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Don makes case for payment of special allowances to plant protectionists

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By Eyo Akaiso, Uyo.

A lecturer from the Federal University of Technology Adamawa, Yola, Prof. Mrs. Anna M. Malgwi has called on government to pay special allowances to plant protectionists as it is done to medical doctors.

Speaking on the side line of the 45th conference and golden jubilee celebration of the Nigerian Society for Plant Protection, NSPP and first international conference in Uyo, Prof. Malgwi who described plant protectionists as plant doctors said lives of all human beings are sustained by plants, adding “it’s wrong for government to pay more attention to human doctors than plant doctors”.

“I see it as an error on the part of government to pay all sorts of allowances to the medical and even veterinary doctors and nothing to those in charge of plants.  And you know if all the plants are death due to lack of care, you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you what would happen to human beings should that be the case and yet plant protectionists are neglected in all ramifications”, she added.

Prof. Malgwi who is the first woman in entire Northern Nigeria to bag a fellowship award from the Nigerian Society for Plant Protection, also faulted the approach adopted in the Roll Back Malaria Project.

She said: “Roll Back Malaria failed because Federal Government refused to acknowledge the role of plant protectionists who are the only professionals trained to treat both plants and pests. And mosquitoes that cause malaria live on plants and dirty environment so to succeed in rolling back malaria you must first roll back the pests and only plant doctors can do that. Malaria cannot be rolled back by providing insecticide nets only. The roll back has to begin from the source”.

Perhaps it was for this reason that the Hon. Minister of State for Agriculture, Hon. Mustapha Shehuri was in attendance at the conference marking the first time in forty five years of history of existence of the society for government official to attend.

In a speech to declare open the event, the minister pledged on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to partner the society in order to diversify agriculture as mainstay of our economy.

He assured that the communique that will come out of the conference will be given adequate attention by the ministry.

The conference which had to be shifted from the original venue in the University of Uyo to an event center in Uyo town for obvious reasons had Prof. Okon Ansa as the local organizing committee, LOC chairman.

Welcoming delegates to the event, Ansa gave kudos to Muhammadu Buhari administration for sincerity of purpose in the federal government agrarian policy aimed at addressing the problem of food insufficiency in Nigeria, adding it was the first time in 45 years of the society’s history for government to be represented at any of its conferences.

Equally, he thanked the governor of Akwa Ibom, Deacon Udom Emmanuel for his financial support which made the event a huge success and conferred fellowship awards on eminent scholars including Prof. Anna M. Malgwi while the president of NSPP presented students’ travel grants to deserving ones.

The conference with the theme “Strengthening the Nexus between research, industry, and policy in plant protection for increased agricultural production”, also featured presentation of award to Governor Udom Emmanuel, who was represented by the state commissioner for agriculture and women affairs Dr. Glory Edet.

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