Gov Bassey Otu has launched the Cross River State Strategic Plan of Action on Food and Nutrition with a view to achieving food and nutrition security through enhanced investment in agriculture.
The Governor, who made this known through his Deputy, Rt. Hon. Peter Odey, in Calabar, said the policy would boost food production, availability, accessibility and affordability.
He reiterated government’s commitment to work assiduously with the State Planning Commission and relevant stakeholders to achieve set goals and targets.
According to him, measures would be taken to improve food harvesting, processing and preservation to reduce post-harvest losses, adding that this would also include school-based strategies to reduce malnutrition among school age children and improve their learning, health and nutrition status.
The Governor reassured the participants that the state planning commission would drive the process of coordination as stipulated by the state policy, and added “We are determined to change the statistics we met on ground in other to meet our proposed target by 2027.
“My government is poised to scale up food and nutrition interventions in Cross River State through the provision of matching fund of One Hundred Million Naira (100,000.000) for food and nutrition interventions in the state”.
He commended UNICEF, relevant MDAs, the organized private sector and other non-state actors for their contributions.
In his remarks, the Vice-chairman of the State Planning Commission, Dr. Bong Duke said that going by the plans on ground, Cross River would have the healthiest people not just in Nigeria, but in Africa by 2027.
“We are using a multi-sectoral approach to fight malnutrition in the state. The Ministry of Agriculture will make sure that our cassava is fortified. The school feeding program will be used to ensure that the nutrition status of children improve,” he submitted.
Also speaking, Dr. Olusoji Akinleye, Officer-in-charge,UNICEF Nigeria, Enugu Field Office, congratulated the government for charting a pathway to address nutrition issues by domesticating and formally launching the Cross River State nutrition policy and costed multisectoral strategic action plan.
She assured the government that UNICEF would to continue to collaborate with Cross River State government to improve the lives of children and women in the state.
The event drew dignitaries including Commissioners and Permanent secretaries from relevant MDAs, Permanent Secretaries from Benue and Enugu States. Also participating were, Development Partners such as the WHO, UNFPA, NI, CS-SUNN, GAIN, SELF HELP AFRICA and Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Cross River State Chapter.
