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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Technology

Breaking the Agricultural Technology Adoption Jinx Through a Three-Legged Approach

From ThisDay · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Context piece
  • Nigerian academic Saliu Olushola used his inaugural lecture to discuss barriers to agricultural technology adoption and propose a three-legged approach.
  • He described agricultural extension as a way to build farmers’ knowledge and skills, while identifying policy, infrastructure, cost, education and social factors as adoption challenges.
  • Olushola called on policymakers to review university inaugural lectures and apply their recommendations to agricultural development.

Saliu Olushola used his inaugural lecture to make a direct appeal to policymakers: university research should not remain a ceremonial academic exercise. Its recommendations, he argued, should be collected, reviewed and adopted as public policy.

The lecture, titled “Breaking the Jinx of Agricultural Technology Adoption: the Three-Legged Approach,” focused on why farmers and other agricultural operators struggle to adopt new technologies. Olushola presented the inaugural lecture as part of a university tradition in which newly appointed professors discuss their past academic work, current research and future plans with the university community and the wider public.

He traced the tradition to the University of Oxford, where it began with the announcement of the first professorial chair in 1862. In Nigeria, he noted, Professor Tekena N. Tamuno delivered the first inaugural lecture at the University of Ibadan in October 1973.

The recommendations should be considered and used by policy makers such that it will not be counted as a mere academic exercise or a singular aim of joining the prestigious league of inaugural lecturers.

· Saliu OlusholaOlushola explained why he believes inaugural lectures should influence public policy rather than remain academic ceremonies.

Olushola described agricultural extension as a broad program designed to strengthen farmers, farm families and rural economic operators. The group includes processors, marketers, farm managers, labourers, farmers’ associations and communities. Research organizations, universities and agro-industrial institutions, he said, must help provide the knowledge needed to build those capabilities.

Agricultural technology applies scientific knowledge to improve tools and expand solutions for farm services. Properly planned adoption, combined with sound national policy, can support productivity, efficiency, sustainability, automation, pest control and lower costs. Olushola also listed barriers that policy must address, including complexity, high prices, weak standardization, limited education, resistance, environmental concerns, infrastructure gaps and legal, ethical and social constraints.

I therefore call on policy authorities to check a compendium of inaugural lectures in the Universities for policy adoption.

· Saliu OlusholaHe urged policymakers to review university lectures for recommendations that could be applied to agriculture.
About this summary

Originally published by ThisDay in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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