The Secretary to the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU), Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, has said that modern agriculture and food production will be technology-driven by deploying such trappings like precision agriculture, use of drones and robots, driverless tractors, artificial intelligence algorithms, soilless farming and vertical farming (urban agriculture).
Prof. Ochefu disclosed this while delivering the convocation lecture titled: ‘From Baby Boomers to Generation Alpha: Interrogating Generational Dynamics and Agriculture Education in Nigeria’ ahead of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State 31st convocation ceremony. Ochefu, a Professor of African Economic History and Development Studies and Chairman, Conference of Alumni Associations of Nigerian Universities, traced generational dynamics and cycles to the silent generation (great grand parent), the baby boomers (grand parent), generation x (parent), millennials (young adult) and generation alpha (teenager), stating that each generational cycle, especially in African societies was 25 years, adding that three generations coexist, but with different experiences.
The former Vice-Chancellor of Kwararafa University, Taraba State, tagged the Baby Boomers as those born between 1946-1964, who are the children of the silent generation, made up of early nationalists, great monarchs, merchants and labour leaders, saying that they laid the foundation for the current technology-driven world, modern society and globalisation. He, however, advised higher institutions, especially Nigerian universities to key into the Gen Z’s virtual reality, by dropping their conservative toga. The Chairman of the occasion and Olowu of Owu kingdom, Oba (Prof.) Saka Matemilola stressed that the lecture was apt, adding “that things have changed a lot from an era of crude agricultural practices to an era that is far beyond mechanisation”. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Olusola Kehinde stressed that the commitment of his administration was to provide requisite skills and transformational knowledge.