A Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Prof. Francis Showemimo has called on the government to create a special intervention fund dedicated to agriculture, especially to train plant breeder’s and related discipline..
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had in a recent National broadcast said his administration planned to support cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland and all-year-round farming practice.
According to President Tinubu, N200 billion out of the N500 billion approved by the National Assembly would be disbursed as follows: N50 billion to be expended to cultivate 150,000 hectares of rice and maize while N50billion was earmarked for cultivating100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava.
But delivering the 79th Inaugural Lecture of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta titled: “Science-Art Interface: A Plant Breeder’s Perspective,” held at Oluwafemi Balogun Ceremonial Building, the Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics identified inadequate fund and infrastructure as major problems to hampering efforts towards breeding breakthroughs.
The inaugural lecturer reckoned that access to scientific data, resources, and collaborative platform for breeders to be able to quickly and efficiently identify the genetic variations that will allow them to develop new varieties with improved traits should be adequately provided.
According to him, creativities following imaginations need natural, hybridisation, mutation, molecular and genomic tools to achieve set breeding objectives, while noting that it’s unbelievable the stress plant breeder’s go through in this part of the world due to lack of good protective government policies.
Showemimo who is of the Department of Plant Breeding and Seed Technology, College of Plant Science and Crop Production (COLPLANT) stated that, “the joy of all Plant Breeders is to create, redesign, remodel and produce new crop cultivars for commercialisation; that is the artistic design of intricate science of plant breeding.”
He added that the development of ideal new varieties and combining good yield with resistance to pest, diseases and other stressors is an economic relief to all stakeholders.
He encouraged plant breeders to partner with each other and other related specialists to enable them access data and resources they need to quickly identify targeted genes and evaluate new varieties, stressing that the exchange of information or bioinformatics is important in plant breeding as a business.
He appealed that Plant Breeding as a course should not be to earn degrees alone, but must be taught from practical point of view to achieve scientific manipulations, artistic impression and business mindset, to improve economy and wellbeing of humanity.
Prof. Showemimo in his submission, stressed that the assented Plant Variety Protection and Intellectual Property Right by the Federal Government, particularly the royalty for the public breeders involved in the commercialised varieties should be enforced and vigorously pursued to preserve the art and science of breeding and breeders.
Earlier in his Introductory Speech, the Vice-Chancellor Prof Babatunde Kehinde expressed gratitude to God for spearing the lives of everyone and making the 79th Inaugural Lecture a reality
He described the Inaugural Lecturer as a seasoned academic, sportsman, Minister of God, martial artist and an outstanding Plant Breeder whose contributions in the area of plant breeding is of immense value.
Prof Kehinde noted that the University has notable Scholars which the country as a whole can really call on to solve major human and technology problems, noting that Prof Francis Abayomi Showemimo is one of them.
