By Opeyemi Olawore
The need for Nigerians to eat bio-fortified crops was again stressed at the Pre-Second planting Season Seed Fair, tagged Eating for Health and Wealth.
The Seed Fair which was jointly organized by HarvestPlus, Senator Adeyemo Women Empowerment Cooperatives (SAWEC), Oyo State Agricultural Development Programme (OYSADEP) and Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology (OYSCATECH),Igboora drew participants from Dizengoff, Bayer, CATO Foods, Media, HarvestPlus, OYSCATECH,SAWEC and processors, fabricators and farmers from the seven towns of Ibarapa.
In his welcome address, the Rector OYSCATECH, Professor Gbemiga Adewale explained that hunger is ravaging the land and the signs of food deficit are visible in Nigeria.
Professor Adewale then called on all stakeholders in the agricultural sector to rise to the challenge towards ensuring that their farming activities are geared towards farming for health and wealth.
In her presentation, entitled Biofortified Crops as Innovative Agricultural Enterprise, Mrs. Bola Adeyemo, the Managing Director SAWEC and a partner with HarvestPlus, said 75 percent of unseen hunger is evident in the rural areas while 25 percent is prevalent in the urban areas.
She revealed that majority of the rural dwellers do not consume nutritious foods and those that contains Vitamin A.
Adeyemo listed the bio fortified that Nigerians could grow, consume and use to create wealth to include; orange flesh potatoes that is rich in vitamin A, products from vitamin A cassava such as Gaari, Fufu, snacks and so on, Vitamin A maize among others, while stressing that there is market for the vitamin A cassava and orange flesh tomatoes, unlike when they were newly introduced.
According to her, Orange flesh potatoes are good for health and highly prolific.
She decried the rate at which farmers sell their best agricultural produce to the market without leaving some of them for their personal and family consumption.
Mrs. Adeyemo therefore, called for attitudinal change among farmers, while calling on OYSCATECH to lead the campaign for growing of bio fortified crops.
Earlier, the Country Manager for HarvestPlus, Dr Paul Ilona who spoke through Mr. Segun Irinoye commended OYSCATECH Rector for the training of youths in the College.
He posited that graduates from Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora are thoroughly baked as middle level manpower for agriculture knowingfully well that the future of agriculture is in the hands of the youths.
In his goodwill message, the Registrar, Mr. Niyi Fehintola commended the facilitators of the Seed Fair, Mrs. Bola Adeyemo for the initiative.
Mr. Fehintola thereafter, made a special appeal for a repeat of the programme when the students are in session.
In his closing remarks, the Deputy Rector, Dr. Ariyo Okunlola called on the participants mostly farmers to reciprocate the good gesture by the organizers of Seed Fair.
The programme also featured performance by students of Lajorun High School, Exhibitions of Agricultural products and solutions by CATO Foods, SAWEC, OYSCATECH, DIZENGOFF, Bayer, processors, fabricators and a host of others.
