Professor of Agricultural Economics, Uzochukwu Onyebinama, has called for a comprehensive census of farmers in Nigeria to enable their proper identification, characterisation, and inclusion as targets of agricultural interventions.
Delivering the 63rd Inaugural Lecture at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture (MOUAU), Umudike, on Wednesday, Prof. Onyebinama argued that a farmers’ census is crucial for achieving meaningful agricultural development objectives.
“Farmer identification, characterisation and classification will provide the empirical evidence for the determination of the development needs of the target farmers.
“This will ensure that agricultural development programmes do not adopt a welfare approach which leads to a misapplication of limited resources, as is the case with smallholder credit schemes,” he said.
He stated that current agricultural policies largely target rural dwellers, who are predominantly farmers, spreading resources thinly with minimal impact.
He emphasised the promotion of technological change through the adoption and use of process technologies suited to Nigeria’s subsistence-oriented agriculture.
The professor urged state governments to fund research on process technologies, while manufacturers should bear the cost of research on product technologies.
He also advocated a hybrid approach combining formal and non-formal education to improve the technical and managerial skills of farmers.
“The farmer practising subsistence agriculture in Nigeria is the entrepreneur, the manager, the taskmaster, and the task worker, deficient in technical and managerial competence,” he said.
Prof. Onyebinama further called for land reforms to ensure security of tenure for farmers, noting that indigenous land tenure systems, preceding the Land Use Decree of 1978, have hindered agricultural development.
“While freedom from hunger is realistic and attainable, zero hunger or an end to hunger is overambitious and unachievable, not just by 2030, but going forward, a mirage,” he stated, stressing that investments in agriculture are critical for transforming food systems and achieving freedom from hunger.
The Vice-Chancellor of MOUAU, Maduebibisi Iwe, congratulated Prof. Onyebinama on his lecture, lauding his scientific insights and contributions to agricultural knowledge.
“You have come up, declared your knowledge from the scientific point of view, and we are happy about it,” he said.
He added that the university continues to provide opportunities for emerging professors to present their inaugural lectures.
