Bread continues to feature strongly on the global breakfast menu. It is a key staple food in most households across the globe. The love for the staple is due to its nutritional value, wider availability, and to some extent, affordability.
Therefore, dedicating a day out of the yearly circle to celebrate the role that bread plays in feeding the global population is a welcome development when considering the relevance of the staple.
World Bread Day (WBD) is an annual event celebrated on October 16 and was originally initiated by the International Union of Bakers and Confectioners (UIBC). Coincidentally, today is also World Food Day.
The observance has metamorphosed over the years. It is currently seen as a platform to commemorate the creation of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This double-prong observance underlines the importance of bread in the global food mix.
Bread is prepared from dough made from flour and ingredients such as water, sugar and butter are also added to the mix. Amongst others, five essential nutrients are found in bread – calcium for healthy bones, fibre which controls the body’s cholesterol level, protein for growth, iron for a healthy immune system, and the B group vitamins which are important for healthy skin.
The high nutrient contents of bread explain its popularity across continents. The market value of packaged bread worldwide stands reportedly at $42.4 billion. Growth in the market is forecasted at 8.38 percent between 2022 and 2027 according to Statista, a research portal. The forecast upward growth trajectory somehow foretells the gastronomic future of the escalating global population.
Meanwhile, bread is produced from flour made from wheat, a commodity that is not currently produced in sufficient quantities in many countries. Hence, a growing reliance on the importation of the commodity by those countries – most of which are in Africa.
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With surging food and energy prices, amid dwindling household incomes and a worrying rise in the cost of living, owing to global supply chain disruptions caused by the Ukraine invasion, global leaders and private organisations across the agriculture value chain have their work cut out. Combined with issues of climate change, reducing the number of people going hungry globally must sit atop issues in any global talks.
Back home, Nigeria accounts for 2.64 percent of the global population, it is the seventh most populous country in the world. Since this represents a significant position, there is hardly a better time for the country to protect its gastronomic future.
Also, considering the country’s population growth rate which stands at 2.6 percent, compared to 1.3 percent in South Africa and 0.4 percent in the United States, the time is ripe to deepen discussions on how to strengthen the local wheat sector. These discourses must also be taken beyond mere paper works and round-table meetings – they must be actionable.
Besides, Nigeria consumes a lot of bread. Over 10 million loaves of bread are said to be consumed in Lagos alone daily – not accounting for total consumption in other thickly populated cities such as Kano, and Port Harcourt among others. Therefore, any food security discourse that would have a strong impact on the population must put into consideration growth in the local wheat sector.
Leading the public-private action on the growth of the local wheat sector in Nigeria is Crown Flour Mill (CFM) Limited, the flour-milling subsidiary of Olam Agri, a global agribusiness transforming food, feed, and fibre. CFM produces the Mama Gold brand of flour which is used across bakeries to prepare bread, cakes, and other confectioneries.
The flour-milling firm recently launched a bold seed research and production initiative in the wheat production sector. Tagged Seeds for the Future, the initiative is addressing the factors that have impeded the achievement of wheat production self-sufficiency in the country.
In partnership with the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI) in Maiduguri, and Filippo Bassi, an expert durum wheat breeder from the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the firm is channeling N300 million into the seed research and production enterprise.
Speaking about the initiative, Ashish Pande, country head, Olam Agri Nigeria, said, “We are adopting a community-based seed enterprise that utilises the expansive capacities of the local agriculture researchers and the well-networked village-based women smallholder wheat farmer cooperative unions in the wheat farming belts of the North.”
“This innovative approach is targeted at nullifying the various factors that keep impeding growth in the local wheat value chain,” Pande said.
In the same vein, Bolaji Anifowose, vice president, commercial, CFM, explained, “Our current value chain development effort is meant to ultimately reduce the burden of wheat import in the country and cool the pressure on the FX.”
“We are delighted to be embarking on such an impactful project as it aligns with the Federal Government’s economic development and food security goals.”
The business announced the first-year result of the multi-year research effort in September 2022. Impressively, it met its target of producing 10 kilograms of pre-multiplication early maturing wheat seed varieties that are suitable for Nigeria’s unique local topography and climate.
Considering the trajectory of the research effort and the huge investment funds being ploughed into the project, CFM certainly is living up to its National Productivity Order of Merit Award which was conferred on the business in the first quarter of the year by President Muhammadu Buhari.
With this type of milestone research achievement, in addition to various efforts targeted at developing the wheat sector by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMARD), the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), among others, the country can project brightly into its gastronomic future, where bread, the food for the masses, continue to feature prominently.
