Essays on Agricultural Economy

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.