Prof Alufohai calls for collaboration among government, academia, others, for sustainable food security in Nigeria
Award of appreciation presented to Professor Grace O. Alufohai as a Guest Lecturer for the 7th LASU Research and Innovation Fair by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) Prof. Adenike Omotunde Boyo on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello.
Professor of Agricultural Economics, Babcock University, Ilishan, Ogun State, Professor Grace Alufohai, has called for collaboration among government, the academia, the industry and community for sustainable food security in Nigeria.
Prof Alufohai gave the recommendation at the 7th Lagos State University (LASU) Research and Innovation Fair which took place at the Makanjuola Lecture Theatre, in Ojo, on Thursday, 9th October, 2025.
The two-day Research Fair which kicked off on Wednesday, October 8, and ended on Thursday. October 9, had the theme, ‘Promoting the Quadruple Helix Collaboration: Government, University, Industry and Community,” with sub-themes, “Translational Research: A Veritable Tool to Attain Sustainable Development Goals Using the Quadruple Helix Approach,” “Sustaining Cyber Security, Data Protection, and Privacy in Nigerian Universities,” and “Strengthening Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security and Agro-Innovation in Nigeria”.
The Guest Speaker, Prof Alufohai, delivering her lecture titled: “Strengthening Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security and Agro-Innovation in Nigeria”, stated that it is the responsibility of the researcher to make findings which should be made available to the industry and Community for implementation and utilisation, “The researcher (gown) searches out the needed innovations, and make them available to the industries and communities (town) to implement with government providing needed infrastructure and and appropriate policies.”
In her recommendations, she said that research should be given its proper place in the system of Governance and should be well funded by the government. She said, “Research should be given its rightful place in the system of governance, research should be well funded by the government to make it sustainable.”
She further stated that the researcher should focus on the area of needs, for their research to be relevant, which is the benefit from research fairs.
Prof Alufohai said that farmers should be empowered through easy access to climate smart technologies and Agro-Innovation platforms.
Additionally, she suggested, “Let our research directly address Technologies that promote Sustainable Agriculture, searching out innovations that support Sustainable food system and make result available to the community thereby intertwining town and gown under government support.
“More importantly, our research works should be connected to reality with social significance rather than the popular slogan in the academia: Publish or perish, with publications abandoned in the shelf,” Prof Alufohai stated.
In conclusion she stated that Sustainable Agriculture with the support of Agro-Innovation obtained from adequate and appropriate research leads to a Sustainable food system that ensures Sustainable food Security, which is the ultimate goal.
She added that challenges militating against the achievement of this ultimate goal must be properly tackled.
Present at the occasion were, Prof. Adenike Omotunde Boyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), who represented the Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello.
