Director's Corner

Dr. Ibisime Etela is an Animal Scientist by profession and holds bachelors and master’s degrees from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, and a doctorate degree from the University of Benin, all in Nigeria. He specialized in ruminant nutrition and production with special interest in the nutritional evaluation of locally available feed resources mostly crop residues and agro-by-products, their utilization by ruminant livestock (cattle; sheep; goat) and feed quality prediction using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) under resource-poor crop/livestock systems, at least cost. His recent research works focused on utilization of spent mushroom substrates and palm kernel cake by West African dwarf goats, groundnut and cowpea crop residues by sheep, and sweet potato crop residues by calves/lactating cows using improved crop varieties that are very important food/feed crops in Nigeria and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
 

Since joining the University of Port Harcourt in December 2005, he has published over 30 journal articles, a book chapter, and 16 refereed conference papers mostly in international and others in local journals and at conferences. His major contribution to knowledge and research for development was his research on sweet potato forage first on 20 sweet potato genotypes as part of his master’s thesis and later on three ‘best-bets’ selected from the 20 for his doctorate dissertation. The three had earlier exhibited superior agronomic performance and socio-economic importance across agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. Parts of the results from these studies are contained in the following three publications:

 

 

i) Etela, I., Larbi, A., Ikhatua, U.J., and Bamikole, M.A. (2009) Supplementing Guinea grass with fresh sweet potato foliage for milk by Bunaji and N’Dama cows in early lactation. Livestock Science, 120(1-2): 87-95, doi: 10.1016/j.livsci.2008.04.010. (The Netherlands)

ii) Etela, I., Larbi, A., Bamikole, M.A., Ikhatua, U.J., and Oji, U.I. (2008) Rumen degradation characteristics of sweet potato foliage and performance by local and crossbred calves fed milk and foliage from three cultivars. Livestock Science, 115(1): 20-27, doi: 10.1016/j.livsci.2007.06.004.(The Netherlands)

iii) Larbi, A., Etela, I., Nwokocha, H.N., Oji, U.I., Anyanwu, N.J., Gbaraneh, L.D., Anioke, S.C., Balogun, R.O., and Muhammad, I.R. (2007) Fodder and tuber yields, and fodder quality of sweet potato cultivars at different maturity stages in the West African humid forest and savanna zones. Animal Feed Science and Technology, 135(1&2): 126-138. (The Netherlands)

In these studies, Dr. Etela handled the nutritional component as research fellow with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI-West Africa) based in Ibadan, Nigeria. These studies complemented agronomic and socio-economic studies of a nationally coordinated collaborative smallholder agricultural research amongst scientists from selected universities, national agricultural research systems, and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres such as International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), all in Nigeria. Two out of the three sweet potato varieties (TIS-87/0087 and TIS-8164) have since been released to farmers in Nigeria.

In community service, Dr. Etela has served as volunteer / consultant to several nongovernmental organisations targeted at capacity building for peace and reconciliation, capacity development for smallholder farmers, leadership skills and personal development for youths, women, chiefs, opinion leaders, farmers’cooperatives, and ex-militants from the 23 local government areas of Rivers State. Here in the University of Port Harcourt, he has served as Acting Head (HoD), Department of Animal Science and Fisheries (2010-2012) and is, currently, the Acting Director, Institute of Agricultural Research and Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Port Harcourt since September 2012 to date.

As HoD, he contributed immensely to the transformation of the Department of Animal Science and Fisheries to its present status, and as Acting Director, he has commenced a process for staff development through the nomination of six staff of the Faculty of Agriculture for a just concluded nine-week online ICfD-2013 training on the use of social media tools for agricultural and rural development funded by UNITAR/FAO/CTA. He has also facilitated the signing of Cooperation Agreement with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in The Netherlands and the signing of an initial five-year collaborative research memorandum of understanding with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria by the management of the University of Port Harcourt. In November 2012, he facilitated the joining of the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) located in Kenya by the University of Port Harcourt. More of such collaborations and partnerships are still being worked out as a strategic plan to ensure organisational capacity development of the IARD, Faculty of Agriculture, and the University of Port Harcourt, at large.

He is an active member of several departmental, faculty-wide and university-wide committees including serving as Quality Assurance and Quality Control Officer representing the Faculty of Agriculture. Details are as contained on his curriculum vitae.