Unijos Constitutes TAC To Man TETFund Centre of Excellence in Food Security

By Moses GbandeThe Authority of the university of Jos, headed by Prof. Sebastian Maimako Wednesday constituted a seven man Technical Advisory Committee to man the newly established centre at the University.The centre tagged, TETFund Centre of Excellence in Food Security is a deliberate intervention policy to assist in addressing the nature and extent of hunger and food insecurity in Nigeria are public health concern.The vice Chancellor who commended the Managements of the world Bank, TETFund and other organizations for the partnership they accorded to the university to attained what is is today, expressed optimism that, technical advisory committee would make the best use of the centre to uplifting the status of the university and the country at large.Earlier in his address, Prof. Paul S. Amaza, Director, TCoEFS Unijos reveals the alarming rate at which food insecurity is worsening on daily basis.“The number of people that are unable to meet minimum food requirement increasing.”Nigeria ranked 98 out ot 107 countries in the 2020 Global Hunger Index”Absolute number of food-insecure People in Nigeris was 17 million in 2012. And the projected rise in 2022 will be 43m if the situation is not addressed”.He says the focus of the Center of Excellence in Food Security at UniJos by would be among other issues to implement applied Research and Development (R&D) on issues affecting food securtly in Nigeria.” The department shall shall be focusing on Interdisciplinary R&D activities iivolving several disciplines as food security issues are cross-cutting in nature.”Applied R&D with emphasis to disseminate existing technologies and innovation for adaption by primary producers (farmers) and eommnercralization by private sectors (eg industries) and utilization by end users (house holds).The RAD focuses on addressing, the adverse challenges that affects food security, including low crops and livestock productivity, poor access to agricultural market, low value addition to agricultural produce, land degradation, climate change, pestes and disease policies etc”.The seven man Technical Advisory Committee headed by Prof Nuhu Gworgwor, of the Dean, Faculty of Agriculture Unijos, also have Prof. Daniel Dabi, Dean, of Geography & Planning, Prof Lami Lombin – Dean Faculty of Veterinary Medicine as Mamber.Other members include Mr. Attia Nasreddin CEO and Chairman of the NASCO Group, —Mr Alex Goma, MD/CEO of Grand Cereals LimitedMember, Dr John Egbere Dept. of Micro biology as members, while Prof. Paul S. Amaza, Director, TCoEFS Unijos is to serve as Secretary