Don canvasses increased cultivation of viable plants for nutrition, productivity

Nutrition
Alaba-Olusola Oke
Akure, March 10, 2020 (NAN) A don, Prof. Victor Enujiugha, has stressed the need for increased advocacy for the cultivation of important bio-resources which are germane for sustenance of healthy nutrition and productivity.
Enujiugha, who lectures in the Department of Biotechnology and Food Product Development, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), stated this during his inaugural lecture on Tuesday in Akure.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lecture was entitled:”Biotechnology for Healthy Nutrition and Productive Lifestyle”.
“Concrete actions are required from all stakeholders to jointly advance and appropriate the advantages of wider and increased exploitation of our local biodiversity to achieve the noble goal of longevity and productivity.
“Our people should know that they have potentials in their land so that some of the things being discarded can be made use of.
“Despite the great nutrient and medicinal potentials of conopnor nut, there is no known cultivated plantation of this underutilised oilseed plant.
“What we have currently is that this audacious and persistent climber defies farmers to twin around cocoa and kolanut trees in their respective plantations.
“This unsavoury culture of neglect of our useful biodiversity can be curtailed by government through creation of conducive agronomic environments for farmers,” he stated.
The don added that local farmers should be adequately and financially empowered to venture into domestication of the varied wild species scattered across the African agro-ecological landscape.
“Farmers need incentives to be able to venture into the cultivation of unconventional and neglected species through the provision of funds and other forms of support, such as equipment and fertiliser supplies,” he advised.
According to him, there is the need to invent ways to add value to the plants by diversifying the existing consumption forms through adaptation of new and emerging processing technique.
“The only known use of African locust beans is as a fermented condiments, but application of value-addition to this local bio-resource by exploring other uses will invariably increase its cultivation and utilisation,” he explained.
Enujiugha called for proper documentation and archiving of the innate nutrient potentials of African food.
He also enjoined government to increase research funding and formulate appropriate policies to encourage the dissemination and application of research results in the interest of the rural populace.
“Creating awareness about current research outputs through structured nutrition education programmes should be undertaken by governments at all levels.
“If our teeming rural populations are well-informed about the nutrient and bioactive profiles of the diverse bio-resources, there would be as a consequence drastic reduction in incidence of nutrition-related diseases,” Enujiugha noted. (NAN)
OKEO/WAS
Edited by ‘Wale Sadeeq