From Public Health Nutrition Practice to Food Systems Strategy: Why Agrifood Business Is Central to My Work

After years of tackling the immediate and underlying causes of malnutrition, one truth has become inescapable: we cannot achieve lasting food and nutrition security without transforming the businesses and systems that produce, process, distribute, and sell our food. Nutrition interventions delivered at the clinic or community level address symptoms. The real determinants of what people eat are decided much further upstream, in fields, processing plants, supply chains, and markets.

Global food systems are at a defining inflection point. Climate shocks are disrupting harvests with growing frequency. Post-pandemic supply chain vulnerabilities have exposed the dangers of food import dependency. And the double burden of malnutrition, where undernutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases coexist within the same communities, is intensifying across Africa. These converging pressures demand a fundamentally different approach to tackling hunger and malnutrition: one that builds resilient, nutrition-sensitive food systems from within.

Agrifood businesses sit at the center of food system transformation, and agrifood nutrition MSMEs particularly shape what ends up on people's plates. The value addition that happens between production and consumption largely determines the affordability, safety, and quality of the food communities actually consume. Yet many agrifood MSMEs struggle with access to finance, appropriate technology, regulatory standards, and viable market integration. This is not simply a business challenge. It is a public health and equity challenge.

When a smallholder processor cannot access affordable cold-chain infrastructure, post-harvest losses escalate and nutrient-dense perishables never reach urban consumers. When a women-led food enterprise cannot meet formal market standards, her business is locked out of institutional procurement channels that could dramatically extend its reach and impact.

The Africa Food Systems Report 2025 is clear that agro-processing remains underdeveloped, with only 12 to 15 percent of agricultural GDP coming from agro-processing across the continent, and that piecemeal progress will not deliver the transformation the continent needs. Global frameworks from AU Agenda 2063, CAADP, and the UN Food Systems Summit all reinforce that strengthening agrifood MSMEs is among the most powerful levers available for improving diets, livelihoods, and systemic resilience. The evidence also increasingly affirms the centrality of nutrition-sensitive value chains, where sourcing, processing, packaging, and pricing decisions are deliberately oriented toward improving diet quality, not merely food volume or commercial return. Food systems transformation is not a distant ideal. It is being built today, enterprise by enterprise, value chain by value chain, policy by policy.

Over two decades working across national public health nutrition governance, nutrition policy and strategy, donor technical support, business development, and private consulting has made one thing consistently clear to me: system-level change in hunger and malnutrition outcomes happens at the intersection of public health, public policy, market incentives, and enterprise capacity. No single lever is sufficient on its own.

A micronutrient fortification policy without commercially viable partners to carry it forward stalls at the regulatory stage. An agrifood business with a nutritious product but no route to market never achieves scale. A value chain with strong aggregation but weak food safety standards creates new risks even as it resolves old ones. This intersection is not incidental to food systems transformation. It is the work itself. That is why my practice is expanding into agrifood MSME business advisory, value-chain strengthening, and nutrition-sensitive enterprise support.

No credible conversation about agrifood MSME transformation in Africa's food systems can proceed without centering on women. Women account for a large majority of Africa's agricultural labour force yet own a fraction of the land they work, and receive a disproportionately small share of agricultural financing and extension services, according to IFAD. Supporting women-led enterprises is therefore both an equity imperative and an evidence-based strategy. Research consistently shows that when women control food-related income, household dietary diversity improves and child nutrition outcomes strengthen.

As the lead for Women in Agrifood Systems in Nigeria, I have a responsibility to ensure women-led nutrition MSMEs are clearly and deliberately positioned in the agrifood business development ecosystem. Currently, there are several hard working, resilient and successful women founders scaling nutrition MSMEs in Nigeria. They need a voice, platform and support necessary to sustain growth and profitability.

Youth-led agrifood business support matters just as much. Africa's youth dividend presents a parallel opportunity. The Africa Food Systems Forum 2025, held in Dakar under the theme “Africa's Youth Leading Collaboration, Innovation, and Implementation of Agri-Food Systems Transformation,” placed youth entrepreneurship squarely at the center of continental food systems strategy. Young agripreneurs are already disrupting traditional value chains through agritech, digital commerce platforms, and innovative processing models. Investing in youth-led food enterprises is investing in the future architecture of Africa's food systems.

Two structural forces are reshaping agrifood businesses in ways that cannot be separated from enterprise strategy.

Digital transformation is unlocking new possibilities for smallholder market access, supply chain traceability, financial inclusion, and consumer engagement, from mobile-based input financing to data-driven quality assurance systems. Advisory support that helps SMEs navigate, adopt, and leverage these tools is increasingly indispensable to their competitiveness and sustainability.

Climate adaptation must be embedded in enterprise design just as firmly. The Africa Food Systems Report 2025 notes that scaling climate-resilient farming systems requires coordinated investment, farmer capacity, and governance frameworks that ensure equitable and sustainable resource access. Enterprises that build climate-resilient sourcing, reduce food loss, diversify their commodity portfolios, and invest in sustainable processing are not simply acting responsibly. They are building the operational durability that attracts long-term impact investment and institutional partnerships.

The next phase of my work combines deep public health nutrition experience with food systems strategy and agrifood MSME business advisory, supporting enterprises and institutions to deliver healthier, safer, and more affordable foods at scale.

In practice, this means working with agrifood MSMEs to strengthen their business models, navigate regulatory environments, access new markets, and embed nutrition and sustainability into their core value propositions. It means engaging with policy actors to shape enabling environments that reward nutritious food production. And it means connecting enterprises to the financing, technical assistance, and networks they need to grow responsibly and sustainably.