How Oilseed crops can promote food security

More approaches have been added to how the nation’s quest for the attainment of food security can be achieved. This time around, a call has gone to the Federal Government to massively invest in oil extraction and value addition technology in a bid to drive the vegetable oil sector and meet the country’s National Consumption Requirement (NCR). This piece of advice was given by Prof. Victor Olowe while delivering the 63rd Inaugural Lecture of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State with the theme “Unlocking the Production Potentials of Some Annual Oilseed Crops in Nigeria”. Prof. Olowe stressed the need to increase the production levels of minor oilseeds in Nigeria, stating that this would help to encourage the production of oilseeds with export potentials and subsequently achieving food security.

According to him, “If the country must meet her NCR in vegetable oil (three million tonnes) and the deficit of over 600,000 tonnes, then the current production potential must be increased in order to drive the growth of the vegetable oil sector going forward”. The Inaugural Lecturer disclosed that the two leading sources of edible vegetable oil in Nigeria was palm oil/palm kernel oil and soybean oil, which contributed about 75% and 25% of the country’s NCR, adding that the remaining 5% is met by other oilseeds. He noted that apart from oil palm and soybeans, other oilseed crops are normally regarded as ‘minor oilseeds’ in the tropics because farmers usually grow them after harvesting the main crops/cereals from the field leaving them to utilise residue nutrients and moisture without any application of fertilizer.

Prof. Olowe revealed that farmers usually grow them late because they believe they would get something from the minor oilseed during the last two or three months in the late cropping season in the year. He, however, stated that most of the so-called minor oilseeds had gradually transformed into major oilseed crop status. He further noted that in the last two to three decades, it had been discovered that soybeans, sesame and sunflower have huge agro-climatic production potential with substantial market demands especially in Europe and Asia, adding that this potential was yet to be adequately harnessed in the forest-savanna transition ecology, which is outside the savanna traditional growing region for the crops.In his submission, Prof. Olowe called for the need to bridge the gap between researchers and farmers if the developed technologies must get to end-users, stressing that the inclusion of farmers from the beginning, when a research topic was being conceived and planned for execution, because such small to medium scale farmers produce about 90% of the food consumed in tropical Africa. He further suggested that all National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) should be adequately funded to have the full complement of the value chains of their mandate crops, adding that there should be a synergy between the NARIs and the colleges/faculties of agriculture while specialised and conventional universities should be strengthened.

The Don said the government needs to encourage farmers by providing adequate incentives for them to produce and guarantee buyers’ patronage. He reiterated that women produce over 80% of what the nation consumes, which makes them a major producer and as such, should be given prime positions. He called for the provision of farm implements that would ameliorate the drudgery associated with farming. His research interest covers the agronomy of tropical oilseeds, grain legumes, and organic agriculture. Prof. Olowe has acquired relevant experience in project conception, execution, monitoring, research methodologies, and impact assessment and organic agriculture.At the occasion, it was also disclosed that food can serve as a drug and can make people healthier if taken in the right proportion. This was the submission of the Vice-Chancellor of FUNAAB, Prof. Kolawole Salako during the Inaugural Lecture. According to the Vice-Chancellor, Nigerians should embrace organic agriculture by practicing it in an area that is not polluted, saying that such would improve the health of community members. He said one of the greatest benefits of organic agriculture was the enhancement of oil in the consumption of organic products. Prof. Salako said the nation has the human capacity to be great, but needed to harness its potentials. He stressed that there was an immense repository of knowledge in the nation’s research institutions.

The Vice-Chancellor stated that organic agriculture had the tendency to reduce consuming things that were grown with chemicals, but that generally, people do not go for organic food because they are usually costlier. The Professor of Soil Physics noted, with dismay, the rate at which the country ignores its research output while the Chairman, Ceremonials Committee, Prof. Akinola Akinlabi said it was an encouraging message for the people to know that seed oil crops were readily available in the country, adding that the country can derive many uses from them. In summary, it can be said that to achieve its food security targets, there must be a deliberate an attempt at utilising the enormous potentials and opportunities that several crops such as oilseed can offer in boosting the fortunes of the nation.