A Professor of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, Professor Kayode Joshua Simonyan, has underscored the strategic importance of biomass resources, endogenous technology, and periwinkle to the country.
Prof. Simonyan, who is also the Director; Directorate of MOUAU Research Administration, stressed that the conversion of the enormous quantities of biomass resources into electricity in the country will increase the country’s energy supply.
The don, who announced this in his presentation at the 55th inaugural lecture of the university, titled: “Unveiling the Wedlock of Endogenous Technologies and Sustainable Economic Growth,” said he chose to explore the place and contribution of endogenous agricultural technologies to sustainable development.
According to him, this is germane in the face of the economic crisis worldwide owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukraine war and the general global economic downturn and by so doing “establish in our consciousness that we should look inward and adopt agricultural technological innovations developed in the country.
“This lecture summaries my research work, borne out of my passion for seeing crop processing and storage processes situated and mechanised to impact the economic growth of society.”
Prof. Simonyan indentified periwinkles as invertebrates belonging to the Phylum Mollusca Class Gastropoda and Sub- Class Probranchia and characterised by a turreted granular and springy shell with a tapering end and occurring in Nigeria in lagoons, estuaries and mangrove swamps, saying they “are the cheapest source of protein in West Africa and has been used to treat endemic goiter and other ailments because of their high Iodine content.”
While encouraging the eating of periwinkle meat, he pointed out that periwinkle’s 74.74 per cent crude protein content is higher than that of crab – 18.40 to 20 – 48 per cent, locusts 49-61 per cent and termites 35.2 – 45 per cent, hence, “any diet containing periwinkle will perform the functions of both repairs of worn out tissue for bodybuilding.”
He stated that mechanisation remains the panacea to achieving timely processing of periwinkle meat, instead of using traditional method of cracking, hence after using the physical study of the mechanical thermal properties obtained from literature, “we designed and developed a viable machine for the extraction of meat from periwinkle.”
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Maduebibisi Ofor Iwe, in his remarks after congratulating Prof. Simonyan for delivering a worthy and thought-provoking inaugural lecture, corroborated that power is the key to scientific activities, hence they cannot be effected in ‘darkness’ and urged for the sustained provision of the facilities that would drive technology both in theory and practice.
According to him, inaugural lectures are academic harvests through which professors look inwards and proffer solutions to national problems and issues.
