By Edward Dankwah
Accra, July 26, GNA – Dr Richard Asare, Ghana Country Representative, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), said the HealthyDiets4Africa (HD4A) project will combat malnutrition in Africa by enhancing access to diverse diets for target populations and facilitating dietary changes towards greater diversity among consumers.
He said the HD4A introduced an innovative concept and approach that targeted the diversification of the entire food system for the sustainable transformation of nutrition in Africa, providing healthy diets while protecting the environment.
The Ghana Country Representative of IITA was speaking at the launch of the HealthyDiets4Africa-Ghana Living Lab held in Accra.
The launch brought stakeholders to discuss and identify the actions to be carried out by the local participants in the execution of the work packages of the HealthyDietsAfrica project.
It was organised by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), IITA and its partners, with funding from the European Union (EU).
Dr Asare said the HD4A provided ground-breaking research and innovation in the field of diet monitoring to provide the nutritional status of target populations in eight African countries.
The countries include Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda.
“With the development and wide adoption of new innovative products, new varieties of major staple crops that are more nutritious than currently used varieties were envisaged for distribution,” he added.
He said the project intended to develop production technology and recipes for the preparation of underutilised and nutritious African crop species such as indigenous vegetables that were currently not widely used and adopted.
Dr Asare said existing cropping systems would be improved under the paradigm of diversification to make them superior to current practice in terms of ecological footprint and diversity of produce.
He said, however, support would be given to new innovative business models by scaling partners in the eight African countries to establish diversified food systems on a larger scale through living labs, demonstrations, and the establishment of financing options for various stakeholders of the food chain.
“This is to be accompanied by policy dialogue for better-informed nutrition policies and dissemination efforts to help shape a societal environment that is conducive to the diversification of the food system,” he added.
The Ghana Country Representative said threats to food, nutrition, and water security posed by climate change and other challenges were not new but were becoming increasingly complex and pressing, requiring new approaches.
Dr Titilayo Falade, a Food Safety Scientist, at IITA, said Nigeria launched its Living Lab last year, with a focus on addressing food safety concerns, specifically examining heavy metals, pesticides, and mycotoxins.
She said from the discussions, Nigeria identified key challenges and developed an action plan to enhance food safety, thereby contributing to safer and healthier food.
The Food Scientist said this was helping the country in generating evidence and data on the current state of healthy diets in relation to food safety.
“By collaborating with various partners, we successfully generated valuable data that can be utilised for policy improvements, informing policymakers and knowledge institutions, and guiding future directions in food safety,” she added.
She said Nigeria was currently engaged in various activities, including studies to understand knowledge, practices, and awareness.
Additionally, he said they were conducting experiments on different technologies, such as black soldier fly technologies, and investigating how fermentation could reduce exposure to mycotoxins.
The Food Scientist added that the knowledge they were gathering was helping stakeholders understand the current impact of these actions and how they could contribute to alleviating the issues.
GNA