Delegates from Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, arrived the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Monday, to explore the possibility of using available biotechnology resources in the Institution as a base to launch its agricultural development programme, targeted at improving food security in Nigeria.
Dr Jacob Mignouna said that the purpose of the visit was to consider the possibilities of harnessing the potentials of UNESCO Category II Biotechnology centre in UNN to improve crop and livestock production in Nigeria.
“We are here to look at the possibilities of agricultural development with the application of biotechnology to improve crop and livestock production in Nigeria. This is because we see biotechnology as a tool for the improvement of agricultural production, so we want to assess what is on ground at the University of Nigeria” he said.
Dr Mignouna noted that Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation had pursued its global development and health programmes with the conviction that human beings are entitled to good life and better standard of living, and remarked that Nigeria was key to the implementation of the Foundation’s health and agricultural programme.
A biotechnology expert attached to the foundation, Prof. Ivan Ingelbrecht added that the foundation was in the University to weigh the opportunity of applying biotechnology to improve local crops in Nigeria instead of relying on imported seeds which do not adapt to Nigerian Climatic conditions.
The Director General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Bamidele Solomon, said that the agency had taken cognisance of the decision of Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation to use biotechnology to improve Nigerian agricultural lots, and assured that his organisation was working with universities in the country to ensure that the innovation would be applied.
He added that the University of Nigeria had been involved in capacity building and had partnered with his agency to develop a robust programme in bone-marrow transplanting which would be presented to Federal Executive Council for approval.
In his response, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Prof. Bartho Okolo welcomed the Foundation for coming to the University, and said that he was happy that the poverty eradication target of Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation was in consonance with the aspiration of the founding fathers of the University of Nigeria, which is to restore the dignity of man by eliminating all forms of human deprivations, including hunger and poverty.
Further, Prof. Okolo said that although there was need for retraining of staff, the University of Nigeria has enough human capacity to drive the struggle for food security in Nigeria if the needed equipment are provided.
Some faculty members of the University who shared their concern expressed their readiness to do more cutting edge researches to solve food challenge in Nigeria but lamented the paucity of laboratory equipment.
They therefore pleaded with the Bill and Melinda Foundation, government and other concerned agencies, to assist the university management to provide the needed research equipment.
Submitted for publication at SchoolGist by Inya, Agha E.,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
