Welcome, Address by the President of the American University of Nigeria, Dr Margee Ensign at the launch of AUN-IITA Agricultural Innovation Hub and Signing of Memorandum of Understanding, on Monday, February 21, 2022.
Sometimes in the lives of institutions as well as individuals, new partnerships—coming together with people who have common goals can change the trajectory both of lives and institutions and countries on important issues. I think this partnership is such a life-changing one—not only for both of our institutions but far more importantly for the people, farmers, women, children, in our region and the country.
In America—we call this a marriage made in heaven
Why?
Food security and education are the foundation of a society. Without enough to eat, and the ability for individuals to learn, it is not possible for a society to advance.
The American University of Nigeria’s mission as a Development University is to train bold leaders to solve societal problems, and to improve education—in all its different forms—especially in Northeast Nigeria.
The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is an award-winning, research-for-development (R4D) organization whose goals are to reduce poverty and increase sustainable agricultural production-to improve the lives of farmers and reduce poverty.
Preeminent international institution and we are very proud to be signing this MOU with you today
We have come together to partner to work on these two fundamental challenges—food insecurity and poor education.
The figures for Nigeria-for both of these factors- are quite grim. UNICEF has concluded that Nigeria has the second-highest burden of stunted children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 32 per cent of children under five.
But a recent study indicates that the figures for N/E Nigeria are far higher: “Every year in Nigeria, malnutrition contributes to more than 33% of the deaths of children below 5 years, and these deaths mostly occur in the northern geopolitical zones where nearly 50% of all children below 5 years are stunted. For those of you who don’t understand what that means, I quote from an article on malnutrition:
Reducing child undernutrition
“Undernutrition -or stunting-- has far-reaching, long-term effects on those who survive.
Undernutrition in the first 1,000 days post-conception represents a fundamental squandering of human potential.
In these crucial days, the body is quickly laying down its fundamental building blocks for brain development and future growth. Any disturbance leaves a long-lasting mark:
damage from undernutrition in early life is largely irreversible.
The school performance of undernourished children is below potential. They have lower work capacity and productivity as adults. Later in life, they have an increased likelihood
of being overweight and developing associated chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, and suffering from mental health issues.
When girl children suffer from undernutrition, their own children are more likely to suffer from it in their first 1,000 days post-conception.
The first 1,000 days post-conception represents a fundamental squandering of human potential. Damage from undernutrition in early life is largely irreversible.”
It is staggering to realize that half or more of the children in this state—in this region—will never reach their full potential.
The solutions are known—training farmers, proving the right seeds and inputs including finance to increase agricultural yields, improving education for women and children.
Your motto at IITA is zero hunger. Ours at AUN is Education for all.
There are many projects we are considering working on together in this Partnership. It will give IITA the opportunity of having a research station in Northeast Nigeria.
Crop testing and performance varied in ecological conditions, the provision of land inside the campus of AUN in Yola, will enable IITA to complete its ecological coverage of Nigeria. AUN had contributed 100 hectares of land for this effort as well as an office for IITA.
We can develop radio and mobile programs to educate women on nutrition and health, and farmers to increase agricultural productivity.
Under the GIZ-funded Building Resilience through Sustainable Agriculture (BRSA), AUN has been working in the past 3 years with the Adamawa State Ministry of Agriculture to provide hands-on training, mentoring and coaching to government-employed extension workers, many of whom have never been trained nor provided with extension services. With this experience, we believe with this partnership we can scale up the pilot program to train additional extension workers including many unemployed but educated youths. These new extension workers can also conduct house-to-house training on nutrition to mothers in their communities. Let’s call it the Youth Leadership Corps.
Under the BRSA project, AUN had contracted the Adamawa Agricultural Mechanization Agency (AAMA), an agency of the state Ministry of Agriculture to manufacture planters, threshers and related farm machinery to ease the burden of farming for our beneficiaries.
AUN and IITA hope to introduce and deploy threshing and Stover crushing machines to be manufactured by AAMA. These machines to be produced at low cost by AAMA will be provided at deeply discounted rates:
1) to crop farmers to thresh grain crops such as rice, maize, soybean and sorghum thus reducing the burden on youth and women that spend hundreds of hours every harvest season engaged in this strenuous, hot and dirty work and,
2) to herders to crush maize, sorghum and millet stalks after harvest thus helping to prevent farm invasions.
AUN will work with its peace network, the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API) to introduce these machines in conflict-prone areas. We will bring Christian and Muslim groups together whose conflicts are related to land use. AUN-API is currently working on reducing conflict in Guyuk and Numan and these conflicts are directly related to farmer-herder issues (as are many in the Northeast).
The partnership connects well with AUN’s new $1.4 million partnership with the German aid agency, GIZ in Northeast Nigeria.
The goal of the project is to strengthen the economic resilience of 1900 youths aged between 17-25 years old through self-employment and market-driven vocational and agricultural livelihoods development opportunities.
There are tremendous opportunities for faculty and students for research. I am confident that this partnership will be life-changing and life-saving for many in this region.