A don in the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, Professor Omolade Abodunrin Oladele, has identified home-grown solutions as a way out of tackling the challenge of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor Oladele stated this while delivering the 496th inaugural lecture of the university, the 11th of its kind from the Department of Veterinary Medicine and the 42nd from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine entitled, Back to Eden: Indigeneity in the Quest for Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“I believe that the phrase ‘African solutions to African problems’ which has become a mantra so entrenched in the African Union policy circles, is the way to go,” she said.
She said this is the time for Africa to look inward to solve her problem of food insecurity by making the best of what she has and not focus on what she does not have.
“It is, however, disheartening that we as Africans prefer to abandon our own food animals and channel our meagre resources to importation and rearing of exotic breeds to meet our ever-increasing need for animal protein,” she said
While emphasising that the major approach towards achieving food security in sub-Saharan Africa is to work with nature, she noted medicinal plants have been used for curative purposes in all cultures by humans since time immemorial.
“However, while man has exploited the benefits of plants as flavours, food preservatives and in the maintenance of health and treatment of diseases to a large extent, he is yet to maximally utilise it for his animals and birds.
“Thus, the production of animals in commercial quantities is a justifiable venture that would greatly enhance protein supply for human consumption on the African continent,” she maintained.
She therfore recommended that the use of natural products in poultry production will be of great benefit by enhancing productivity, reducing the use of synthetic antibiotics as growth promoters, reducing the menace of antimicrobial resistance in our society, providing meat and eggs devoid of antimicrobial residues to the populace, and thereby reducing poverty.
“Knowing that God Almighty has blessed us with indigenous breeds of food animals that hold enormous potential for protein supply at reduced cost of production, and knowing that we have the resources in natural products to improve livestock productivity, why are we looking the other way?,” Professor Oladele said.
She, therefore recommended to the university to close the gap between research output and relevant agro-allied industries by encouraging dissemination and adoption of inventions that will enhance productivity in animal agriculture.
She also called for the improvement of research funding for investigations into the use of natural products as growth promoters for livestock and poultry production, while the university management should pursue establishment of independent power supply to the campus and its environs in order to create an enabling environment for cutting-edge research without having to travel abroad for critical aspects of research as currently obtains.
She charged African political leaders to be sincerely committed to reducing food and nutrition insecurity by strategising the agricultural sector that is inclusive of animal agriculture.
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