Stakeholders in the forestry subsector have called for an urgent platform to interface with President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly on providing solutions to the country’s nagging problems bedevilling food security in the country.
Speaking at a workshop with the theme ‘Economic Recovery and Food Security: Green Economy and Environmental Approach’ the forestry and agricultural researchers from all over the country, lamented the mounting effects of environmental degradation across the country as an aftermath of the rampaging climate change.
They resolved to curtail the menace of deforestation, desertification, and erosion in Nigeria through the promotion of agroforestry as an effective tool towards achieving sustainable forest management and environmental amelioration.
The eminent researchers and farmers who rose from the 2019 Agroforestry Farming Systems Workshop in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, expressed commitment to planting 25million trees by 2020 to minimize further environmental degradation.
The workshop hosted by the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Jericho, had participants who reiterated the necessity for the proposed interface with President Buhari and the National Assembly on the issue of food security in Nigeria.
They also mooted the idea of a similar parley with the Governors’ Forum to facilitate the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the tree planting on their land with agreed sharing formula.
A communiqué issued at the end of the workshop also resolved to checkmate the culture of post-harvest losses in Nigeria by mandating FRIN to train farmers on waste management and production of compost manure from agricultural and household waste as well as value addition and sourcing of stable market for farm produce.
To this end, farmers were urged to submit their proposal in line with their choice of trees to achieve the planting of 25million trees by next year.
The communiqué further disclosed that efforts would be intensified in establishing more plantations of indigenous tree species especially vitellaria paradoxa and parkia biglobosa because of their economic and nutrition importance.
On the capital intensive nature of designing a greenhouse, the workshop advised FRIN to come up with other ways of improving greenhouse for upcoming farmers to use.
FRIN was also urged to acquire motorized climbers for harvesting tall oil palm trees and consequently design locally-fabricated ones thus making the facility massively available to farmers in no distant future.
The stakeholders expressed appreciation to the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) for spearheading increased collaboration between research institutes and the nation’s ivory towers as a means of providing an effective solution to problems bedeviling the country.
Adesola Adepoju, director-general of FRIN, had earlier remarked that the Workshop was part of efforts of the institute to showcase its research breakthroughs over the years for farmers and stakeholders to adopt, to alleviate poverty, combat environmental challenges especially in this period of the adverse effect of climate change, to reduce food insecurity, and also to promote a green economy and economic recovery.
Suleiman Bogoro, executive secretary, TETFUND, who was the keynote speaker, to give FRIN positive consideration in its request for professorial research grants from TETFUND.
Bogoro, a professor lamented that Nigeria’s tertiary institutions have, for too long, been laying too much emphasis on publications at the expense of research outputs and called for positive ways forward.
REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan
