In particular, this book of essays is aimed at quenching the thirst of undergraduate and postgraduate students of agricultural economics in the institutions of higher learning at home and abroad for a quick reference book on Nigerian development, which they require for proper understanding of taught courses. In general, it is also aimed at dependent and independent professionals in the public and private sectors of the economy and development community at large, with a view to providing them with the institutional memory they require to demonstrate their expertise on the job much better. To this end, the book offers the benefit of many years of experience in teaching, research, and community services, through a menu of topics for profitable reading about the inner mechanisms of the policy process for agricultural development of the country in real time. Herein is strenuously articulated the systematic outputs of disciplined hard work spanning three decades, from 1988 to 2018, including the last ten years of active engagements in policy advocacy outside the university system. The menu of nonexperimental writings provides information about the seemingly dry area of agricultural historiography of the country embedded in a series of analytical thoughts and expositions on performance of successive programs and projects for developing the agricultural economy.
About the Author: GBOLAGADE BABALOLA AYOOLA is professor of agricultural economics and policy of University of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State Nigeria, where he was a pioneer member of the academic staff since 1988. Prior to his voluntary retirement from the institution in 2009 he had served in various capacities, notably as Head of Agricultural Economics Department and Director of Centre for Food and Agricultural Strategy (now Institute of Food Security). His professional career started as a Research Associate at the World Bank-assisted Federal Agricultural Coordinating Unit of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and afterwards, he rendered his professional services as an adviser and a consultant to federal, state and local government ministries, departments and agencies in Nigeria, as also to several international institutions in agricultural development, trade and finance. As academic of world renown, his seminal contribution to knowledge was the Deathly Embrace hypothesis of the two-sector (agriculture-industry) economy he developed as a visiting scholar to Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, U.S.A in 1996. A Fellow of Nigerian Associations of Agricultural Economists, and of the Institute of Management Consultants, Ayoola founded the Farm & Infrastructure Foundation (FIF) in 1999, an organization for promoting policy best practices in agriculture and rural development, through public-spirited policy advocacy, evidence-based policy research and knowledge-driven policy brokerage.