Nov. 24, 2022
A professor of Plant Pathology at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ololade Enikuomehin, has advocated for Plant Protection Policy in the country.
Enikuomehin made the suggestion while delivering the 71st inaugural lecture of the university on Thursday in Abeokuta.
The lecture is titled: “Tending The Inaudible: The Management of Plant Afflictions With The Endowments of Nature”.
According to the professor, the policy will be part of measures to protect tropical crops against fungi-induced diseases and reduce cost of production by farmers in Nigeria.
Enikuomehin highlighted the need for researchers and policy makers to give more attention to plant products and environment base protection practices.
He expressed concern over the information gap existing between researchers and the indigenous farmers, in the various farming systems in Nigeria.
According to the university teacher, farmers’ indigenous knowledge of the different plants and their potentialities as well as the peculiarity of the respective ecosystem, is very important in developing efficient crop protection strategies.
He called for renewed efforts targeted at engaging farmers’ indigenous knowledge, to unravel and exploit the hidden potential of nature for improved crop protection.
Enikuomehin emphasised the need to harness numerous research findings into a compendium.
“This is to make it easy for those who want to make reference and get information on efficacy of different plant products, for the development of crop protection strategies in tropical farming systems”.
He recommended an increase in the funding of research on the use of plant and environment base strategies, that would be fully developed to the point of adoption and use in large scale farming.
The don urged the Federal Government to strengthen and fund FUNAAB and the National Agricultural Research Institutes, to enable them to contribute more to plant protection in the country.
Enikuomehin highlighted the need to start involving rural farmers in other viable plant product and environment base crop protection practices.
The Acting Vice-Chancellor of FUNAAB, Prof. Olusola Kehinde, while addressing newsmen on the sidelines of the lecture, said that the university would make its various research findings available soon.
He stated that the findings would be made available to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, for inclusion in policies’ formulation for the use of farmers, to boost production in the country.
