Don stresses on research to solve Nigeria’s economic recession

http://www.gatewaymail.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Prof.-Adewunmi-on-a-demonstration-machine-at-the-developing-stage-of-the-Classifier-Rig..jpg

 

NIGERIA: A PROFESSOR of Food Engineering at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Professor Babatunde Adewumi, has suggested a way by which the country can bail itself out of its present economic meltdown.

Adewumi, who is of the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, College of Engineering (COLENG), said that by encouraging research, the country would be self-reliant and be able to solve its immediate problems.

Not only that, the respected lecturer added that through adequate research, the country would be in a better position to save money and build its reserve.

He stressed that if the government should spend huge resources on research and allow the outcome to be utilized, many problems such as joblessness and corruption would be taken care of.

The don then charged researchers to be patient and prevent ‘Quick research outcome syndrome’ which only tends to publishing inferior quality papers, without practical results or applications.

He stated that the Nigerian industrialists have not been helping matters, as they have not been adequately sponsoring research because they want immediate and huge gains with minimum investments.

The don, who described research as the life-line of a nation that hopes to survive, said that the government and various industries in Nigeria are not adequately supporting researches and emphasized that “this is why most researches in the country end up on the shelves”.

He advised that just as it’s being done in the developed nations – where institutions and researchers patent their researches – Nigerian institutions/ researchers should also key into the same method in order to get their investment back and in doing this any individual or company that needs a research effort would be made to pay. Adewumi, who disclosed that his interest in solving practical problems in the society is the driving force behind his research efforts as an academic, said that the problem facing most developing nations, like Nigeria, is that the people conceive agriculture as hobby and not as business.

He, therefore, suggested that the country and its farmers should rather see agriculture from a global dimension of competitiveness and realise that agricultural products are not only food products, but also raw materials for industries.

He described Nigeria as a blessed nation, but wasting away simply because our leaders do not want people to get liberated.

To buttress his point, Adewumi described the country as “slave” in every area of life simply because the leaders do not encourage research by making the country ‘a buying economy’ and not a ‘producing economy’.

He stated that his interest in solving practical problems in the society is the driving force behind his research as an academic.

“The passion to help, whenever there is a challenge, drives my breakthrough.  I look at what are the practical challenges and what are the practical solutions that are economical,” Adewumi said.

Adewumi said that he had developed over 30 machines that are working, such as the processing machines for locust beans (popularly called “Iru” in Yoruba language).

Another, according to him, is the steamer unit for the locust bean seed that helps in reducing the boiling time of the seeds, from about 24 to 36 hours, to only about one to two hours.

He stated that aside the drastic reduction of the processing time and drudgery, the steaming process retains the original golden yellow color of the cotyledons of the bean and upgrades the value of the crop beyond its use as traditional food condiments to industrial crop, especially in pharmaceutical and food industries.

He added that apart from the steaming machine, he had developed different types of dehulling machines and hydro cyclone separator for locust bean processing, which had produced desired solution by reducing time, energy or power requirements and drudgery to the barest minimum.

Those machines, he further stressed, have also improved production efficiency, quantity, quality and rate.

For the poultry farmers, the don said that he had developed various types of incubators including charcoal-fuel, kerosene-fuel, electrical, electrical cum kerosene fuel; solar incubators for hatching eggs; three types of egg candlers for assessing egg fertility with embryo development; manually-operated milking machine for small ruminants; and a beak trimming machine to prevent cannibalism.

Other machines developed by the don included manually operated and motorised plantain chiping/slicing machines, pneumatic separator, cashew seed decorticator, manual and motorised Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) extractors, and manually operated impact type cocoa pod breaking machine.

According to him, others are manually operated and motorised charcoal heated ‘Gari’ frying machines, motorised mango juice extractor, screw extractor for groundnut oil, motorised rice husking machine, medium scale motorised sugarcane juice extractor, medium scale thresher-cleaner for legumes and cross flow classifier test rig for legumes.

Adewumi, a seasoned and widely-travelled researcher, also said he developed theoretical aerodynamic model utilise as a guide for the design of legume classifier unit.