By Ovat Abeng
Amidst outrage over hunger in Nigeria, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University (COOU) Anambra State, is showing what Nigerian universities can do to solve the country’s food production challenges. With increased insecurity preventing farmers in different parts of the country from going to their farms, among other problems, food shortage is an inevitable consequence.
However, COOU has undertaken initiatives on food, fish, and vegetable production within the university campus in Igbariam, Anambra State. This action on food, vegetable, and fish production which is an idea of the Acting Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kate Omenugha, has received an enormous boost to the extent that in the last two months, the vegetables harvested from the university have yielded handsome returns for the institution, as the staff, students, nearby colleges, community, and vegetable sellers from around the state, patronize the university.
Sitting on a very large expanse of land like most Nigerian universities, and with a functional Faculty of Agriculture, a few months into her tenure, the Vice Chancellor, Kate Omenugha, had asked for a review of possible agricultural activities that can be exploited by the institution as part of efforts to support Mrs. Nonye Soludo’s campaign for healthy living. Certainly, healthy living starts with what is cultivated and harvested. This also aligns with Omenugha’s drive to mobilize every resource available to the university towards solving real problems that positively impact the larger community.
Earlier, Prof. Greg Nwakoby, the former Vice Chancellor of the university had introduced ponds for fish farming in the institution. Sadly, fishes introduced to the ponds died under suspicious circumstances and the former VC distraught by that experience, could not continue with the idea. Upon resumption, Prof. Kate Omenugha revived the fish farm and extended the university’s agricultural drive to cassava, and vegetables such as okra, water leaf, pumpkin, turmeric, and others. These coordinated efforts were supported by a borehole provided by the new administration in the university with overhead tanks, in the area designated for agricultural activities in the institution, for a steady supply of water to enable constant production in and out of season.
In consequence, the university now controls a significant share of the vegetable market around the university’s community and by far demonstrates that Nigerian universities can and ought to take on the hunger challenge, relying on the competence of their Agric Faculties, to lead a deliberate change in the food and vegetable production chain. Indeed, Nigerian higher institutions can become centres of action against food shortages and hunger, following the example of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University.
That Nigeria is going through a phase where hunger and food shortage is a reality, is just another pointer to the failure of Nigeria’s relevant institutions to channel their energy and resources towards addressing the country’s problems. In this particular case in point, if all Nigerian federal and state-owned universities with concrete presence in all the 36 states of the federation, use their vast empty and arable lands for agriculture, not only will the country have enough to feed herself, but it will be in a position to export large quantities of agro produce. As a plus, the agric faculties offer easy professional and best quality guidance which will help to ensure that the venture succeeds with exceptional triumph over hunger and food shortage.
The good example shown by COOU is a superior model that ought to be mainstreamed and supported by Nigerian universities, including private and other higher institutions to leverage their comparative advantage in agriculture and flood every part of Nigeria with healthy food, fruits, and vegetables and among others. A university with a huge landmass and knowledgeable agricultural teachers must be putting what they know into real work to solve a real problem. Instead of training students in Agricultural and sending them to go outside and begin to solve food production and agro-related problems, which they often fail to do as many end up in unrelated fields of endeavour, Nigerian higher institutions ought to lead the way in solving practical problems right from within the university.
Nigerian universities must be deliberate in providing real solutions to actual problems troubling the larger Nigerian society.