Prof Muyonga turns agri-food waste into gem 

John H Muyonga, a professor of food science at Makerere University, is a man to watch carefully and admire.

Donning a professorial academic gown, flanked by his parents, wife and children and key leaders of the university, Muyonga, felt accomplished but energized for even greater heights. He was delivering his professorial inaugural lecture at Yusuf Lule Central Teaching Facility auditorium, Makerere University on June 23, 2023.

The largest hall at the university was well packed, with over 180 people attending on Zoom, not counting those on other online streaming platforms. With the lecture topic, ‘Circular bioeconomy: Applications to the agri-food sector’, Muyonga struggled to summarise and fit his enormous work as an academician at Makerere in the time provided.

With his research area primarily focused on food chemistry, food hydrocolloids, and food science and nutrition, Muyonga has been a member of Makerere’s teaching staff for 26 years, 13 of them as a full professor. He rose fast through the ranks, having started as a lecturer in 1997.

With 80 articles published in peer-reviewed international journals in 26 years, he scores an average of three articles annually, an outstanding feat.

Prof Yazidhi Bamutaze, the deputy principal of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, too had trouble trying to shorten Muyonga’s curriculum vitae. He admitted the defeat, as he announced that Muyonga has published two books, six book chapters and boasts 4,000 citations.

“Prof Muyonga is a highly sought-after resource; he is an associate editor of two international journals, he served as external examiner for many universities, supervised 33 graduate students that include nine PhDs, has led more than 20 research and consultancy projects, is a Rotarian and family man,” he submitted.

PROFESSING WHAT HE PROFESSES

Muyonga started his lecture by explaining that a professorial inaugural lecture is about presenting what the professor professes, or accounting for their years and resources in academia.

He said he has never applied for a job elsewhere because he enjoys his work at Makerere, and he has co-published with academics from his school and outside it. He then delved into the various research projects he carried out or supervised that aim to demonstrate that agri-food wastes are not only useful raw materials for new products; they are also sources of new businesses and, therefore, new employment opportunities.

After presenting the percentage of several agricultural and food products – mango, fish, orange, maize, blood, tamarind seed, jackfruit, banana and passion fruit, among others, he showed how agri-food waste can be minimized and how it can be exploited into useful products and services.

He argued that not only do we contribute to pollution of environment by throwing away the waste; we also lose nutrients, yet some people are hungry or malnutritioned.

THE LOGIC OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Given the ever-rising human population and per capita consumption in the context of fixed natural resources, Muyonga rooted for a circular economy replacing the unsustainable linear economy.

He elaborated how most of the food peelings we throw away contain nutraceuticals also known as phytochemicals that would help boost immunity and prevent malnutrition and non-communicable diseases.

His research work has demonstrated that various wastes can be turned into byproducts like glue, cosmetics, enzymes, animal feed, fertilizer, medicine and oils, among others.

His work has also led to designing and producing a refractance window dryer that gives foods and some of the byproducts a longer lifespan, while preserving the vitamins, minerals and micronutrients, and natural texture, stability and flavour.

“We have used this dryer to produce crisps and powder of jackfruit, mango, pineapple, passion fruit and tomato. We are now working on pumpkin, sweet potato and cassava leaves,” he reported.

FUTURE FOCUS COMMITMENTS

Muyonga concluded by pledging to put more emphasis on technology transfer and transition in future, besides his normal teaching and research work. In this, he said he intends to concentrate on designing and producing technologies for agri-food waste valorisation (‘value addition’) that improve extraction efficiency, efficacy and limit environmental impact.

He will also concentrate on evaluation of new applications of components of agri-food waste – e.g. in bio-based packaging and bio-preservation. He also promised to engage in policy techno-economic analysis of different valorisation options.

Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe handed him a plaque and a certificate of recognition.

MANDATORY PROFESSORIAL LECTURES

Meanwhile, after noting that professorial inaugural lectures have been irregular and extremely few over the years, Prof Nawangwe announced that the university is working on a policy to make the lectures mandatory.

“All professors, upon promotion to the rank, become candidates for delivering their professorial inaugural lectures. Makerere University is in the process of making the professorial inauguration lectures mandatory and the office of the DVC, Academic Affairs is working on a proposal, which will be presented to senate for approval. I, therefore, encourage all our professors, in addition to all their great work, to make the necessary preparations to deliver their lectures.”

Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Prof Umar Kakumba said the institution has sufficient capacity to host four such lectures per semester. “Having many and regular professorial inaugural lectures will advance the sharing of knowledge, inspire many faculty and students, and show the world Makerere’s potential and productivity as a form of our public accountability,” he said.

Kakumba also thanked Muyonga for using very simple language, being interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in his presentation.