Institute Seeks Sustainable Research In Food Security

The Executive Director, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN),  Dr Patrick Adebola, has stated the need for  Federal Government to assist the institute in sustainable research toward ensuring food security in Nigeria.
Adebola  said this on Tuesday in Ibadan at the In-house Research Report Meeting of CRIN with the theme: “National Economic Empowerment Through Sustainable Research and Development of Cocoa, Cashew, Coffee, Kolanut and Tea”.
He said Nigeria and the rest of the world had been experiencing crisis, which has adverse effects on availability of food.
“We, at our in-house research review meeting, specifically chose this topic, so as to address the issue of food security.
“Addressing the issue of food security has to be through research, because if there is no research focus, there is no way we can increase food production or ensure that the food we are producing are nutritional and increased yield  by farmers.
“Sustainability in terms of our research because research has to be continuous as we have to keep producing new varieties of crops to sustain the economy and food production in the country,” he said.
Adebola identified lack of  extension services to farmers as a huge gap.
“But, due to the fact that the farmers are scattered all over the country and dearth in the number of Extension Officers, they were unknown to farmers.
“To bridge this gap, CRIN from time to time organises a lot of training and workshops to reach the farmers.
“But, I will enjoin the government to still support us so that we will have more extension officers that can take all the technologies back to the farmers for them to be able to adopt it,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Rasheed Adedeji, the Director Programme Leader in charge of Cocoa Research Programme, CRIN, said Nigeria has hope, “but all the stakeholders have to come together and face the issues in Cocoa production squarely to achieve results”.
Adedeji traced issues in agricultural production generally in Nigeria to the discovery of petroleum products.