The Aare Egbe Omo Balogun of Ibadanland, Olooye Adegboyega Taofeek Adegoke, has urged Nigerian universities offering agriculture programs to lead by example and become self-sufficient in food production.
Adegoke made these remarks after receiving a distinguished alumni award from the Faculty of Agriculture during the faculty’s 13th Lecture and Awards ceremony.
The event, themed “Mitigating Rising Food Prices: The Underlying Issues,” featured a keynote address by World Bank Senior Agricultural Economist, Adetunji Oredipe, and was held on the university premises.
Adegoke noted that faculties of agriculture should be practical centers of food production, supplying staples such as vegetables, eggs, garri, livestock, and fish to their respective university communities at affordable prices. According to him, this would reduce the nation’s reliance on food imports and address the issue of food scarcity.
He proposed a structured sales system within university communities, where specific days would be dedicated to selling different farm products.
“The faculty should set different days for the selling of produce and other farm products to the university community. Let’s say Monday for livestock, Tuesday for Garri, Wednesday for fish, Thursday for eggs, and Friday for vegetables,” he said.
Adegoke further stressed the role of agriculture in national development and urged governments at all levels to prioritize the sector.
He explained that investing in agriculture and encouraging sustainable farming practices can help mitigate the impact of rising food prices and ensure food security for citizens.
“The issue of continuous increases in food prices will be a thing of the past if there is enough coming from the farms,” he added.