In a bid to combat food wastage and enhance food security, the Oyo State Government has inaugurated a Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition. The committee is tasked with driving improvements in community nutrition and promoting sustainable development.
Speaking at the inauguration held at the Emergency Operation Centre of the Ministry of Health, the Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, emphasized the committee’s role in ensuring community wellbeing, particularly through improved nutrition.
She charged the members to implement strategies that would strengthen food systems at the grassroots and contribute meaningfully to the state’s broader health and development goals.
“This is to take the message to the grassroots. We already have 27 local government committees on food and nutrition, so these are the last six local government areas that we need to bring on board. These are Ibadan North, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North West, Ibadan South East, Ibadan South West and Ido local government areas.
“It is very important because nutrition plays a vital role in our economy. If you are not taking the right proportion and the right diet, it will show in terms of our children coming down with the triple burden of malnutrition – underweight, stunting and wasting.
“Now in the state, we are battling with wasting. This can be easily corrected, so we need to carry the people along in the local government. They can look through the work plan and see what they can do in their own domain.
“Our hope is to bring to the barest minimum wasting in the state, which currently is about 14.4%, so we won’t end up having children with chronic malnutrition. Malnutrition affects the cognition of children. We want all nutrition-related indices that are flagged red to be brought down to the barest minimum.”
The Chairman of the State Committee on Food and Nutrition and Permanent Secretary of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Tunde Ayanleke, emphasized the significance of the Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition in achieving the state’s five-year targets for nutrition-related indicators.
Similarly, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr. Muideen Olatunji, noted that the successful implementation of the workplan developed by these committees would lead to marked improvements in the nutritional status of women and children across the local government areas.
“The bottom line is to ensure that all our activities get to the last person as much as possible without mitigating or, sorry, without mutilating or discomforting the message. When you have a structured body, we can easily address some of the challenges of malnutrition immediately,” he added.
Dr. Khadija Alarape, Director of Nutrition at the Oyo State Primary Health Care Board and Project Coordinator for the recently concluded ANRiN project, highlighted key challenges in the state’s nutrition sector, including inadequate attention, insufficient funding, and weak coordination across sectors.
She noted that the inauguration of the committee aligns with directives from the Nigerian Governors Forum, the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning, and the World Bank, which mandate the establishment of State and Local Government Committees on Food and Nutrition in every state.
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