Prof. Lateef Sanni of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has urged the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) to collaborate with universities and other research institutes to make the research outputs developed by NSPRI accessible and affordable.
Sanni made this call in Ilorin while speaking during a two-day in-house Review Meeting of NSPRI with the theme, “Innovative Post-Harvest Research: A Sustainable Approach for Achieving Food Security in Nigeria.”
He noted that the collaboration will enhance the skills of the staff of the institute, explaining that each institute has different mandates, interests, and skills, hence the need to work together, either South-South, South-East, or even outside the country, adding that it will help to disseminate and fine tune some of the technologies that have been developed.
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“We have some of the research outputs in NSPRI, but most of these outputs are not known outside except in the institute’s locations and very few villages. Hence, all of us need to collaboratively work together on how to scale the technology to the extent that it will reach millions of our stakeholders”.
“This is because that is the only way one can be assured that there will be availability of the technology that will also ensure availability, accessibility, and affordability of the products going to market,” Sanni said.
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In her remarks, the Executive Director of NSPRI, Dr Patricia Pessu, pointed out that the theme of the meeting was carefully selected to reflect the importance of research in transforming agriculture from a mere activity to an agri-business.
She described the meeting as an avenue for researchers in the institute to present their work within the period under review and for stakeholders using NSPRI technologies to give feedback.
