Institute’s new boss determined to attract grants for research

The new Executive Director for Institute for Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T) Moor Plantation, Ibadan, Prof. Veronica Obatolu has promised to supplement the epileptic research funding in the system by attracting more grants and donors through an established office for the purpose.

Prof. Obatolu in a chat with Food Farm News in her office stressed the need for a paradigm shift  of better funding to consistent researches that can generate innovations to agricultural productivity to ensure more competitiveness for better earning and wealth creation to the entire nation saying that the dwindling research funding from the federal government has called for the need to look for alternative ways of regular funding that would be consistent for research work towards agricultural development.

She said, ‘’ a new thing is the paradigm shift in our agricultural research as a result of dwindling fund from the federal Government. We are trying to bring in donors to assist in our research so as to be able to come out with tangible things in terms of new innovations to enhance food production in a very competitive way. Research needs money and it must be a continuous thing without any break. It is not something you do with small money to start and stop again after a while. You must not break the process. So we are trying to bring in external donors and attract grants so there will be continuity in our research activities with adequate funding.’’

Towards this plan she said that ‘’ we now have an office that is especially dedicated to this job. The office is called Networking and External Partnership Funding research Office (NEFUND), and this office is mainly responsible for looking for external funding and donors apart from government budget allocation. The office will look for areas of interest that scientists will be directed to bring proposals towards attracting fund to research into.’’

She however enjoined all the workers to be more committed to their work with uppermost sincerity and consciousness ability to whatever thing they were doing.

Obatolu happens to be the first female director of IAR&T since its inception 50 years ago, a professor of human nutrition who has contributed immensely to quality nutrition and food security situation in the country and had also won many research grants in the past.