The Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, on Wednesday, commenced its 100th anniversary celebrations with tree planting ceremony.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kabiru Bala, supported by the Executive Director of the institute, Prof. Mohammed-Faguji Ishiyaku, performed the ceremonial tree planting at the institute on Wednesday in Zaria.
Ishiyaku said that the institute was established in 1922 and this year marked its 101 years of its establishment.
”It is worthy to celebrate the institute’s achievements all through these years,” he said.
He further said that the institute had symbolically selected the tamarind seedling for the vice chancellor to plant.
Ishiyaku said that tamarind symbolised longevity and it was one of the oldest trees to survive in the region.
He further said that the fruits of the tree are also sour, which symbolises technology.
“Technology, on its own, when generated, is untouchable, not so useful and therefore sour until it is blended with something that is useful.
“Just like tamarind, technologies generated at the institute can only be useful and impactful, if they were followed together with policies emanating from public landscape.
”That is why we chose tamarind to represent technology that requires policies for it to be translated into societal development,’’ Ishiyaku said.
In a remark, the vice chancellor expressed happiness for kick-starting the 100th anniversary of the institute with tree planting.
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Bala said that the university ought to have celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, pointing out that the institute was older than the university (its parent institution).
“At the university, we would have celebrated the 60th anniversary last year but there was strike and we lost a whole year, we are coming to normal a bit,” he said.
On the tree planting, Bala, who said that there were some climate change skeptics, insisted that climate change is practical and real.
He said that he just came back from France last week and that the temperature there was 37 degrees.
“As an institution, we have to be very responsive in whatever little ways we can to address the challenge, which is affecting the human race,’’ Bala said.
He, therefore, urged the university community to imbibe the culture of tree planting towards mitigating the challenge posed by climate change.
He expressed dismay that their Samaru Campus was in contrast with the Samaru Community, where one could see a whole street without tree.
“When you climb the Senate Building, you will see a sharp contrast between the areas in ABU and Samaru Community.
“In some streets, there is no single tree.
“I don’t know why it happened that way, when most of the inhabitants of the Samaru Community are ABU staff.
“We should have been able to infect the environment and make it tree park by now,’’ the vice chancellor said.
