Name: O.Adewale Osipitan
Home country: Nigeria
Current position: Postdoctoral research associate at Haskell Agricultural Laboratory
Focus of research: Weed management
A native of Nigeria, O. Adewale Osipitan is a postdoctoral research associate at Haskell Agricultural Laboratory (HAL) in Concord, Neb. He has worked at HAL since early 2017 on Stevan Knezevic’s weed science team. Osipatan’s applied research focuses on weed control, specifically herbicide drift, effective dose and dose response curves for chemical weed control in field crops and pastures.
Growing up in Western Africa, Osipitan developed an interest in weed control early in life.
“Weeds are plants that grow where they are not wanted. They have some characteristics that give them a competitive edge on crops if they are not properly managed,” Osipitan explained. “The development of herbicide resistant weeds due to selection pressure associated with intensive use of herbicides has made weed management even more problematic.”
Seeing the challenges facing producers at home, Osipitan sought to gain an understanding of weed management in the United States. He earned a Ph.D. in agronomy from Kansas State University before an opportunity arose working with Knezevic in northeast Nebraska.
“Challenges such as pests, diseases and weed problems often reduce productivity and profitability in the agricultural sector. This makes research and extension efforts imperative to solving these problems,” said Osipitan.
Osipitan’s research is of critical importance to solving the challenges facing today’s producers. He has spent a significant amount of time studying dicamba drift. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture has received over 90 complaints of dicamba drift onto sensitive soybeans, impacting 60,000 acres.
“Our research findings on dicamba drifts have been helping farmers and policy makers understand the magnitude of these unintended drifts on sensitive crops and to take preventative measures,” Osipitan said.
Osipitan lives with his wife and two sons in Wayne.