Accreditation

The Department of Crop Production has recorded the following achievements:

• Full accreditation of Departmental Programmes

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has granted the department full accreditation for both undergraduate (B.Agric.) and Postgraduate Programmes (M.Sc. and Ph.D.).

• Staff Training and Development

(i) International Conferences: Almost all staff of the Department of Crop Production were able to attend and present impactful research papers at different conferences and fora at home and abroad. Examples are the International Conference of Entomological Society of America, Entomological Society of South Africa, International Conference of Agronomy in India, African Organic Agriculture Conference in Senegal, European Weed Research in France, Conference of Soil Science Society of Nigeria, Nigerian Society of Plant Protection, to mention a few. These conferences have enabled staff to network and interact with other scientists across the world for collaboration.

(ii) Ph.D. Research Visit: A staff was sponsored by KWASU through TETfund to conduct a one-year Ph.D. research benchwork at the University of Illinois, Urbana on Champaign on Insect Genetics of Sitophilus species, and has opened the door for collaboration between the two Institutions.

(iii) Ph.D. Support grant: Some staff had Ph.D. research sponsored by KWASU through TETfund, to enhance their capacity.

(vi) Research Grants

Many staff of the Crop Production Department have received TETfund research grants to carry out research that can resolve problems in the host community, Kwara State and Nigeria at large. Some of these grants are Institution Based Research (IBR) grants and Participatory Action Research (PAR) grants.

In addition, many staff of the Department have won national and international grants, some of which include:

Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited; with the research titled: Influence of maize and rice yield through the application of NPK nutrients, neem oil coated urea fertilizer and micronutrients in the guinea savanna of Nigeria. The research team comprised Olowoake, A. A., A. Ojo, A. I. Afe, S. K. Subair and T. M. Yusuf.

United State Agency for International Development (USAID), Subaward issued to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with Kwara State University and other three Institutions (INRAN, Niger Republic and INERA, Burkina Faso and Michigan State University, USA), with the project titled: Science-driven and farmer-oriented insect pest management for cowpea agro-ecosystems in West Africa. The Host Country – Principal Investigator for this project is Dr. James Adebayo Ojo.

• Training of farmers through impactful Community Development Project

(i) Production and Application of Organic-Based Fertilizer

(ii)Training and empowerment of farmers on Cashew and Moringa Production across villages in Kwara State

(iii) Introduction and Multiplication of Vitamin A – fortified cassava to smallholder farmers

(iv) Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) initiative

(v) Safe use of Pesticide and its application on the farm

(vi) Sustainable cropping system on common staple crops

• The Department produced a first-class graduate in 2016/2017, and she has been offered a Graduate Teaching Assistantship in the department.