To commemorate year 2023 World Food Day, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Qu Dongyu has outlined five key actions to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.
The key actions outlined at the World Food Day ceremony hosted at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, on Monday are:
1. Strengthening partnerships involving governments, private sectors, academia, civil society, and other stakeholders to work together for a water-secure future.
2. Developing innovative solutions, including collaboration with the private sector.
3. Increasing investments in integrated water resources management and infrastructure.
4. Promoting sustainable agriculture that produces more food with less water while restoring land and water systems, ensuring equitable water access, and building resilience to extreme weather events.
5. Encouraging the private sector to become water stewards, prioritizing equitable, environmentally sustainable, and economically beneficial water use.
At the event, Mr. Dongyu stressed the need for governments to prioritize water in policy and planning, emphasizing its critical role in the water-food-energy ecosystem.
The event themed ‘Water is life, water is food. Leave no one behind,’ according to Dongyu, underline the vital connection between water and food, noting that ‘without water, there is no food and there is no food security without water security.’
He further stressed the importance of involving farmers, women, indigenous peoples, and youths, in decision-making and providing them with the necessary information and tools while he called for a collective effort from all stakeholders to address issues related to water, food, health, poverty, climate crises, and the environment.
“Every stakeholder needs to value water for a water-saving society, the food it produces and the planet it nourishes. Water is a precious resource and not infinite but we have taken it for granted for too long. Water affects everyone, so we need everyone to take their part in action.
“Today, we all need to embrace solutions that consider the complexity of the world in which we live and the close inter-relation between water, food, health, poverty, the climate crises and the environment,” he said.
In the same vein, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, recommitted his administration to actions and interventions that would make quality food affordable and accessible within the State.
According to the Governor, the ongoing development of Food Security Systems and Central Logistics Park in Ketu-Ereyun, Epe, was part of the current interventions by his Government to ensure food affordability.
The facility, he said, would help bring the food market closer to the consumers and scale down food prices.
Sanwo-Olu joined hundreds of farmers at Lagos Farm Fair, an event held at the Police College in Ikeja for the commemoration of the 2023 World Food Day organised by the Ministry of Agriculture with the objective to promote awareness and action against hunger, and to highlight the need to ensure healthy diets for all.
Farmers from various Local Government Areas of Lagos, who were supported by the State Government through Lagos APPEALS Project, exhibited their produce at the Fair and offered reduced prices for bulk purchase of their crops.
