Nutrition project to narrow variety of human diets

A new international project launched at the World Nutrition Rio Congress 2012, the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project is to address growing global concerns over poor nutrition.

The project as revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement aims to address the narrowing variety of people's diets, with nutritionally-poor processed foods dominating the world's dinner table.

Officials during the project launch asserted the renewed emphasis on sustaining the natural variety of crops and animals contributing to agri-business and the neglected nutritious traditional foods.

The project is necessary as the negative health effects of poor nutrition and the neglected traditional foods have led to a raft of global health issues.

The Director General of BioDiversity International, Emile Frison said the diversity of crops and their wild relatives, trees, animals, microbes and other species contribute to food production.

Also commenting on the new project, Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity affirmed the need to consider not only sustainably producing sufficient food, but also working towards diversified nutrition to combat the challenge of feeding the world population of around nine billion by 2050.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world's largest public funder of international environmental projects, NaijaAgroNet gathered is supporting the multi-country project led by Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Bioversity International is coordinating the project with implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 

Monique Barbut, GEF Chairperson said GEF is making efforts to expand its engagement in the conservation and management of agricultural biodiversity which provides the mainstay for millions of people worldwide and food security to the world's most vulnerable populations.

Yinka Awosanya/LS

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