By Olawale Ojo Among the many highlights of my participation at the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2)  with the theme FORESIGHT AND PARTNERSHIP FOR INNOVATION AND IMPACT ON SMALL-HOLDER LIVELIHOODS at Punta del Este, Uruguay on 29thOctober to...

By Tukeni Obasi As Nigerians get to work on the project of transformation, the question has been asked: how will all these jobs be created and sustained? If the present challenges remain and farmers and other entrepreneurs do not have access to capital, machinery, and information; if the entry...

By Tukeni Obasi At the beginning of every year, pastors across the country come up with a declaration statement for the new year: the year of divine favour; the year of manifold blessings; the year of unparalleled prosperity; and so on. While the tendency among some members of the...

By Tukeni Obasi As the year gradually winds down, Nigerians across the country are making plans – plans for the holidays, plans for the new year. As students prepare for their exams, companies are preparing their budgets for 2013, and parents are looking forward to being reunited with other...

By Tukeni Obasi In recent times, there has been a paradigm shift in the conceptualisation of agricultural education in Nigeria. It has become all clear that the current habit of releasing agricultural graduates into the labour market with no practical skills to thrive in existing enterprises...

By Tukeni Obasi The flood incidences that plagued our country several weeks ago resulting in a national disaster have been difficult to forget. For many who saw their means of livelihood washed away as they tried to keep their very lives afloat, the memories will be around for a while....

By Tukeni Obasi Several weeks ago, the World Bank released an 85-page report entitled “Africa Can Help Feed Africa”, expressing hope in the continent’s ability to attain self-sufficiency and making recommendations on how to effectively unlock Africa’s agricultural potential. To this...

By Tukeni Obasi Last week on this column, I shed some light on the rice revolution and the part Dominion Farms, an Oklahoma-based farming company, is playing to build Africa’s largest rice farm in collaboration with Nigeria’s Ministry of Agriculture. News like this has, however, been...

By Tukeni Obasi The rice value chain is one of the eight value chains targeted for transformation and full-scale exploitation under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). This is because rice is produced all across the north and south of the country, and yet Nigeria imports about...

By Tukeni Obasi The World Food Day tradition dates back to the 1979 Conference of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). It was instituted with the aim of raising global awareness of the twin problems of hunger and malnutrition and ultimately addressing poverty and its implications for...

By Tukeni Obasi In the Anglophone North-Western region of Cameroon, when the eldest girl-child in the family gets married, one of her younger sisters is sent to live with her and help her begin her home. This was the story of Patience Mbah Atim, the seventh of eight children in the Atim...

By Tukeni Obasi Malawi has become a role model in African agriculture for a number of reasons, one of which is the efforts the late president made to transform the country into a grain-exporting country. As the agricultural sector struggles to thrive under the new dispensation, some young...