Okebukola bemoans low varsity enrollment in agric courses

The former executive secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola, has expressed great displeasure over what he termed low subscription of students for admission into Nigerian universities to study agriculture-related courses.

He said this situation is not limited to conventional universities with faculties of agriculture but also applicable to the specialised universities of agriculture across the country.

He said something concrete has to be done fast by government and other stakeholders to reverse the trend and make the agricultural sector more attractive to people, especially youth to take up careers in the sector.

Prof Okebukola said this during a virtual lecture organised by the Lagos State University Africa Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Transformative STEM Education (LASU-ACEITSE), Ojo for masters’ and doctoral students penultimate week. Okebukola is the director of the centre, which is fully funded by the World Bank and the lecture was titled “Recent developments in agricultural sciences and technology: Implications for STEM teacher education.”

According to him, the low subscription of students based on admission data in agricultural departments of various Nigerian tertiary institutions in the last 20 to 30 years despite the inspiration and encouragement given, is worrisome.

He said this low enrollment had made specialised agric universities, in particular, to be running courses such as Banking and Finance and other allied management courses, which are outside their original mandates and improper.

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Delivering the main lecture, a professor of Agricultural Engineering and former Vice-Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Michael Faborode, said to boost productivity in the agric sector in the country would require government developing an effective policy framework and having the right political will, especially in the area of investment.

While declaring that agriculture is a major pathway for meaningful development in Africa, he said that was why deliberate efforts by government and other stakeholders are needed to promote and encourage indigenous technological innovations in a large scale that would not only attract youth but also retain them in the sector.

He said the use of crude implements such as cutlass and hoes like the practice in the past is no longer relevant to achieve the quest to make Nigeria and its people enjoying food and economic sustainability.

Faborode, a former Secretary-General of Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU), therefore specifically urged the university system to engage in meaningful research activities that would give the right direction for the sector while STEM educators to be at the forefront of innovation and bring to bear their knowledge in the value chain addition to transforming the sector in no time.