‘Stop Playing Poker With Food Security’, Says Don

…Calls For Urgent Investment In Home – Grown Tech

A Professor of Food and Bioresource Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Engr. Prof. John Alaba Olumurewa, has warned that Nigeria’s neglect of indigenous food processing technologies is putting the country’s food security at serious risk.

Delivering the 205th Inaugural Lecture of FUTA , titled _“Undermining the Home-Grown Technologies of Processing and Preservation: Playing Poker with Food Security”_, Prof. Olumurewa said Nigeria must move from research to real action.

“Nigeria must stop ‘playing poker’ with food security issues but rather invest boldly in our scientists, trust our engineers, commercialize our research, patronize our home grown technologies and implement our policies with consistency and courage,” he said.

“Only then shall we transform food security from a national aspiration into a national.

The professor, who has decades of experience in food processing, preservation, drying technology, renewable energy and post-harvest management, said Nigeria’s problem is no longer a lack of scientific knowledge.

“Every abandoned prototype, unused locally fabricated machine, uncommercialized research project and food-processing facility without adequate infrastructure represents a lost opportunity,” he stated.

According to him, food security rests on four pillars: availability, accessibility, utilization and stability.

He stressed that processing and preservation are critical to all four because they reduce post-harvest losses, improve food safety, extend shelf life and drive value addition.

He described food engineering as the application of science to processing, packaging, storage and utilization — with the potential to improve efficiency, productivity and national food security.

Prof. Olumurewa identified indigenous technologies as strategic assets that can reduce dependence on imported machinery, conserve foreign exchange, create jobs and lower production costs.

However, he lamented that locally developed innovations are often treated with suspicion while imported ones get automatic preference.

“This has created a vicious cycle of poor patronage, inadequate investment, weak commercialization and declining confidence in Nigerian technologies,” he said.

To close the gap, the don proposed a 10-point strategic pathway anchored on deliberate policy and investment. He said government must ensure consistent implementation of policies and prioritize qualified indigenous technologies in public procurement.

Research and development funding must also be increased, with promising innovations moved quickly from laboratories into the marketplace.

He stressed the need for institutionalized collaboration between universities and industry, backed by stronger technology incubation systems that can turn prototypes into commercially viable products.

Universities themselves, he added, must be repositioned as investment partners rather than just research centers.

Prof. Olumurewa further called for increased industrial investment in local innovations, alongside innovation-friendly financing from banks and other financial institutions. He urged academics to pursue purpose-driven research that addresses real societal challenges, while citizens must build greater confidence and patronage for validated Nigerian technologies.
He said food security is a collective responsibility. Government must provide consistent policies and patronize local technologies. Universities must focus on solutions to societal problems. Industries must scale innovations, financial institutions must fund them, and citizens must support them.
“Nigeria possesses the scientific and engineering capacity required to achieve greater food security,” he concluded. “What is urgently needed is the political will, investment, collaboration and confidence to transform that knowledge into technologies that serve society.”
In her remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of FUTA, Prof. Adenike Oladiji, described the lecture as timely and relevant.

She said food is fundamental to survival and national development, and commended Prof. Olumurewa for highlighting the critical role of technology in ensuring that agricultural production translates into food that is available, affordable, safe and sustainable.