Professor Lateef Sanni of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), has urged the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) to collaborate with universities and other research institutes to bridge the gap in food security.
Sanni made the plea in Ilorin while speaking during a two-day In-House Review Meeting of the NSPRI with the theme: “Innovative Post Harvest Research: A sustainable approach for achieving food security in Nigeria.
“The Professor of food science and Technology said the collaboration would further enhance the skills of the staff of the institute, who were contributing to reducing post-harvest losses.
“NSPRI staff can enhance their skills more if they collaborate with universities because we have different mandates and interests and skills, hence the need to work together, either South-South, South-East or even outside the country.
“It will help us to disseminate and fine tune some of the technologies we have to assure the Nigerian populace that we can stabilise the food security,” Sanni said.
Sanni added that there should be collaboration of stakeholders and other research institutes to make the research outputs developed by NSPRI accessible and affordable to all.
“We have some of the research outputs in NSPRI but most of these outputs are not known outside except in the institute locations and very few villages.
“Hence, all of us need to collaboratively work together in how to scale the technology to the extent that they will reach millions of our stakeholders.
“This is because that is the only way one will be assured that there will be availability of the technology that will also ensure availability, accessibility and affordability of the products going to the market,” he said.
Executive Director, NSPRI, Dr Patricia Pessu, said the meeting was an avenue for researchers in the institute to present their work within the period under review and for stakeholders using NSPRI technologies to give feedback.
Pessu added that the theme of the meeting couldn’t be more appropriate because for agriculture to be transformed from a mere activity to an agri-business, research had to be in the forefront.
“The World Bank record that every One per cent reduction in post-harvest losses leads to 40 million dollars in output gains, with farmers as key beneficiaries.
“For this to happen, post-harvest loss reduction research activities must play more active role in transforming agriculture into agribusiness.
“NSPRI being the only research institute saddled with the sole mandate of post-harvest research has a major role to play,” Pessu said.
She, however, expressed optimism that various papers to be presented at the meeting and feedbacks from stakeholders would pivot the institute towards achieving sustainable economy and enlarging agricultural output for food security.
Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Professor Garba Sharubutu, who declared the meeting opened said there was the need for NSPRI to collaborate with other research institutes for effective mandate delivery.
Sharubutu, who was represented by Professor Veronica Obatolu, said this was imperative as all institutes had different mandates but their works were interwoven.
He added that there was the need for transition from subsistence farming to commercialised farming, using various technologies.
In her remarks, Dr Saidat Babalola of the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Ibadan, said there was the need for five groups to work together to achieve food security.
She named them as the local market, agricultural business, research acquisition centre, university and the local businesses.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Kwara Agriculture Development Project (ADP) and NCIR.
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