We walk through life most of the time having our plans perfectly set ahead of us not minding what the almighty has in store for us but His will ends up being the best for us for He never makes mistakes. Born to a clergy man’s home (late Pastor and Mrs Ajisafe), the 5th in the family of seven having elder ones fulfilled in their promising professional careers, agriculture was the least of my thought.
I wanted to pursue medical sciences because of an inner will to help mankind. As fate would have it, I could not make it to study medicine but got admission to study Botany and proceeded to study Plant Genetics at master’s level, I felt in love with how man can manipulate genes to help mankind so I decided to make the best out of the second best in the field of agriculture and still contribute my quota to helping humanity. Plant breeding happens to be a very good area to achieve my goal as it is often said “a hungry man is an angry man” and food is the best medicine for the soul, more so, a nation well fed spends less on medicine and this I am determined to pursue with every strength in me as God will help me.
This scholarship to study plant breeding again re-ignites the passion in me to help feed my country and not only to put food on their table but a well balanced food that will make them less vulnerable to food-related sicknesses. I intend to work on cowpea improvement for my PhD being a crop that is a major source of vegetable protein and highly consumed in various ways by both the rich and the poor in Nigeria. I intend to breed for varieties well adapted to various agro-ecologies of the country with good agronomic and chemical properties.
Thumbs up for the organizers of this programme, it is a blessing to have this type of programme helping people to achieve their goals and aspirations in life by training breeders for Africa in Africa. I am fulfilled in this course the almighty has put me on for I am lucky to have been a beneficiary of this wonderful scholarship ….. No regrets.
Dorcas is a research scientist at the National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan. Married to Engr. Omoniyi David Ibitoye and blessed with two lovely girls Lois and Sharon.