There are certain simple logics to end hunger which past and present leaders have not adopted: Those ways are first of all to fund public projects so that people can provide food for themselves in a sustainable way.

This is very powerful because ultimately we would love to see many impoverished areas not reliant on aid from foreign countries (which often causes debt) and able to create their own, steady, supply of food.

Secondly, government agencies should give access to credit for everyone and make it accessible to every part; even many organisations are helping people in poor countries to gain access to credit. Most of these credit loans are repaid, and they have created many industries, such as farms, that help create a sustainable provision for people and also develop nations economically. If these people do not have access to credit, they cannot start industries that combat poverty.

Thirdly, food donation is also a way to end hunger. Ideally, it would be better to get the entire world to a place of self-sustainability. But this is not something that will happen overnight. In the meantime, it is important to lend a helping hand.

Donations, both cash and food, have had an immense impact on world hunger. Currently, the coronavirus pandemic has hit developing countries so hard; for example, Nigeria, where food and cash donations are partially ending hunger in various parts of the country. Organisations such as “Food For All” have customers donate about $1-5 when checking out; in their first year, raised a whopping $60 million to fight world hunger.

Fourthly, many families dealing with poverty need help to transition into a state of self-dependence. It is highly important because self-sufficiency allows for a certain food income while relying on donations does not always guarantee food.

Also, access to education; we all know that education is the best weapon against poverty and hunger. It is especially powerful in underdeveloped countries. Education means better opportunity and more access to income and food. Additionally, some countries have food-for-education programmes where students are given free food for coming to school, just like the federal government of Nigeria’s initiative feeding the public school pupils one meal a day programme.

More ways to end hunger include government’s intervention empowering women, such as programmes that provide food to mothers and their children in poor areas. There is a direct correlation with hunger and gender inequalities. Empowering women to gain access to food, be providers, and lead their families has had a major impact on food access and ability to change financial situations.

Lastly, high birthrates pose a problem when trying to solve hunger. Many people are not educated on reproduction or do not have access to contraceptives as family planning and the rest of them. So, gaining access to contraceptives allows for family planning and economic freedom.

How to achieve a sustainable food security Food security, as defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security means that all people at all times have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.

Over the coming decades, a changing climate, growing global population, rising food prices, and environmental stressors will have significant yet uncertain impacts on food security. Adaptation strategies and policy responses to global change, including options for handling water allocation, land use patterns, food trade, post-harvest food processing and food prices and safety are urgently needed.

My personal analysis on food security includes cash transfers, promotion of sustainable agricultural technologies, building resilience to shocks, and managing trade-offs in food security, such as balancing the nutritional benefits of meat against the ecological cost of its production.

Economically, there has been a lot of outflows and no inflow essentially in this time of the pandemic. It shows how we have not had enough storage facilities and showed our unpreparedness for future occurrence as the pandemic to store our food products in the past. If we had prepared for times like this when the virus broke out, hunger rate would have reduced drastically. That brings me to recall the points I referenced earlier in ways to end hunger based on the Federal Government’s focus solely on agriculture and also the CBN’s 50 billion intervention fund to fight hunger. If these monies were injected from the onset in the time past and the acquisition of enough storage facilities to store these foods there will not be a shortage today.

Simple ways to enhance nutrition

Good nutrition is one of the keys to a healthy life. You can improve your health by keeping a balanced diet. Everyone should eat foods that contain vitamins and minerals. This includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and a source of protein.

If these simple methods of eating are adopted, one would live a healthy and long life. Also, we should totally reverence God and be spiritual because the almighty God gives man a perfect and healthy life.

Promoting economic growth and productive employment

Employment generation alleviates poverty and increases the level of economic activities translating into economic growth. The rate of unemployment In Nigeria is not only alarming but a national embarrassment to a nation tagged Giant of Africa. It calls for meaningful and tangible action. There are several ways in which unemployment can be tackled and bulldozed out completely. One of the ways is to reform the educational system by empowering the minds of the youths greatly that after graduation from school you can be gainfully self-employed than staying idle at home.

Ultimately, agriculture comes to play here whereby 85 per cent of Nigerian youths between the ages of 21-35 cannot farm. When President Muhammadu Buhari said in one of his public statements that “all Nigerian youths are lazy”; rhetorically, he was right. Because, no average Nigerian youths would tell you he wants to delve into agriculture to make ends meet; only a few that has come to the realisation of life that you have to work hard and plant what to eat. Perhaps, only a scale of 0.5 -10 of the youth is interested in agriculture.

Most think that farming requires a wide range of land to farm and more labourers to work to have an effective farming, due to the tediousness. If this mindset can be changed; even the leftover piece of land at their backyard can be perfectly utilised and put to good use. That brings me to the challenges being faced by our reliable farmers of the invasion of Fulani herdsmen rattling their cows, destroying the plant crops across the country. But never be discouraged; do all you can and contribute your own quota from your ends to reduce unemployment.

One other way unemployment can also be reduced is for the Federal Government of Nigeria to initiate an intervention fund programme that allows unemployed graduates to present a business plan and also a portal where it can be uploaded, and reviewed for the qualified, selected candidates, just like the COVID-19 50 billion intervention fund programme initiated recently to support MSMEs and SMEs and even households to end hunger, and employed persons will continue to run their various businesses.

So after the selection process, the qualified candidates would then be given a substantial amount of money to invest in their various businesses, according to their proposed business plans. In that way, unemployment can be greatly conquered to a reasonable extent.

Ways to develop agriculture

To develop agriculture, we study agricultural development; and there are several factors that help such growth and they are:

1. Technology

2. Supply of inputs

3. Access to markets

4. Equilibrium distribution of all forms of resource and policies and programmes that can stimulate them.

Scale of production is a particular concern as well. Most farmers in the developing countries like Nigeria are smallholders,

While in production there may be few economies of scale, being small can give advantages in supervision of labour and understanding of micro-variations in soils and climate. There are drawbacks when dealing with buyers, suppliers of inputs and bankers.

Hence, finding ways to think small farmers to link effectively to large scale enterprises in supply chains is a challenge.

So one other major ways we should be critically looking out as a bail-out to a drastic agricultural development is through a loan programme just like the Anchor borrowers program which was launched by President Buhari on November 17, 2015 is intended to create a linkage between anchor companies involved in the processing and small-holder farmers (SHFs) of the required key agricultural commodities.

The programme is good but from my own background checks and observations is that most of those resources are channelled mostly to the northern part of Nigeria, which is actually great, but a total circulation of those resources to the other geo-political zones of the country would be an added advantage, and will reduce food shortage; everyone can be producing variances of commodities.

More ways agriculture can be greatly developed in Nigeria is by adopting the agricultural insurance policy.

The government should take the strategic lead for financial inclusion and insurance for rural and agricultural commodities. They should ensure that insurance is included in the national agricultural policy as a part of a broader strategy that creates capacities and incentives for agricultural risk management.

More essentially, the government should focus attention on mechanised farming because this is 21st century. “Who stills tills the ground with bare hands in developed countries?” No one! The government can acquire all these agricultural equipment because it makes work easier and faster.

Finally, I can conclusively say that encouraging agricultural development can lead to how employment can be developed. And, if more people are involved in agriculture, it will definitely end hunger and enhance nutritional values in one’s body system.

So they are interwoven and all intertwined because there is no way you will talk about agricultural development and not talk about job creation to end hunger.

•Mike-Nifty, an economist and public affairs analyst, can be reached via nifty.mics@yahoo.com.

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