Varsity don advocates establishment of crop museum

A professor of crop production at the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University Makurdi (JOSTUM), Prof. Ngozi Ifeoma Odiaka, has advocated for the establishment of a crop museum that would help to curtail orphan crops from going extinct. Odiaka made the suggestion as part of recommendation in her inaugural lecture, entitled, “Rhythms of Orphan Crops: The Neglected Side […]

A professor of crop production at the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University Makurdi (JOSTUM), Prof. Ngozi Ifeoma Odiaka, has advocated for the establishment of a crop museum that would help to curtail orphan crops from going extinct.

Odiaka made the suggestion as part of recommendation in her inaugural lecture, entitled, “Rhythms of Orphan Crops: The Neglected Side of Food Security in Sustainable Development in Nigeria,” which was delivered at the college hall in Makurdi.

“The establishment of a two-hectare plot size crop museum for crops going extinct (orphan and stable crops alike) in the College of Agronomy is necessary. This will help cater for the most important nationally acceptable crops going extinct.

“It will be a Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Agro ecology Intensification, Field experiments and Demonstrations with a JOSTUM Agric shop show. The crop museum will be an effective tool for teaching and extension service on modern farming technologies to students and community farmers.”

She added that orphan fruits, spice and vegetable farming remains one of the most lucrative agricultural businesses in the farming industry and one of the most empowering business anybody willing to go into farming can venture into and succeed.

Odiaka itemised the orphan crops to cover the entire spectrum of food and industrial uses – cereals, fruits and nuts, vegetable and pulse crops, root and tubers, oil seeds, starch and sugar, fiber, latex and dyes, adding that they are mostly cultivated or collected from the wild across all regions from the world but never referred to as major crops.