For many women in Nigeria who practice exclusive breast feeding, the weaning period is a crucial time. This is when children are introduced to solid food and such dietary change can be challenging for them, but also for care givers who are saddled with the responsibility of providing sufficient and nutritious food that would support healthy development. At this period, many women in rural communities utilize traditional foods of various kinds as weaning food. This paper highlights traditional food used by care givers in Makarfi Local Government Area (LGA) during weaning and the cultural teachings attached to weaning practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for 60 women who were purposefully selected from the ten districts in Makarfi LGA in Kaduna state, Nigeria because of their status as care givers. Results show that 95% of the participants derive their knowledge about foods used for weaning through cultural teachings that has been passed down through generations, while 5% got information from health practitioners. Some of the traditional foods used for weaning purposes include gyeda (Arachis hypoaea) and gero (Sorghum bicolar). This study reinforces the importance of traditional food and knowledge; and the need to take into consideration cultural practices when making food security policies.

Despite the role that rural women in Nigeria play in protecting the environment, not many studies acknowledge their contributions. As part of efforts to highlight women's contributions, this study interviewed 60 women between the ages of 20 to 60 on how important the environment is to their livelihood and how they protect it. Fifty percent (50%) of the women identified as farmers, forty percent (40%) as traders, three percent (3%) as housewives and seven percent (7%) identified as public servants. The participants reported that their activity under those capacities makes them interact closely with the environment; at different levels though. As part of efforts to protect their environment, these women engage in activities such as tree planting, manure application, sustainable harvesting and environmental sanitation as ways to give back to the environment. In their bid to protect their environment, the women face challenges such as poverty, cultural barriers, and the lack of government support. Policy makers are called upon to acknowledge the role of rural women in protecting the environment and include them in programmes surrounding conservation, disaster management, awareness campaign and rural development.

Nigeria's local food economy was affected by state-imposed restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 in communities. Street food vendors and consumers are among local food system actors impacted by such restrictions because their livelihood and food security are contingent on daily operations on the street. Informed by a descriptive qualitative approach, we interviewed 31 street food vendors and consumers who shared their experiences on how the lockdown impacted them. Vendors reported various impacts, including losing income, customers, customer trust, and social connection. Street food consumers reported difficulties meeting their food needs and developing multiple coping strategies, including cutting back on fruit and vegetable consumption and food sharing. Both vendors and consumers would like to see measures put in place to allow them to operate safely in a future lockdown event. This study is timely as the country strives to balance human and economic health amid the pandemic.

Having stable access to nutritious and culturally preferred food to maintain health and well-being is still a challenge for many people across the globe. Food insecurity and environmental degradation is rising across the world with interrelated drivers. There has been increasing advocacy for the creation of sustainable food systems to support food and nutritional security without degrading the environment. Bridging sustainability and food security ideas is a step towards building such food systems. However, how to apply ideas of sustainability and food security into building sustainable food systems remains a challenge, given the connection between the two concepts is not well appreciated. I introduce a sustainability and food security assessment framework as a first step for bridging sustainability and food security concepts, towards building sustainable food systems.