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“We should provide avenues for the smallholder farmers of this world to access the required knowledge to ensure safe and healthy food is produced by them.” says Babatunde Olarewaju, Nigerian food expert and agronomist. In this week’s edition of Letter to my Farmers he talks about the need for the food chain as a whole to take responsibility for sustainable, healthy, safe and ecologically responsible produce.
The beauty of food, besides being the solution to hunger, is that it provides sufficient vitamins that contribute to health and fight against diseases. In my opinion, anything short of performing this function is not food. The potency of food lies in its safety for consumption. Therefore, unsafe food should not be called a "food" for whatsoever reason as this becomes more dangerous to its consumers.
As we celebrated World Food Safety Day past Monday, it is important to remember food producers are mainly smallholders and have little knowledge on good agricultural practices. We should provide avenues for the smallholder farmers of this world to access the required knowledge to ensure safe and healthy food is produced by them. Always, and by all means. This is very important because compromising food safety at the production phase can never be reversed. Thus, we need to incentivize by ensuring they earn a good living from their efforts. This can help in achieving good agricultural practices being the norm among smallholder farmers.
We should remember that everybody is important in ensuring that food is always safe and retains its potency to be called food. We should work together in constantly developing new ways to improve food safety and be an advocate of sustainability. This is a great cause we must all fight to ensure a world without hunger, especially hidden hunger that is a silent killer.
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
Training of Maize farmers on GAPs in Kaduna State, Nigeria 
Training of Maize farmers on GAPs in Kaduna State, Nigeria
As we celebrated World Food Safety Day past Monday, it is important to remember food producers are mainly smallholders and have little knowledge on good agricultural practices. We should provide avenues for the smallholder farmers of this world to access the required knowledge to ensure safe and healthy food is produced by them. Always, and by all means. This is very important because compromising food safety at the production phase can never be reversed. Thus, we need to incentivize by ensuring they earn a good living from their efforts. This can help in achieving good agricultural practices being the norm among smallholder farmers.
This is a great cause we must all fight to ensure a world without hunger, especially hidden hunger that is a silent killerAlso, we should not forget food handlers who are the intermediary between food producers and the consumers. We should provide them with access to adequate knowledge on food handling practices. Access to resources to improve their knowledge at little or no cost should be provided. Lastly, we should not forget the efforts of the last mile delivery agents, the unsung heroes, who are key to achieving food safety. Their action or inaction in food distribution can make or mar food availability and safety. Therefore, the government should provide the required infrastructure to ensure smooth running of their operations.
We should remember that everybody is important in ensuring that food is always safe and retains its potency to be called food. We should work together in constantly developing new ways to improve food safety and be an advocate of sustainability. This is a great cause we must all fight to ensure a world without hunger, especially hidden hunger that is a silent killer.
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
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