Covenant Uni. VC commissions WAVE project

Prof. Charles Ayo, Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, has inaugurated a project, 'West African Virus Epidemiology', to tackle the viruses combating cassava plantation in Nigeria and six other West African countries.

Ayo, who spoke during the inauguration of the project at the school premises earlier in the week, noted that cassava feeds more than 800 million people worldwide and therefore deserved to be given proper attention by the government and concerned stakeholders.

He said, “With the various products derivable from cassava and the number of people consuming the products, there may be crisis if cassava is attacked by virus. Therefore, time has come for Africa to rise up and face its challenges rather than to rely on foreign help. And Nigeria should be able to convert its human capital to a viable resource in this regard.”

The project will also ensure that Cassava Brown Streak Virus, which is a major virus affecting cassava and has been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, does not get to Nigeria.

The WAVE coordinator for Covenant University, Dr. Angela Eni, explained that the project was aimed at increasing the productivity and sustainability of root and tuber crops in six West African countries through a coordinated management of virus disease threats.

She said, “The aim of the project is to have a clear understanding of the viruses that affect root and crops in West Africa and ensure that farmers have disease-free resistant root and tuber planting materials that will increase the productivity of root and tuber crops as a whole.

“The CBSV is already in DR Congo but we don’t want it to get here, which is why we are making some pre-emptive efforts (in this area), and we want to provide adequate information to key policy makers.”

Eni explained that the first phase of the project would take three years and that it would involve visiting the states to take samples, carrying out mapping and sensitising the farmers.

In his reaction, the Permanent Secretary, Ekiti State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Oludare Abegunde, said it had become important to present agriculture as a business for serious-minded people and not an exclusive reserve of the poor.

Other participants at the event included farmers associations, representatives from Burkina Faso, Benin, DR Congo, Ghana and those from some states in Nigeria.