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From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
University don Prof (Mrs) Ngozi Odiaka has encouraged Nigerian youths to leverage on the market demand for orphan crops as a result of the increasing awareness of their health benefits which she noted had caused a wide gap between demand and supply chain of the crops.
Prof Odiaka stated this in her inaugural lecture titled “Rhythms of Orphan Crops: The Neglected Side of Food Security in Sustainable Development in Nigeria”, which she delivered at the JS Tarka University, Makurdi on Wednesday.
The professor of Crop Production described orphan crops as the neglected and underutilized crops which are often grown as backyard crops that feed rural populations, especially in developing countries.
She noted that orphan crops don’t only serve as a source of livelihoods for most local and small scale farmers but also a very important portion of the food humans need to consume to stay healthy.
The university don posited that more attention must be given to orphan crops if they are to fully contribute to food security, nutrition and sustainability of the nation’s economy.
‘Orphan crops should be prioritized more in agricultural research and production and young researchers should be ready to mobilize research efforts and bring knowledge creation back to Nigeria through synergy, networking, collaboration and knowledge exchange,’ she stated.
Obiaka maintained that if this is done, the diversity of orphan crops species can be tackled using new and holistic approaches but stressed that efforts to do commodity research to be able to tackle the crop diversity are needed.
