By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – THE Nigerian Institute for Oil palm Research (NIFOR) and the Coconut Research Institute – Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Science (CRI-CATAS) of China have signed a collaborative agreement to improve the quality and produce harsh weather-resistant crops so as not to fall into situations of low productivity because of weather conditions.

The agreement for the collaboration was held at the headquarters of NIFOR in Benin City which was attended by the management staff of NIFOR where its Acting Executive Director, Dr. Isona Gold noted that the core objectives of collaboration is to undertake joint research activities in the areas of Oil Palm and Coconut biology and exchange academic personnel and materials.

According to him, NIEFOR is a warehouse of all the available oil palm genetic materials globally.

He said the threat of climate change to the future fats and oils supply chain has become elaborated in recent times and no one needs further explanation of the implications for food production, sustainability and security.

“Drought and its negative effects on food production are the major fears of the Scientific community globally and hence the concerted efforts at improving germplasms in different countries to mitigate this threat. NIFOR is strategically positioned to provide the germplasm materials for developing drought resilient planting materials with capacity for 150 -250kg fresh fruit bunches per palm per year in an environment of 1000m-1500mm of total rainfall distributed within six months of the year.

He said it is expected that the collaboration in the nearest future would enhance the Nigerian Coconut value chain with technologies for higher Coconut yield per hectare year because “We are aware the coconut value chain is very well developed in China and we hope that Nigeria can frog-leap in the value chain as a result of this collaboration.

In a remark, the leader of the delegation of scientists from CRI-CATAS Dr. Cao Hongxing commended the reception given them in NIFOR as he expressed optimism in the outcomes from the collaboration.

She however commended NIFOR for the achievements in the oil Palm and coconut research and development and said they look forward to mutually beneficial collaboration that would see both institutes bridging the existing gaps in the realization of their research and development objectives.