PRofessor Louis Egwari is the Chair of Centre for Biotechnology, Covenant University (CU), Ota, Ogun State. In this chat with Vanguard, the professor of microbiology speaks on his research works, saying researchers should focus on things that impact society. Excerpts:

PATENTS:  “We have been on the Pawka (pawpaw) project for close to nine years. In 2009, I announced the discovery and subsequently, filed for patents for pawka and two other products. So we registered three patents in 2010 – beverage drinks from pawpaw fruit; fermented rice products and culture media formulation from whole fauna of sun-dried crayfish and exoskeleton of crabs and shrimps.

*Prof Egwari

“As a result, the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), sited one of their Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer (IPTT) centres in CU to ease the process of filing for intellectual property rights. Since then, we have added about 10 more patents to the list,” said Egwari.

Beyond publications Egwari said researchers at CU are looking beyond discovering things and getting them registered; they want to see how the discoveries can impact society. “The notion that academics just do research, publish papers, get promoted and become professors is no longer tenable, our work must reflect in society. My notion is that if we have to grow, we have to learn and build up capacity. We must contribute to the society at large. That was why I started redirecting my research focus to things that are communal and societal-based.

Value addition:  “We still publish papers and we have done a good job in publications but I am trying to de-emphasise that. We’ve had discoveries and we still need to let people know about them but the man across the road wants to see how we have succeeded in influencing his life positively. What value have we added to his communal well-being? I am hoping that more people will begin to see it in that direction because that is where development starts from. So presently, in addition to these products, we are working very closely with the university to see how they will get to the market. We are trying to get them commercialised.

Setting up factory: “Right now, we are setting up a factory. We have Pawka soft from pawpaw (rich in antioxidants); Pawka wine, Pawka tea (different varieties); Green Particles (green tea made from Nigerian vegetables with medicinal properties.)”

Nigeria is blessed: “God has blessed us but we ignore the blessings. If someone takes these materials abroad and brings them back to us in a packaged form, we will be eager to use them. We don’t have to wait for it to leave our shores and return in another form; we  have the ability to transform them here. We may not be able to preserve vegetable for more than one week but if we process it, we can keep it for months or years; that is value addition. It encourages the peasant farmer to cultivate more.”

Job creation: Many people will diversify into agriculture to cultivate these things knowing that there is a ready market for them; an industry that can buy the produce off them from the farm.

Charity begins at home: “Very soon, I’ll be coming out with ogi, our common pap. Just as you have custard in powdered form, we want to have ogi in powdered form. What are we doing in the universities if we cannot add value to, and refine these things? So when we talk about technology and stuff like that, it starts with you; the little things that you have been endowed with; the knowledge you got from your parents; how have you improved on the knowledge so that we can feed a larger population, so that it becomes an industry on its own?  We are doing research on things that will benefit the people. We look at the people’s trade and help them improve on it; so when you talk to them, they will easily identify with what you are talking about.

“We also have cassava research. Cassava will make a big industry but the farmer is not adding value to the cassava he cultivates so we want to do that. We are converting the cassava into chips. The research is ongoing to determine the shelf life of the chips and how to reconvert the chips to different products. We chip the cassava and carry out some studies to determine the best storage conditions, temperature, atmospheric conditions and materials we can use for the storage. After a certain period of time, we will reconvert the chips to cassava powder, produce glucose, gum, ethanol and other things. So instead of the farmer carrying tubers, you can now have a kind of cottage industry very close to the farm where the tubers can be chipped.

So the farmers get their money immediately and readily.The losses they are supposed to incur during transportation is reduced.

The chips can be packaged and sent to where they are needed…in local industries and for export. You discover that you are maximising the annual yields of cassava. We hope these will work out well.

These research works will create jobs for people. For instance, I wrote a poroposal for my society, the Biotechnology Institute of Nigeria; the Ministry of Science and Technology approached them to say okay, this is a very big society, how can you create jobs? So I sent in a proposal on pawka. I said now we have this one in CU but we can have franchise, we can have this industry replicated all over the states then federal, state and local governments and individuals can be stakeholders. By doing that, we are creating jobs because the component is that you must have the pawpaw farm so if there is an industry, then pawpaw farming will become a flourishing business.”