STUDENTS COMBINED THEORIES WITH PRACTICALS IN ABUAD
There is one thing that binds all students of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) together. Every student of the university, irrespective of course of study, involves in farming.
According to the Founder of the institution, Aare Afe Babalola, food security must never be a problem for any graduate of the institution. The university thus expects that students will be stimulated enough during their stay on campus to be able to go into farming either fully or on part-time basis and contribute to food production in the country after graduation or even earn reasonable income from the vocation.
Both the Founder and the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Sidi Osho, a renowned professor of food processing and technology are not only passionate about agriculture but practically pilot the students in farming activities. Believing that theoretical works alone will not guarantee adequate knowledge and skill on the trade, the University takes the students through practical farming in the school farm located near the school premises.
The management of the school insists that, all students, regardless of their professions or course of studies, must go to the farm. From the findings in the course of interacting with the students, we found out that some of them have taken interest in farming, so, each time they go home on vacation, they introduce farming to their families and they do more research and come back to say we have started the poultry and fish pond on a low scale, which invariably in a short moment will transform to a mechanized farming.
The ABUAD farm has a vast land with different plantations in rows. Some of the crops are already yielding fruits. For instance, mango fruits are already being harvested and packaged for export from the over 50,000 mango trees fruiting already. It is expected that not fewer than 500,000 mango trees will be planted in the vast mango plantation section. The maize and pawpaw plantations and several other crops and the expanse fish ponds are already a tourist attraction in the University.
The visitors of course have enough rich and nourishing foods and fruits to relax with when ever they come to visit the farm. Chief Afe Babalola posited that, in addition to its exploits in the field of education, also set to change the face of agriculture in the country. As if the large farm is not enough to achieve the set goals, more bush is being cleared while construction works are still going on to accommodate more plantations and fish ponds. “The university wants to see its products engaging in one type of farming or another.
The Founder has given every student chances of diverting to any type of farming they want to engage themselves. He wants it to be like, if you cannot engage in fish farming, you should be able to do snail farming, grow cassava, maize, vegetables, pawpaw or other permanent crops either as a full or part-time farmer and make money rather than stay idle without being employed.
Already, agriculture is fast becoming a good source of revenue for ABUAD. It is projected that the university will be gathering in a minimum of $10 million (about N1.5 billion) annually.