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| Prof. Abayomi Oloruntoba |
A Professor of Agricultural Extension and Rural
Development Abayomi Oloruntoba, has called on African governments and other
actors in the agricultural sector to seriously consider capacity building as an
elixir for agricultural and rural development.
According to
him, amid all the bigger challenges confronting agriculture on the African
continent capacity building seemed to be receiving less attention or not at all
from stakeholders in the sector when addressing them, thus the need for them to
seriously consider lack of capacity building as a gap that needed to be bridged
in order to ensure positive impact was made in smallholder farming in rural
areas.
Delivering the
maiden inaugural lecture of the University for Development Studies (UDS) on the
theme: “Unleashing The Power of Capacity Building As An Elixir For
Agricultural And Rural Development”, Prof. Oloruntoba observed that, in
Africa, the pervasive poverty in rural areas was often blamed on lack of
capacity building of the rural folks as a result of numerous ineffective
strategies employed in eradicating poverty. He noted that, if poverty was to be
reduced, productivity of the agricultural sector must be increased.
However, agricultural
productivity, he argued, would not increase if the capacity of farmers and
other actors in the agricultural value chain remained low, preventing them from
being innovative. “Innovations could include new agricultural knowledge or
technologies related to primary production, processing, and commercialization
–all of which can positively affect productivity, competitiveness, and
livelihoods of farmers and others. By putting farmers and other actors at the
front burner of innovative practices and encouraging learning through the
interchange of ideas, successes, and failures, they could develop the capacity
to operate efficiently in the knowledge economy”, he emphasised.
He also stated
that, in sub-Sahara Africa, capacity building was important for agriculture
because extension staff worked closely with farmers. “They take on roles as
facilitators by helping farmers to identify their production problems and
opportunities, thereby helping them to help themselves”, he said, stressing
“capacity building is a concept closely related to education, training and
human resource development.”
But Prof.
Oloruntoba identified poor funding attitude by governments towards agriculture
research and development; poorly trained extension staff by training
institutions; lack of coordination among agriculture and rural development
stakeholders such as farmers, policymakers, universities, NGOs, among others as
they worked independently of each other without synergy; and refusal to use ICT
mechanisms such as mobile phones to harness ICT potential in extension services
since there were low numbers of extension agents to disseminate the required
information needs of farmers as some of the challenges confronting capacity
building.
He maintained
that agricultural development was key to ending hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, and
advocated that all stakeholders in this sector should promote and facilitate
continual capacity building.
He also observed
that students’ farm practical had proved to be a novel programme availing
opportunity for undergraduate students to gain practical skills supplemented by
theoretical knowledge in agriculture. In order to make the programme relevant
and increase the quality of teaching, he urged instructors to avail themselves
of modern techniques in agriculture.
Prof. Oloruntoba
also recommended that farmers should be encouraged to participate in the
research process and in the promotion of environmentally sustainable
agriculture.
Inaugural
lectures have been an essential feature of university life for centuries. It is
a significant event in an academic staff member’s career at the university to
mark his/her promotion or appointment to full professorship. For the
university, it is an occasion to celebrate and showcase the academic
achievements of its staff. It therefore provides newly promoted/appointed
professors with the opportunity to inform colleagues, the campus community and
the general public of their work to date.
Thus, the first
inaugural lecture of the UDS in Tamale was intended to celebrate the elevation
of Prof. Abayomi Oloruntoba of the Department of Agricultural Extension, Rural
Development and Gender Studies of the Faculty of Agriculture of the UDS to full
professorship in January, 2012.
Prof. Oloruntoba
has an interesting mix of academic and professional backgrounds which span over
three decades as a lecturer, management trainer, extensionist, researcher and
consultant all of which put him in good stead for his role as Professor of Agricultural
Extension and Rural Development.
He graduated with
a B.Sc (Agriculture) in Forest Resources Management from Nigeria’s Premiere
University, the University of Ibadan, in July 1979. He also earned a Master’s
degree in Resource Science with specialization in Economics and Policy from the
University of California, Berkely, U.S.A in December 1984 and a Ph.D. degree in
Agricultural Extension and Rural Development from the University of Ibadan in
May 2000.
Oloruntoba was a
visiting scholar at the University of Ghana, Department of Agricultural
Extension during his sabbatical leave in 2007/08. In 2010, he joined the UDS
and was appointed to full professor of Agricultural Extension and Rural
Development in January 2012.
Prof.
Oloruntoba’s lecture examined capacity building as it related to agriculture
and rural development drawing on a compendium of research expositions and
‘hands-on’ experience of himself. The paper outlined the different types of
capacity building methods used, namely; capacity building in agricultural
extension for farmers, extension, researchers and students. This was followed
by constraints confronting capacity development; conclusions and policy
recommendations were made aimed at improving the capacity building of
agriculture and rural development practitioners, research scientists, farmers and
students.
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