Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security<\/a>, Dr. Marcus Olaniyi Ogunbiyi, stated this at a national biofortification workshop in Kano on Saturday.<\/p>\n\u201cEnsuring food availability alone is no longer sufficient,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
He stressed the need to ensure that food consumed by Nigerians was nutritious, safe, affordable and accessible.<\/p>\n
He noted that malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies remained major public health and economic challenges in the country.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ogunbiyi explained that biofortification provides a cost-effective and sustainable approach to improving nutrition, particularly among women, children and vulnerable groups, he said.<\/p>\n
The workshop was organised to review the mandate and operational framework of the National Biofortification Steering Committee and align it with national food and nutrition policies.<\/p>\n
Nigeria currently has the largest portfolio of biofortified crops globally, with iron-rich pearl millet, zinc-enriched rice, Vitamin A cassava, Vitamin A maize and Vitamin A sweet potato developed and promoted through partnerships with research institutions.<\/p>\n
The initiative has been integrated into national agricultural and nutrition policies, with private sector participation strengthening the value chain through seed multiplication, processing and market development.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters, participants emphasised the need for sustained investment in research, extension services and awareness creation to accelerate the adoption of biofortified crops nationwide.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening food and nutrition security through expanded adoption of bio-fortified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4318],"tags":[224667,45299,105,4434,16,15],"class_list":["post-766846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-bio-fortified-crops","tag-fg","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116076632241197680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}