The International Development Research Centre and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development have given the Osun State University and three other universities $2.9m grant to conduct research into indigenous vegetable production.
The other benefiting institutions are the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and two Canadian institutions, the University of Manitoba and the Cape Breton University.
The Vice-Chancellor of UNISON, Prof. Bashir Okesina, made this known in a statement on Monday.
He reportedly spoke during a meeting of indigenous vegetable research team in Osogbo.
He said the programme would hold in 16 locations in Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states.
According to him, the focus of the initiative is for training and empowerment of rural farmers on production, processing, utilisation and marketing of underutilised vegetables.
He said, “We have employed a combination of our institutional financial regulation and the IDRC financial guidelines in the administration of our portion of the $2.9m allocated to this project.
“Yes, our university is young in age but as a matter of fact we are old enough in terms of personnel. No wonder, we are moving very fast in research and academics. We are competing favourably with other big institutions not only in Nigeria but also globally.
“An example of such global recognition is our total involvement in this indigenous vegetables project. In fact, we appreciate the importance of research in generating and propagating knowledge. Therefore, we will go the extra mile to encourage researchers by making our financial regulations research-friendly so that researchers can access funds without any hitch.”
He added that the principal investigators into the research are professors Clement Adebooye, Wole Akinremi, Duro Oyedele, and Thomas Bouman.
