NIFOR to establish centre in private firm to boost research

The Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Luscei Investment Limited, an Edo State-based private palm-producing company, Luscei Investment Limited to host the Institute’s Extension Works Seed (EWS) fields.

By the agreement, the planting materials for the 40 hectares field would be supplied free of charge by NIFOR, while the company would manage the planting, maintenance and harvesting of the field under the supervision of NIFOR technical personnel.

Speaking at the signing of the MoU at NIFOR headquarters near Benin City, Celestine Ikuenobe, the executive director of the institute highlighted the decline in the standard of operation at NIFOR due to human activities. He however disclosed that partnerships with organisations such as Luscei Investment Limited, is necessary to recover best practices of NIFOR’s core mission.

Represented by Isona Gold, the Director, Research, Technology and Product Development Department, Ikuenobe reinforces that NIFOR remains the number one Palm Research Institute in Africa.

He said “In the past, it was a taboo to be seen around Plant Breeding and Agronomy fields but over time the scientific culture of the institute has eroded and has resulted in disrespect for science. In some cases, the staff of the Institute don’t understand the reason for our experimental fields and look upon the fields as places to steal bunches and seedlings with little effect on the Institute’s potential cash flow without knowing the negative impact of such activities on the relevance of NIFOR in the global scientific community. The consequence is that many years later, we do not have reliable yield records from our fields to market our products.

“This is where our competitors beat us because they are able to control such occurrences in their locations and sometimes adopt shoot-at-sight methods to achieve strict compliance with “out-of-bound” rules. We have locally recorded cases where NIFOR staff cultivates cassava in Plant breeding and Agronomy fields and sets the field on fire during land preparation. In the process, 5-7years of work is destroyed and the work has to be repeated.

Read also: Okomu & Presco: A tale of two palm oil giants

“In addressing this challenge, the Institute is seeking collaboration with private estates and adopting stricter measures to curb sabotage within its system. One of such collaboration is the reason we are here today.”

On his part, Oluseyi Adeleke, the managing director of the farm said the agreement would last for 20 years and that his collaboration with NIFOR has improved the productivity in his farm.

He said “With our collaboration, we did not spend so much for land acquisition, they (NIFOR) guided me in the financial figures, there will be challenges but we have been able to overcome them because their material is very resilient, they can survive harsh weather conditions. In our first experiment, we did not harvest on time not deliberately though, but that was how we discovered the resilience of their plants, major oil producers came to check and today they off-take from our farms.