Devex Dish: Nigeria’s multifaceted poultry problem

Here at Devex Dish, we talk a lot about what grain shortages’ impact on global food security means for people, but this week’s top story digs into what it also means for animals. Devex contributor Pelumi Salako takes us inside Nigeria’s maize shortage, and how it is affecting the country’s poultry industry. Maize is the main ingredient in chicken feed, and prices have soared from 200,000 Nigerian naira ($268.64) per metric ton to more than 500,000 naira ($671.59). There are a host of reasons for the scarcity: insecurity in the north where most of Nigeria’s maize is planted, poor yield, lack of mechanization, inability to import from Ukraine due to the Russian invasion of the country, and heavy flooding. Small poultry producers make up about 80% of Nigerian poultry owners, and they have a limited ability to weather the country’s economic crisis. “Maize has become too expensive and it is a crisis if you don’t feed your birds today because they will respond tomorrow,” Salam Habib, a 40-year-old poultry farmer from Ede, western Nigeria, tells Pelumi. He also says buyers for his birds are scarce because of the country’s economic crisis. “Right now, the demand is very low and it has never been like this in the last ten years.” Habib says he has no way to plan financially to purchase feed, because maize prices are so volatile. Without access to proper feed, birds don’t grow sufficiently large. The maize scarcity endangers not only the future of Nigeria’s poultry industry, but its nutritional security: Eggs are a form of cheap protein for many Nigerians, 25 million of whom face food insecurity. “Families that can give one egg to their children will not be able to do it and it will affect a child’s intelligence quotient, increase disease mobility, and cause protein-calorie malnutrition and some may not recover,” says professor Johnson Agbede, a lecturer at the department of animal production of the Federal University of Technology, Akure. Nearly 90% of the small poultry farms in Nigeria have closed, and mid-sized farms are struggling as well. The livelihoods of farmers are endangered, and they are forced to lay off employees, spreading further the economic impacts of the poultry industry’s collapse. Read: Maize shortages bring Nigeria’s poultry sector to the brink of collapse Holding pattern After much drama over the weekend, the U.S. government did not shut down on Saturday. This comes as a relief to the hundreds of thousands of federal employees here in the Washington, D.C. area, but unfortunately, the drama is not over. Yesterday's ouster of the speaker of the House of Representatives will further delay any progress on regular spending bills to fund the government, including the agriculture bill that threatened to make cuts to U.S. foreign food assistance programs. It also means further delays for the farm bill, the deadline for which also passed on Saturday. The bill is the regular vehicle that authorizes the flagship U.S. food aid programs such as Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Food for Education. Stay tuned to Dish for the latest developments. ICYMI: House conservatives unleash broadside attack on US aid funding A mouthful “Instead of just sending out a bot that farmers download and use on their own, we’re designing it to enhance the relationship they already have with local extension agents.” --— John Collery, chief product officer, Digital Green Can artificial intelligence help improve food security? Digital Green, which grew out of Microsoft Research, thinks the answer is yes. It began as a service in India for agricultural extensions that used local agents and farmers in videos to talk about best practices. The tool not only puts vital information at farmers’ fingertips, but featuring neighbors that they know personally is a key motivation to watch, Collery says. “Farmers are excited to see somebody from their community talking to them via that platform about best practices to apply,” he says. Now, Digital Green is harnessing AI with a host of tools that they say helps farmers communicate in real time with governments. The nonprofit is working with the startup Gooey.AI, alongside partnerships with the governments of India and Ethiopia, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Microsoft. Farmers can send queries via text or audio message and receive advisory responses with links to helpful content. Read: How AI and chatbots can boost crop yields + Devex Pro members can read how AI can be used to improve global development. If you aren’t a Pro member yet, start your 15-day free trial now to unlock the piece and all our exclusive reporting and analysis. Don’t forget the ‘S’ in ESG What do environment, social and governance, or ESG, standards have to do with nutrition? The benchmarks shouldn’t just measure what impact a company has externally, but also internally for its own employees, argue Valentina Baiamonte and Peter de Graaf, who is a senior adviser for ESG and sustainability at global communication consultancy Leidar. A social responsibility to staff should see companies focus on nutrition and employee well-being to both increase productivity — and because it’s the right thing to do. “There is absolutely no question about the positive relationship between healthy lives and healthy businesses,” they write in an opinion piece for Devex. “Comprehensive and targeted workforce nutrition programs yield improvements in nutrition and health outcomes, especially when embedded into broader employee well-being interventions.” The Workforce Nutrition Alliance can help companies develop employee nutrition programs, they write. The alliance provides tools and training opportunities, including a scorecard for a corporate self-assessment exercise, numerous webinars, studies, and information. Opinion: Workforce nutrition is an essential part of ESG reporting Chew on this Scientists are developing a range of crops that can thrive despite climate change. [The New York Times] Reformulation alone of ultra-processed foods will not be enough to have a significant positive effect on nutrition. [Food Policy] Ninety percent of Sudanese families fleeing into South Sudan say they are going multiple days without eating. [WFP]