NIHORT: Improving food production through biotechnology

By Oluwatoyin Malik

From left: Prof. M.D. Magaji; Permanent Sec.,
Oyo State Ministry of Agric, Natural Resources
and Rural Development, Dr. Lawal and Prof.
Gbenga Ogunmoyela at NIHORT’s Research
review and planning meeting.
Photo: Oluwatoyin Malik

With the mandate to research into the genetic improvement, production, processing and marketing of fruits and vegetables, citrus, ornamental plants, herbs and spices, as well as disseminate information and transfer improved technologies on horticultural crops to farmers, the National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has always conducted an annual-in-house review and planning.

This annual meeting helps in discovering where the researchers encountered difficulties, the workability, or otherwise, of the research results and the impact of such research results on the end users, that is, the farmers.

So, it was time again for the annual gathering which came up between Wednesday 12 and Friday 14 March, 2008 where people from relevant government parastatals, agencies, stakeholders in the horticultural sub-sectors farmers, processors and others came together to review the researches carried out in 2007 and make a plan for 2008.

In his welcome address at the meeting, the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Ademola Idowu described 2007 as a successful year for NIHORT in spite of all constraints and limitations.

Dr. Idowu also said that with the understanding that the institute has a duty and national responsibility to support the horticultural sub-sector of the economy, it has been championing the presidential initiatives on tropical fruit crops and vegetables with all seriousness.

He was also optimistic that the Institute “is gradually getting back to a situation where the NIHORT would the place to go to in Nigeria for improved production and processing technologies and up-to-date market information on horticultural crops.”

Dr. Idowu, while speaking with journalists, also said the major breakthrough in the year under review “is the fact that we were able to launch and inaugurate the project of fruit juice processing that we initiated with the Oyo State government. This is one of the things the government is driving at, that is, how the public and private organisations can work together to put some of the things the research institutes are doing across to the use of the community generally.

“This year, we are trying to refocus our attention on the issue of bio-technology. Normally breeding with respect to citrus, vegetables and most of these crops would take between five and seven years before you can release a variety. Now, we want to focus on bio-technology; what will make us release varieties faster and tackle some problems we found difficult to tackle using the conventional breeding programmes.”

In the keynote address delivered by the Dean of College of Food Science, Bells University of Technology, Ogun State, Dr. Gbenga Ogunmoyela and titled: “The Potentials of Horticulture in Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals”, it was pointed out that about five of the seven goals are closely related or interwoven with horticulture.

According to Prof. Ogunmoyela, extreme poverty and hunger can be alleviated if there is increase in food production, pointing out that large scale vegetable production is one of the ways to arrest poverty. He also said child mortality could be reduced if there is access to the right food and medical attention. Same also goes for improved maternal health which he said will be boosted by good, quality food and nutrition which horticulture would readily provide.

Good nutrition through fruits and vegetables would also help in building immune systems thereby helping in combating malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, he said. Pointing out the ways forward, Prof. Ogunmoyela said better public awareness must be created through communication in the media, herbarium, home gardens and green houses.

He added that dependence on government should be reduced through income-generating activities while simultaneously promoting the culture of home horticultural practices. He also said that a strong corporate identity must be created to facilitate extra government funding support via collaborations, nationwide survey information, practical preservation methods, processing and export opportunities and back-to-land initiatives like sponsoring the Gardener of the Year award.

Speaking further on how horticulture could help in achieving Millennium Developmental Goals, Prof. Ogunmoyela said “when we come to the point where every individual, every household is interested in having one small garden, planting simple crops and having small orchards, then we will begin to raise public awareness and the consequence of that is improved development which would encourage researchers.”

In his remarks, the chairman of the occasion, who is the Executive Secretary of Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Prof. B.Y. Abubakar, represented by Prof. M.D. Magaji, said the role of the ARCN “is for us to do the advocacy for research institutes for them to get adequate fund to enable than conduct researches. The council is supposed to link up the research institutes with their sister institutions in the outside world and private organisations that are interested in agricultural produce.”

He said in the past, a lot of research ideas were generated and done but dumped on the shelves. “A lot of technologies but they have not been able to get to the farmers because they are not relevant either because they are too expensive for the farmers to adopt or they are not accessible culturally. Research for development means research that can be bought by the private sector and enlarged for private people.”

Present at the occasion were the Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Barrister Kunle Ishola who was represented by a permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr. Lawal, Executive Director of Obasanjo Centre for Organic Research and Development, Ibadan, Prof. J.O. Babatola, Dr. G.A. Iwo, Mr. Wasiu Odofin, Dr. Usoro and Prof. Gbadegesin, among others.