Kenyan youth have been urged to engage in farming. This was the clarion call that the keynote speaker, Dr. Lusike Wasilwa, Director Crop system at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), made as she delivered her keynote speech during the opening ceremony of the 5th annual research week on Monday 24th October, 2022.
“You need a farmer 3 times a day” she reiterated.
Dr. Wasilwa highlighted the diverse crops whose value can be added and challenged Kenyans to eat diverse meals apart from the usual ugali. She challenged farmers who plant the same crop year in, year out, to diversify and plant different crops.
The Keynote speaker also urged researchers to involve the youth in research processes.
On his part, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kiama challenged the government to set aside funds allocated to research because research is important and it solves a lot of issues that we face as a community. Prof. Kiama mentioned how research has put the University on the map; CEMA-Africa has won USD 5M grant spread out for the next 5 years from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and he mentioned that next year in February, UoN will host the Vice-Chancellor of Washington State University all because of research.
Prof. Kiama also called on all researchers to submit papers that will assist the Presidential working party on education reforms and funding TVETs and Universities.
While welcoming all stakeholders to the research week, Prof. Margaret Hutchinson, Associate Vice Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Extension, appreciated all the faculty committee members that worked towards the realizing of all the 14 conferences that will be held during the research week 2022, on 24-28 October, 2022.
She appreciated all the researchers that will present their papers and tagged them research champions.
There are several conferences that are ongoing, most of them are virtual and you can still join a conference through the research week website by registering for the conference you are interested in.
