Agric College staffs, students accuse provost of mismanagement

College Mechanized Farm

*My accusers are malicious, says provost

 Few days to the 98th anniversary of the Federal College of Agriculture, Moore Plantation, Ibadan, there has been disquiet between the college provost, staffs and students. While the accusers allege that since the arrival of the provost, Engr. (Dr) B.A Adelekan the college had been in deplorable condition, as most of the college’s businesses,  facilities and structures such as the college garri processing unit, the bakery, fisheries unit, amongst others, have become rundown due to poor management of the college by inexperienced hands.

The provost has disagreed vehemently with his accusers saying that they were just being malicious.

  One of the students who spoke with FoodfarmNews on condition of anonymity said that most of their practical classes have been turned into theory classes as there were no materials provided by the college for practical which is part of the core mandate of the institution.

 He added that the negligence of the relevant authorities have made students lazy to learning and that because nothing is working in the college student no longer want to come to the school.

 Another student who agreed to speak with our correspondent said as an extension student he is ashamed to say that he could not drive a tractor, saying he wondered how he was expected to reach out to the farmers at the grassroots who would need technical information as regard training or rendering of extension services to farmers who needs their services and prayed the federal government comes to the aid of the institution to rectify the situation. 

One of the staffs who did not want his name mentioned said that the institution had totally deviated from its mandate, thereby leaving the students to suffer from fear that agricultural experts might not emerge from the institution, if nothing is done urgently to remedy the current problems of non functionality of college facilities and lack of utilization of the colleges potentials as regards to sufficient food production. 

He disclosed that over 80 hectares of land is at Onifufu lying to be exploited by the college for agricultural utilization has currently been underutilized since 2015 adding that the abandoned 80 hectares of land had been used in previous years for the planting and harvesting of dried dehusked maize:” In 2010, 640kg dried dehusked maize was harvested, in 2011, 1200kg, and 2720kg in 2013,” he said. 

He further disclosed that ten hectares of Jatropha farm is lying unattended to, due to the negligence of the present hands and noted that the Jatropha was planted since 2013 which was already due for harvest by 2015, but had been left untouched. 

He added that the plantation could be harvested yearly, exported or rather converted to fuel or biogas, with residual cake that can be used for fish or animal feed and high quality fertilizer, as well as for extensive research, funded by the management. 

 

Another staff said it was high time for government to extensively look into the activities of the college to stop the current diminishing of the institutes values, stating that the college, known for the high production of oil palm is no longer, a leading player in palm oil production as the one hectare of oil palm for demonstration and oil palm processing is currently generating little or no oil.

 He said that the small quantity of the products produced currently from the farm cannot be compared to the 15 x 25litres kegs generated before now and that there was no more vegetable production in the college, which had never been experienced before the arrival of the Dr. Adelekan.

 He said the workable dry season vegetable garden equipped for successful cultivation facilities in dry season was now totally unexploited.

 Foodfarmnews further spoke with another staff of the college who confirmed  that the college no longer produce oil palm seedlings, cashew plant seedlings and other seedlings previously generated by the college at commercial rate. 

She disclosed that for quite some time now people no longer order for eggs because the pens with  capacity of 800 layers , 2000 broilers and daily egg generation of 250-300 crates, when the pens were active, had been empty for a while now without any hope of being revamped.

 She stress that the college is not just experiencing  empty egg pens but is also experiencing empty piggery pens due to poor management of the pen and the starvation of the pigs adding that the piggery pens initially held 200-250 piglets, 50-60 breeders and growers that were weekly slaughtered, packaged and sold commercially.

 It was also gathered that most part time students have withdrawn from the various courses for lack of confidence in the college authorities and that people who questioned the management style of the provost, have either been placed on suspension or replaced at their point of duty with inexperienced hands who have joined in running down the institution.

A source told Foodfarmnews that even though N9 million had been spent on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the college, there was almost nothing to show for it.

 When contacted, the provost who denied all allegations said that the statements made by the students and staffs were malicious, explaining that the major challenge of the institution had been inadequate funding, which has led to non-performance of the college.

 He added that the student always do practical during their course of study in the college, adding that in spite of the little funding allocated to the college, the college had been able to make remarkable achievements which include the ongoing construction of a clinic, are seen, displayed and commented by the students on the college e-portal. 

Many who spoke with Foodfarmnews also made reference to the previous administration under the leadership of Dr. Mrs. Oluwatoyinbo, who they believe repositioned the college, as various departments experienced high productivity.

Some of the respondents called for a panel to be set up to audit the affairs of the college and the legislative committees on agricultural colleges to perform their oversight duties on the institution.