INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2019; A PREDATOR CONFERENCE OR NOT?

Development 

(Event Diary) by Mariama Jabani (Staff Writer)

No, We Ain’t Predators!

I’d asked the professor, who described the 6th to 8th November International conference on Agriculture; theme “Authentic Agriculture for Sustainable Food Security in the Global Food System” a predator conference, what he meant by “Predator” conference?

“By predator I mean, like those organizations that just staged conferences and charge money for attendance and impact nothing at the end of the day”, he’d began to explained, when the exploding bile of disappointment and anger over his perception of the International conference on Agriculture, which seeks to assembles and bring together, some of the best and award winning minds in authentic and practical modern day Agriculture, which has the potential to mitigate the unemployment and food security challenge that is plaguing Nigeria and African, as seen in the escalating food shortage and price rise, currently experienced in the ongoing border closure that result to rice and other food scarcity all over the country.

He is a senior professor with the University of Uyo, South-South, Nigeria, the hosting venue of the upcoming International Conference that have as lead paper presenter, Engr. Prof. Ogbonnaya Chukwu, Hon. Commissioner of Finance & Economic Development, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ebonyi state, Nigeria. The commissioner is also a Professor of Agricultural Engineering, Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, School of Infrastructure, Process Engineering & Technology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State. The Keynote speakers in the International Conference includes: Winner of the People’s Friendship of University of Russia’s annual money grant for best scientific research work, winner 2012 Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) with research intervention on cow pie varieties improvement, specialist on Genetics, plant breeding and seed production technology, Prof. Magashi Auwal Ibrahim, Researcher at the N.I Vavilov Institute of Crop Production, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg, Russia &Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Kano State University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Kano State, Nigeria, Professor Godfrey Akpan Iwo, Visiting Scholar, Department of Plant and Environmental Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark & Professor of Plant Breeding and Cytogenetic, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, Dr. Edna Augustine Akpan, , PhD Crop Protection Mycology, Head Department of Crop Science, Vice Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Akwa Ibom state University (AKSU), Iko Akpaden/Obio Akpa Campus , Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria & member Akwa Ibom state Technical Committee on Agriculture and Food Security. And many more papers and participants who have identify and expressed their willingness to be part of our International Conference on Agriculture, sending in their papers for vetting to be presented at the conference from India, UK, Zambia and other part of the globe, and someone can regard us as a predator conference. No we are not predator conference.

The International Conference on Agriculture 2019 is powered by International Centre for Integrated Development Research (ICIDR), a research advocacy base organization, Nigeria, in collaboration with CopperStone University, Zambia, not predator organizations. At ICIDR, we believe that for Nigeria and Africa to come out of her developmental quack mire, implementable and practical research from the academia and any relevant bodies have to be researches that be translated and brought to bear on the environment, solving social and societal problems, benefiting the people, anything short of that is a beautiful waste of time and government resources, no matter the academic attainment of such people manning such institution. We believe that Africa has the solution to her socio-economic challenge in her hand, but we must start coming down from our high heel, pick up and bring out our research papers and ideas and come to interact with the society and all stakeholders, toward implementing such findings for our development. This is the motivating factor of the International Conference 2019, and it is not a predator conference.