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CEFTER · About the Centre

Why CEFTER exists

Training the people who
cut post-harvest losses.

To promote teaching, research and extension in post-harvest sciences, and to enhance agricultural productivity and industrial output for the socio-economic advancement of Nigeria and Africa.

Explore programmesAdvisory board
  • One of 24 World Bank Centres
  • Multi-disciplinary training model
  • Mandatory industry internship
  • 7-member Advisory Board

Photos: CEFTER, Makurdi

The problem it addresses

Addressing post-harvest food loss

CEFTER trains both high- and lower-level manpower to address food waste across West and Central Africa. It was one of 24 Centres selected through a competitive World Bank process among more than 150 universities in the region, with the objective of improving the quality of higher education tied to post-harvest loss reduction.

The Centre runs a multi-disciplinary training model that pairs core university professors with industry-based experts, from curriculum design through to a mandatory industry internship, so graduates leave with both research depth and hands-on production experience.

Our mandate

To promote teaching, research and extension in post-harvest sciences, and to enhance agricultural productivity and industrial output for the socio-economic advancement of Nigeria and Africa.

Our Facility

The CEFTER Food Technology Innovation Complex

A World Bank-supported centre of excellence for development impact, on the Benue State University campus.

The CEFTER building on the University campus, with the letters BSU CEFTER on its red entrance tower
The CEFTER building on the University campus
The CEFTER Food Technology Innovation Complex, a World Bank-supported centre of excellence
The Food Technology Innovation Complex
A laboratory at the Centre: work benches with reagent shelves, stools, and fume extraction arms overhead
Laboratory benches with fume extraction overhead
Inside one of CEFTER’s food-science laboratories, with analytical instruments and microscopes
A food-science laboratory with analytical instruments

  • 500+

    Graduates trained

  • 30+

    Research projects

  • 15+

    Industry partners

  • 10+

    Farmers reached (thousands)

Figures as published on the Centre's own website — broader in scope than the postgraduate-only enrolment totals shown on the CEFTER home page.

Objectives

Educational, research and outreach goals

  1. 1

    Develop a critical mass of well-trained African students in the control of post-harvest losses.

  2. 2

    Empower African researchers to identify technologies that reduce post-harvest losses.

  3. 3

    Develop technologies through applied research for reducing post-harvest losses.

  4. 4

    Engage communities, farmers and industries in the dissemination of post-harvest-loss technologies.

Governance

Sectorial Advisory Board

Senior academics, industry leaders and policy experts providing strategic oversight for the Centre's post-harvest-loss mission.

Prof. Ode Ojowu

Prof. Ode Ojowu

Chairman, Sectorial Advisory Board

  • Prof. Barnabas A. Ikyo

    Director/Centre Leader, ACE Impact Project — Member/Secretary

  • Mr. Iorwakwagh Apera

    National Coordinator, National Social Safety Nets, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs & Disaster Management

  • Air Commodore Titus Agbecha (Rtd)

    MD/CEO, Seraph Oil Nigeria Limited

  • Chief Mrs. Helen Awuna

    Farmers' Cooperative Alliance

  • Mrs. Rosemary Waku

    Director, IPPR, Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi

  • Dr. Tim Chancellor

    Natural Resource Institute, University of Greenwich, UK