Babcock Student Wins NiWARD ‘Farmer of the Year’ Award
Funmi Ogundare
A 500-level Agriculture and Industrial Technology student, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo in Ogun, Heman Gabriel Zakaria, has emerged winner of the ‘2022 Farmer of the Year’ award, following his outstanding performance at the national contest of the Nigeria Women in Agricultural Research for Development award (NiWARD).
Zakaria, who shared the limelight with his supervisor and Head of Department, Dr Bukola Osuntade, stood out for his performance and abstract presentation on the FILAI method of preservation, a simple and inexpensive way of keeping vegetables fresh without electricity.
The initiative aims to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger in Nigeria by encouraging innovative research in agriculture.
Nine finalists emerged from the three categories online at the NIWARD annual general conference comprising: intermediate (undergraduate or graduates), advanced (postgraduates, early to late career researcher) and stakeholder (agricultural practitioner).
Apart from these, a fourth category of the winner, the people’s choice, could be from any of the three top contestants.
Zakaria emerged as the top winner and the people’s choice, for which he clinched a cash prize of N100,000, a plaque and the NiWARD farmer of the year award (NFA).
NiWARD is the Nigerian chapter of the prestigious African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) which organised the contest during the maiden edition of its Farm to Mouth Agro-contest from August 1 to November 30, 2022.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ademola Tayo, expressed delight about the breakthrough, saying that if implemented, the research innovation will help drive the much talked about food and agricultural revolution the country is yearning for.
In another development, a 400-level student of Mass Communication, Oluwatoyin Ajewole, clinched the second place trophy of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria’s Future Leader of Marketing award.
An elated Ajewole said, “This award has opened many opportunities for me already, and I plan to do and achieve more things in the marketing space.”
