The Federal University of Technology, Akure

A call has gone to government to urgently establish Biotechnology Resource Centres in the Universities and in all relevant Research Institutes where functional tissue culture laboratories will preserve the germ plasm of useful plants.

Delivering the 57th Inaugural lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Professor Anthony Onifade of the institution’s department of Microbiology also made a case for the establishment of the Institute of Botanical Studies of Nigeria (IBSN) that will coordinate the training of taxonomists and keep Nigerian ethnobotanicals for proper documentation of indigenous knowledge, adding that this institute should be synergized with the already existing Herbal Research Institute of Nigeria (HRIN)) so as to achieve its mandate.

In the lecture, titled “Phytotheraphy: A Random Walk Through A Random Forest?”, Professor Onifade equally called for the development of latest biotechnological approaches, particularly in the field of micro propagation, reproductive biology, domestication of selected species and agro-technological practices.

While calling on government to, as a matter of urgency, enforce regulatory acts to protect our natural forest resources, Professor Onifade also advised government to, as a matter of top priority, provide adequate fund for research works in the Universities and Research Institutes, and indeed in the entire system of education in Nigeria.