Institute Lists Contributions To Food Security

The out-going Executive Director, National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, in Abia, Dr Kenneth Nwosu, has said that the institute had made remarkable contributions toward food security.

Nwosu, said this in Umudike during a Send-off and Book Presentation ceremony in his honour to mark the end of his second term; from 2002 to 2011.

Nwosu described his nine-year period as challenging, considering the enormity of global food shortages and the challenges he met when he took over the mantle of leadership of the institute.

He said that the challenges did not deter his administration in repositioning the institute, an effort, he noted, yielded dividend with the institute attaining a world class standard as exemplified by its contributions to global food supplies.

“Our primary concern had been to put NRCRI on the right footing and we tried to do some of those things that seemed impossible. In that process NRCRI has attained a high pedestal all over the world,” he said.

Nwosu, who identified empowerment of the workforce of the institute as the key to the successes recorded during his tenure, urged subsequent administrations to take a cue from what he had done “by opening ways for the young ones to grow”.

“We have not discriminated on the account of ethnicity or sex, but have encouraged and rewarded excellence,” he said.

Nwosu said that in spite of the lean resources his tenure witnessed, NRCRI made landmark achievements by strengthening linkages with external collaborators and donor agencies in realising the aims and objectives of the institute.

Earlier in an address of welcome, the Director of Information in the institute, Mr Kingsley Okocha, described the nine-year tenure of Nwosu as “remarkable”, saying, “at least fifteen improved yam varieties were developed and released in Nigeria to ensure that the country maintains its leadership role as the largest producer of the crop”.

Okocha disclosed that researchers at NRCRI were able to develop 16 improved varieties of cassava saying that the institute would soon release more cassava varieties, including a high protein vitamin A variety, which, he said, would be the first in the country.

He said that the institute had also put in place a Bio-Technology Complex to conduct research into genetically modified crops, adding that the effort was the first of its kind in the country.