Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

This member contributed to:

    • In most Nigeria communities women are mostly relegated to the traditional roles of home keeping in some traditional communities with women and girls getting left overs like can attend school once house chores are completed while their brothers prepare and go to school with the water that their sister walk distance to fetch, cook food, and take care of the home. So that even in farming, women perceived as the weaker once support in planting, food preparations and time for harvest, carry the harvested crops home. There are some communities of women dominance where the women are doing the hard work of farming and at the same time family care, while some men are out there getting drunk of gisting away with friends. Now the time to decide on key decisions, women are absent because they are taking care of family and home. There is the need for deliberate advocacy and action to promote women participation at community level. Somethings we strongly advocate and action upon in communities where we work, but more work needs be done to advance this process.

      Violence against women is a huge challenge in Nigeria, there are mindsets that physical abuse on is normal, as some people grew up seeing and knowing that physical abuse is a normal lifestyle. To steam that tide, we need to do more grassroots capacity building and knowledge sharing to make communities realise that physical abuse or any form of abuse is violence and should be discouraged. Also, there is the need to design a people centered case reporting mechanism to ensure incidences are reported through a confidential arrangement. There is the need to train traditional rulers and religious leaders in the areas of GBV and VAWG, since these are the custodians of the traditional laws and religious belief, these leaders are highly respected and revered so that they have greater influence to shape actionable laws and also commit to taking appropriate actions.

    • Firstly, the language should be reviewed to include women farmers as against women underrepresentation in decision making.

      Women and women led organization are just gaining recognition in Nigeria but more needs to be done to ensure inclusion of women in decision making. Also, there should be finance specifically for women farmers and women-led organization to support specifically to support women in farming.

      In my personal experience, my mother owned a large farm, but there was NEVER any form of support and encouragement to support her to produce more, but when its time to sell, buyers are more than happy to reach out to her to buy the commodity. 

      Farming and agriculture is more about business and profit than it is for nutrition, hence it is mostly not perceived as needing support from people and organization for the overall good of the society.

      Women also face threat especially in parts of Nigeria where insecurity persists and women are more vulnerable to threat of kidnap, and to gender based violence. Men and boys in parts of this region congregate for farming, and women in some cases play supportive roles, of planting, cooking and harvesting. This also increases the vulnerability of women especially in very isolated and remote farming communities or lands, where a call for help may be ignored or not heard.

      Here are some recommendations:

      • Advocate for increased inclusion of women in decision making, programmes should be designed bottom up not top bottom which seems to be the order of the day.
      • Increase local capacity of women, from compulsory primary and secondary education, to vocational education on farming and agricultural production and the value chain.
      • Encourage more women participation in traditional and cultural decision making, urging traditional and religious leaders to open up the spaces for women in decision making.
      • Promote financial literacy specifically for women farmers.
      • Support and set aside specific funds and financial and technical assistance to women farmers. 
      • Forge greater collaboration with security agencies and social service providers to promote and support women farmers.

    • First the rural farmer lacks knowledge about any legal instrument and committment to the definition of child labour, mostly children are engaged to support the Agriculture, in cultivation, for older children, and planting for younger children. Also in harvesting and processing usually is left for women and girls. Most of the farmers that engage children in Agricuture start with their children, and in some cases, children of relatives either staying with them or visiting. It is mostly believed that this is a form of traing and grooming, since agriculture is an age long tradition, and largely transmitted through inheritance to the next generation.

      Sadly, these children should be in school, except that the parents don’t seem to understand the need for education, or the children are able to support production which in-turn translates to more money and food available to avert hunger and poverty. But that is one sided in the sense that if the children acquires and education, they can improve production, using less energy and more machines to produce food.

      In especially conflict contexts, where children are either separated from their parents or are orphaned by the conflict, the older children takes responsibilities for catering for the younger ones who depend of agriculture for livelihood.

      Here are the following recommendations to reduce child labour in Agriculture:

      1- Raise awareness on the issue of child labour are national and community level, leveraging on the traditional and religious leaders to deliver greater outreach at grassroots.

      2- Support basic education, and promote school enrollment of underserved and marginalized population

      3- Put in place stronger more people centered monitoring system, that not just collect data but seeks to learn real challenges and proffer solutions to support small holding farmer,

      4- Design a reward system that support increase school enrollment and completion of underserved children.

      5- Design bottom up programs that capture the peoples input, through focused group discussion, with traditional, religious leaders, farmers groups, women’s groups, to criminalize and bring to book violators of the enjoyment to the full right of the child.

      6- Promote the domestication of the child rights act at national level. In Nigeria for instance, most of the states in the North have not domesticated the law. (Making it fluid to manage, already a challenge then exasperated by Covid-19 pandemic, it is reported that out of school enrollment jumped to around 13 Million in Nigeria, with the greater portion in the north, regrettably, the recent abduction of school children, will push that figure higher.)

      7- Increase outreach to non-sates armed groups on IHL, and international law, to promote protection of children in armed conflict.

       

    • Traduction française ci-dessous

      Data is still a major challenge to AfCFTA because monitoring is a major concern since there is lack of data collection mechanism and interagency collaboration among signatory states to the agreement. So no concret and verifiable records of number of farmers, products and produce, and the market and real values of their commodities, and how it is adding to the country of origion and country of consumption's GDP.

      Say for movements of Agricultural goods, how can we improve monitoring of transboarder crossing through legal and illegal routes, who is responsible for data collection? where is data stored? what is the data used for? how does it help policy makers make informed decision?

      Agricultural commodity is one challenging concern to manage in terms of movement driven by demands There was a food processing plant, that supplies to local and international markets proceesed casava flour, in such instance, how much is sold out of the country of origin, how is revenue measured in terms of GDP? Export, Import fees at the entry or exit points, who benefits from those funds? How do you monitor FREEDOM of movements of the commodity? 

      La question des données reste un défi majeur pour la ZLECAf car le suivi est extrêmement préoccupant en raison de l'absence de mécanisme de collecte de données et de collaboration entre les États signataires de l'accord. Il n'existe donc pas de données concrètes et vérifiables sur le nombre d'agriculteurs, de produits et de denrées, ni sur la valeur marchande et réelle de leurs produits, ni sur leur contribution au PIB du pays d'origine et du pays de consommation.

      Par exemple, pour les mouvements de marchandises agricoles, comment pouvons-nous améliorer le contrôle du passage des frontières par des filières légales et illégales, qui est responsable de la collecte des données ? Où les données sont-elles stockées ? À quoi servent les données ? En quoi sont-elles utiles aux décideurs politiques pour prendre des décisions éclairées?

      Le mouvement des produits agricoles est un problème difficile à gérer en raison des fluctuations de la demande. Par exemple, dans le cas d'une usine de transformation alimentaire qui fournit de la farine de manioc transformée aux marchés locaux et internationaux, il faut savoir quelle quantité est vendue à l'extérieur du pays d'origine et comment le revenu est mesuré en termes de PIB. Taxes à l'exportation, à l'importation aux points d'entrée ou de sortie, qui profite de ces fonds? Comment contrôler la LIBERTÉ de circulation de la marchandise? 

       

    • In order to address this situation surrounding Child Labour in Agricultre, I would recommend 3 strategies:

      1- Develop a national data register on childre, especially in vulnerable communities, these are more likely to be engaged in Agriculture early in life.

      2- Include farmers and members of the farming community in policy formulation and key decision making.

      3- Create a working or task group to monitor implementation and compliance with national and local regulation.

      Addedd: Design an incentive system that support local farmers with some support or services, only if they pledge to not engage their children or wards in child labour, and would report same

    • What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?

      There is need to develop either toll-free lines to capture information and share information with local farmers, or have a free text messaging system because majority of farmers have access to a mobile phone, and in most communities there is someone who can either read and interprete  the message or have the message sent in the language of that particular region. Say for instance in Nigeria, information is Hausa Language is generally understood in the north, Yoruba in the West, and Igbo in the Eastern region. There are other languages depending on the region. This can be used to register farmers, share information like fertilizer availability, availability of seedlings, capacity development initiatives, latest information, at no cost to the farmers. 

      UNICEF's U-Report was implemented in Nigeria some time back, am not sure about now, and it was effective to spread news, capture polls, learn from the people what is important to them, and it helped shape UNICEFs work in country. 

      Also, there is the need to provide a channel where the farmers can provide feedbacks and respond.

      The government could set-up a project team comprising farmers, CSOs, private sector and a small team from the government, while FAO monitors the process and holds them to account.

      How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?

      A digital council can address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies by forming a country teams with focal committee not just one focal person from the government. A farmer can connect with another farmer. There is the need for an independent team with people that can relate with the farmers on that country team.

      There is the need to build local capcity of team members in-country, to manage communication with the people.  

      Do you think that the roles identified for the Digital Council are suitable for facing the agrifood systems challenges outlined above?

      These roles identified is great, but there is need for country or regional representation in the advisory team, and add country teams in the working groups or regional groups. What will the composition of the team be? there is the need to have a greater portion of the teams, groups to be very independent of influence by national government to get the near true picture and implementation of the project.

      We can also have other donor agencies send focal persons as members of the council with observer status to report to their organizations, this will make them feel part of the council, and also strengthen coordination and build capacity of local actors.

      There is also the need to build capacity of the persons and groups of persons. There is need for country, regional and sub-regional consultation to feed into the overall goal of the design.

      What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose?

      Select independent council members from ALL the regions of the world. FAO's country office or regional offices can serve the purpose of administrative and virtual meetings.

      In 2010, I was channel manager for Microsoft to manage breath partners Northern Nigeria, my line manager was in Lagos, had a colleague in Ghana, we had more of our meetings virtual, and sent activity reports from the Microsoft offices in Abuja, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana, coordinated by our manager in Lagos, Nigeria. The team small, but had wide coverage, most of the administrative cost were managed by the country offices, and there was an upsurge of interest as more partners felt the impact of Microsoft, I even had the opportunity to host partners in the Microfsoft Office to handle technical difficulties. 

      I understand that FAO can be really complex, but a similar approach could help, and besides, other multilateral agencies have their offices in-country, like the Worldbank, EU, DFID, aside the United Nations (FAO). 

      Please add any other comment or relevant content you think should be included in the Concept Note.

      Increasingly, organizations are relying more on independent technical expertise of inidivuals in the regions or countries that they are most needed, it saves cost, expand reach, and helps to identify local actors to improve the process. 

      I will be happy to be part of the council, and will be more than happy to contribut technical skills and expertise to connect more farmers to boast food security using technology.

      Currently, there are over 160 million active mobile phone lines in Nigeria, and there lies huge potential to connect more people with tools and resources to empower them towards a prosperous hunger-free, poverty alliviated future.

    • To promote gender equality and women's empowerment, there is need for information gathering, sharing and capacity building in terms of trainings and consultuations at community level. This will translate to behavioural change and improved farming practices, and better soil management and conservation. Capacy building and strenghtening should be focused at community level, since there is a huge disconnect between policy and implementation and policy translation into the lives of women.

    • Gender is a major connect between sustainable soil use and conservation, since most of the post cultivation are often carried out by women and girls, i.e. planting, weeding, and harvesting. There is the need to critically examine weeding and post harvesting practices, to improve on the soil fertility. What happens to the weeds removed, are they gathered and burnt? or are they kept in the farm to be converted to manure, and replenish the soil. After harvesting the crops, what happens to the plant residue? Are they usually left in the farms to manure or gathered and burnt? There is need to teach women to improve on knowledge about soil health through traditional practices that have helped to keep the soil healthy for production despite years of use. Most families still use the inherited lands for Agricultural practices for decades, just by adopting mixed farming techniques, mixed croping, and other traditional practices.

      Women and girls are usually not allowed in the community decision making process, and this is a major hinderance to not just women participation, but limits their voices. Women and girls at community level have peer groups, and inviting leaders of women groups to the discusions, conversations, consultations, and decision making at community level, will ensure that women's contributions count, and that women's impact can help improve food production leading to zero hunger.        

      People-centered programming, there is the need to ask questions especially at community, farm, field level, to help inform decision and policy making. It has been the practice where decisions are made for women, not by women, and until we reverse this trend, we will keep eclising around the same old food shortages, hunger, malnutrition, and the likes.  

    • Firstly in parts of Nigeria where the bulk of the food is being produced, is experiencing an upsurge in farmers/herders, clashes, some areas are seeing banditry and insurgency causing hunger and malnutrition, and deaths. 

      To ensure we have a food-secure world in Nigeria, especially in rural farming communities in Nigeria, we are providing health and well-being services to the farmers and the herders in their communities, because we have learned that the health and well being of the farmers will ensure that farmers can produce food, and also save cost in accessing healthcare services, which would ordinarily be contributed to the food production.

      We are also training and teaching local farmers on the need to form a cal association to access financial support from the government and other donor groups to increase food security. 

      We are also training farmers on modern farming techniques, aimed at improving food production. Part of the training and local capacity building initiative include training farmers on soil health and different types of farming techniques to keep the ecosystem fit for continues use and maximize production.

    • Firstly in parts of Nigeria where the bulk of the food is being produced, there is an upsurge in farmers/herders, clashes, some areas are seeing banditry and insurgency which will lead to hunger and malnutrition. 

       We are building a public-private partnership in Agriculture by working with local private business owners to mobilize material support and support of local traditional and religious leaders to open up the communities to external services. 

      Because the majority of the farmers are afraid to travel a long distance to the farms, we are engaging with security agencies and vigilante groups for security surveillance as a proactive measure to ensure to forestall breakdown of law and order in the farming communities. 

      Private business owners and non-state funded research groups are the main players in the agricultural business in Nigeria, including the supply of fertilizer and other hybrids products. 

      There is a need for greater participation and collaboration between local actors and farmers to increase PPP in Agrio-business

    • In trying to understand Sustainable Food Systems, there are these 2 critical actors that are often neglected yet they are very fundamental drivers that can impact improved food systems.

      1. The local farmers: these actors are the producers, and they are often not recognized in policy formulation and implementation. They are not recognized when pricing and regulation, the market regulators just fix prices and not considering inputs from the farmers, as they need to also measure their effort and some form of calculations to consider if they are making a loss or making  profit from their farming activities. There is also the concern about transportation systems and access to market, we have seen that there is the activities of 'middle-men', buy the products are low prices and sell at higher prices making more profits than the farmers who are the producers.  

      2. Conflicts and crises: we are experiencing this concern in parts of North Central Nigeria, where farmers are clashing with herders, and tonnes of farm crops close to harvesting are either consumed by farm animals directed by the herders or burnt in anger and revenge. The face of conflict in Nigeria is having a huge impact on the food systems, and negatively affecting the food systems. 

      In understanding the food system, we need to understand the actors, the processes, the market and the final consumers. How does the consumer get the quality and the commensurate quantity, in the form that retains the nutrients that is needed.

    • Water harvesting is an age long tradition that has been implemented and still practiced by local farmers especially in the desert prone areas, but that is usually not sufficient because of the changing climatic conditions.

      Most farmers now rely more on local dams and government water storage facilities to help cope with the water scarcity. This is because; these local farmers can’t afford to build their own storage facilities to cope with the water needs of their farms. Also it leads to over population around the water storage sites which could pose a potential threat of land grabbing, conflicts resulting in the depletion of the land resource used for production.

      The water storages also come with the high cost of purchase of water pumping machines and water hose covering long distance to reach the farm lands; that some of these local farmers can’t afford.

      To control water use because of the water need of vegetable, local farmers use the traditional ridging irrigation system throughout the year for crop production to ensure vegetable supplies.

      On the flip side, there is the competition for the stored water especially in the outer fringes of northern Nigeria where rainfall is not insufficient to meet their agricultural needs therefore having herders and farmers competing for the little water stored to provide water their animals by the nomadic Fulani herders and the local farmers.

      There is currently farmers/herders in part of Nigeria leading to hunger, malnutrition, killings, and forced displacement due to the competition for the limited land and water resources in the areas affected.

    • Most rural farmers in Nigeria are not even aware of the practice of Biodiversity, or biological diversity, primarily because the farmers practice inherited agricultural practice that seem to follow tradition, some practices that they have held unto over generations, these practices.

      Trust in Biodiversity and biological diversity is a major concern among farmers, as they still believe that biodiversity or biological diversity has cultural implications from traditional belief, due to modification of the seeds and Agricultural produce.

      To have them engaged in the practice of Biodiversity, or biological diversity, we need to educate them, train the, teach them, let them understand the innovation, how it has helped to increase agricultural yields in a shorter time.

    • In rural communities in Nigeria, security of lives and property is critical to agricultural production so that if the people are safe to go to their farms and produce food items, they can consume and sale off the excesses while also saving some for the next season's production. Failure to provide a safe production environment, people are not able to farm, leading to food shortage, hunger, and a decline into extreme poverty. 

      Working with rural people in Nigeria who feed themselves from the food they produce and also make the excesses available for sale so that the proceeds from such sale can help meet their domestic needs. And a good number of people in Waring communities are suffering and are going to suffer poverty, because of food production declines, and how can they escape extreme poverty when farming is all they know and do? 

      Painfully, crises destroy the natural resources, but if we can work more on building peace among communities and ethnic groups in Nigeria, where they need each other farmers need herders for natural manures, and herders need the farmers for nutritious crops and feed for their animals. 

      I know that the government of Nigeria has developed policies to help with agricultural practices, but the main concern is translations into practice, unfortunately, most of these policies will not work, because they were developed by experts design from academic knowledge as against field experiences, and real time updated needs of the people and not by the people. To make is truely worth practicing, we need to make the people design what works for them, and have the people lead the process.

      In Northern Nigeria where you have different kinds of crisis, terrorism in the NE, cattle rustling in NW and farmers/herders clashes in the NC, these concerns attack the main food production region of the country, and sadly, hunger and extreme poverty looms, and we need to take urgent steps to save the people and the region from extreme poverty NOW.