Climate Change and Nutrition Security in Nigeria

Climate change is a global reality and a major concern of many countries of the world. Its average impacts are the same globally but with some regional peculiarities. This paper reviewed the global events of climate change and its reality in Nigeria. It observed that the world’s climatic elements have been undergoing changing pattern for a long period. Its reality in Nigeria was seen in changing rain pattern, relative humidity, atmospheric temperature, rising sea level, coastal flooding, erosion, desertification and drought among other indicators of climate change. These events were viewed vis-à-vis their impacts on nutrition security. The paper related these events to such drivers of food insecurity as food shortages; increase in crop and animal diseases; shortage of portable water; poor sanitation; loss of rural livelihood and different forms of pollution-related diseases. Measures were suggested for integration into government programmes and policy that will help in mitigating and adapting to the impact of climate change on nutrition security Keywords: Climate change, nutrition security, mitigating, adapting, Nigeri

Variation in Body Weight, Organ Weight and Haematological Parameters of Rats Fed with Diets Based on Treated African kudzu (Pueraria phaseoloides, roxb. Benth) Seeds

Food insecurity is a major problem of the developing nations. There is therefore a need to assess the nutritional potentials of some lesser-known foods particularly grains with the view of adding them to the food base. In this paper, processed kudzu seeds (cooked and autoclaved for different periods(20,40,60 minutes))and raw kudzu seeds were made into flour and compounded into diets. The diets along with the negative and positive control diets were fed to eight groups of wistar rats for 28 days. The rats fed raw kudzu and negative control diet showed negative mean weight changes(- 6.50g and -10.0g )while those fed with positive control and treated kudzu diet showed positive mean weight changes with Diets 2(cooked kudzu) and Diet 8(positive control) having the highest values(55.10g and 90.0g).These changes were significantly different (P<0.05).The absolute and relative organ (liver, heart, kidney, pancreas, spleen and lungs) weight changes of the experimental animals did not follow any particular trend. Haematological parameters measured in the animals included, haemoglobin packed cell volume, white blood cells, neutrophils, eosinophil, monocytes, lymphocytes and basophils. Except for the values of haemoglobin and packed cell volume that were higher in positive reference diet (12.56g/100ml and 37.2%) which were not significantly different (P<0.05) from the cooked diet (12.0g/100ml and 36.33%) but significantly different from others, the remaining haematological parameters did not follow any particular trend in all the groups. The result showed that the treated flour supported growth but had no definite effect on other parameters measured. The flour can therefore support growth in higher animals. ight, organ, haematological.Key Words: Kudzu, cooked, autolaved, weight, organ, haematological

Climate Change and Nutrition Security in Nigeria

Climate change is a global reality and a major concern of many countries of the world. Its average impacts are the same globally but with some regional peculiarities. This paper reviewed the global events of climate change and its reality in Nigeria. It observed that the world\u2019s climatic elements have been undergoing changing pattern for a long period. Its reality in Nigeria was seen in changing rain pattern, relative humidity, atmospheric temperature, rising sea level, coastal flooding, erosion, desertification and drought among other indicators of climate change. These events were viewed vis-\ue0-vis their impacts on nutrition security. The paper related these events to such drivers of food insecurity as food shortages; increase in crop and animal diseases; shortage of portable water; poor sanitation; loss of rural livelihood and different forms of pollution-related diseases. Measures were suggested for integration into government programmes and policy that will help in mitigating and adapting to the impact of climate change on nutrition security