By: IndyPress News Desk
A Professor of Agricultural Processing and Storage Engineering, Professor Abdulganiy Olayinka Raji on Thursday, January 9 2025, recommended that the promotion of digital knowledge and information technology should be extended to all disciplines.
He said the adoption of these tools makes research interesting and fascinating saying that students and researchers will not only see but see what is there to be seen, thus having a better understanding that will lead to innovations and discoveries necessary for national development.
Professor Raji gave this recommendation while delivering the 572nd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Technology.
The title of the lecture was “Consulting e-Oracle for Food Security and Sustainability”
He said such an action will earn the country a prime position globally and reduce the brain drain of academics to places where they can see what is there to be seen.
He stressed the need for the provision and investment in IT driven facilities for research, better delivery, and understanding by teachers and students of educational institutions and research institutes.
Professor Raji noted that there is a wide gap between the town and the gown. He said collaborations amongst specialists with consultations with the grassroots through the use of e-oracles can lead to improvements in our delicacies and the development of near-new food products.
He said rare crops and extinct foods need to be promoted as part of our national cultural and traditional revival.
He said our local finger foods and snacks such as Sapala/Abari, Sakada, Ojojo, Akara Seeke and Towo Bepo, Aadun, Alapa, Monimoni, Seje, Egbo, Adalu etc are far better food compared to the junk snacks of today.
He said these highly nutritious and neglected food products helped to maintain the absence of malnutrition amongst the people in the rural and local settings.
He, however, cautioned that there is a need to improve the hygienic conditions under which they are processed.
The inaugural lecturer also recommended that agricultural engineers should be given prominence in the promotion of agricultural development because our local ingenuity through engineering solutions is inevitable for food security and sustainability and the fostering of community resilience and reducing dependency on global supply chain.
He also called on the government to revive all the agricultural schemes and programmes, evaluate the current state of the implementation of the programmes, and ensure proper implementation strategies with sustainable plans are put in place.
Professor Raji lamented the effect of insecurity on agricultural production and advised that the government and the citizens should work on the reduction and total elimination of the menace.
He stated that leveraging the available tools on e-oracles, protection of the farms, industries, and the citizens will assist greatly.
The Inaugural Lecture was the twenty- second in the series for the 2023/2024 academic session.
Credit: UI Directorate of Public Communication
