAP program”.  

He therefore enjoined the relevant government agencies, well-meaning individuals, groups and organizations to join hands with ZFH to address the hunger crisis in the country.