FUTA, Spanish Varsity ,Four African Universities Collaborate On Food Security

The Federal University of Technology, Akure, the University of Alicante, Spain and four Universities in Africa have commenced collaboration on a Capacity for Food Research Project. The European Union Sponsored Project titled, “Integrated Soil Fertility Management for Food Security: Matching Capacities in Anglophone West African Nations with local needs” is aimed at fostering capacity building and regional integration in Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) for food security in Anglophone West African Universities.
Other collaborating Universities include the University of Alicante, Spain which is the coordinating University, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, University of D Schang, Cameroon, Njala University, Sierra Leone and University of The Gambia, Gambia.
The project which has its Nigerian office in the School of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology (SAAT) building in FUTA is also targeted at enhancing Regional Networking in ISFM focusing on Food Security by setting up a Regional Network of Centres of Excellence (CoE) in ISFM for food security. It is also to develop targeted activities in ISFM for food security at local levels with a view to increasing capacity building towards sustainable food production.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adebiyi Daramola said the research collaboration is in tandem with the drive by the University to continue to contribute meaningfully to evolving solutions to pressing societal problems. Daramola said the University is blessed with excellent scholars, researchers, facilities, staff and students and therefore it would play its part creditably well. “We already have a lot of International Collaborations through our Centres like WASCAL, CEGIST, CERAD, CENT and others. We also have a Centre of Excellence in Food Security. And the team, led by Professor Mathew Oyun, which is driving this collaboration, comes highly recommended with a lot of research experiences”, Daramola said.
Apart from Professor Mathew Oyun of Forestry and Wood Technology Department of FUTA who is Coordinating the Nigerian leg of the project, Professor Shadrach Akindele, Professor Samuel Agele and Dr. Johnson Fasinmirin are also members of the team. The Project is expected to last for 36 months.