Asoo Dorcas Yaji, a beneficiary of Centre for Food Technology and Research, CEFTER, Benue State University partnership with Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich.

Asoo Dorcas Yaji, a beneficiary of Centre for Food Technology and Research, CEFTER, Benue State University partnership with Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich. She is on the FaNSI PhD Scholarship of the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich. She is the first beneficiary of this partnership.

The main objective of NRI’S Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (FaNSI) is to use a food systems approach to expand NRI’s interdisciplinary research capacity, working in collaboration with partner organizations like CEFTER, to address the challenges of food and nutrition insecurity, especially in Africa. The Initiative develops four of NRI’s areas of excellence: Climate Change, Food Loss and Waste, Sustainable Agricultural Intensification, and Food Systems for Improved Nutrition, which, when combined with other complementary areas of work, will create a world-leading research capacity addressing the needs of vulnerable people.

Her research is focused in the area of food loss and waste, including post harvest losses which represent a major challenge globally. Specifically, she is researching on the control of storage rot in apples caused by Neonectria ditissima, a fungal pathogen. Her scholarship is one of CEFTER’s benefits from the NRI partnership to train resource persons in research aimed at controlling post harvest losses. At NRI, she is expected to acquire knowledge, skills and experiences which can be applied to control fungal diseases causing significant loss of fruit crops in Benue State. These skills and knowledge will also be used for effective capacity building to promote teaching and innovative research at CEFTER, one of Africa’s foremost Centre of Excellence, for control of post-harvest food losses in Nigeria, West and Central Africa.