Varsity centre will protect Yobe from desert’s crippling conditions – VC

The Desert Research Monitoring and Control Centre of the Yobe State University, Damaturu, is working to lift Yobe above crippling conditions of the desert.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Yakubu Mukhtar, said this in an interview with Daily Trust, adding that the centre’s mandate was to curtail the menace of desert encroachment.

“The centre is involved in research and field work to check desert encroachment. As an institution of higher learning, we exist to work on our environment and improve life for the people. We do this in many ways,” he said, adding, “We for instance create knowledge and capacity for the local populace on how to manage situations or rise above them.”

He said last year the centre went to Gaidam and Yunusari LGAs where plants that could control the encroachment of the desert were planted. 

He said the centre had gone for collaboration to the North East Arid Zone Development Programme (NEAZDP), explaining, “The programme has done a lot to ease conditions imposed by desertification and we felt that if we synergize with them, we could do well for areas affected by desertification.”