• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Food wastage: Senator, varsity don canvass establishment of silos in local councils

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In order to reduce food wastage in the country, government at all levels have been called upon to establish silos in all local government areas in Nigeria.

Making the call in Lagos at a seminar for market men and women organised by Bariga Development Community Association (BADECA), a non-profit organisation, to mark this year’s World Environment Day, Gbenga Ashafa, a senator representing Lagos East at the National Assembly, said one of the ways to curb the increasing food wastage in the country was the establishment of silos.

Ashafa advocated for a bill for the establishment of silos in all councils. He lamented the volume of food wasted in markets across the country, adding that governments at all levels should be involved in curbing what he described as “monumental wastage”.

In her address, Tolu Adeyo, recycling manager, Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), urged Nigerians to manage food properly in their homes to reduce wastage.

Adeyo further disclosed, however, that her agency has been able to turn waste into wealth, a project which, she said, is being vigorously pursued by the Lagos State government. She also said that the activities of LAWMA have greatly helped the sanitation programme of the state.

Addressing the students’ section of the seminar, Johnson Olaleru, a professor of Mathematics, University of Lagos, said there’s the need to interact positively with the environment, urging the students to make wise choices of the food they eat.

Olaleru promised that his department would soon collaborate with BADECA on quiz competition in Mathematics for secondary school students in Lagos State.

Earlier in his opening address, Adeniyi Ojebisi, chairman, BADECA, said the event was to sensitise the market men, women and students on the need to conserve food in line with the UNDP-World Environment Day 2013.

Ojebisi emphasised that people must “cook only what you can finish. Buy only what you can finish. Anytime you buy food, always remember somebody somewhere is crying for food. You cannot afford to waste it.”