Degree Programmes

The Faculty has a broad-based programme of five (5) and four (4) academic years for the GCE ‘O’ Level and ‘A” Level holders respectively, leading to the award of the Bachelor of Agriculture (B. Agric.) degree with limited specialization in the final year in any of the following options: Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Agronomy, Animal Production, Crop Protection, and Home Economics and Food Science.

Development of the Curriculum

The 100 Level and 200 Level courses were developed by the Coordinator and the staff on ground in the 1982/83 session with the assistance of experienced Professors of Agriculture from Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ibadan, and the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). In the 1983/84 session, the lower level courses were revised while the 300 level to 500 level courses were developed by the foundation Dean and his team.

The entire programme has since undergone periodic revisions. A major component of the B.Agric. Programme is the compulsory Farm Practical Training (FPT) which all students are exposed to during their 400/500 Levels.

Academic Content

The philosophy and objectives of the Bachelor of Agriculture Programme are to produce competent middle-level manpower who can be usefully engaged in the process of moving the country’s agricultural sector forward either as paid hands in the public or the private sector of the economy or who themselves can be job creators by setting up agricultural enterprises all over the country.

To achieve this philosophy, the students are being exposed to:

1. The theory and practice of Animal Production, including breeding, nutrition, disease prevention and control and Animal Products and Processing.
2. The theory and practice of Crop Production including Land Evaluation and Management, Crop breeding and Crop Protection.
3. The theory and practice of social behaviors, agricultural communication, rural development planning and agricultural extension principles and methodology.
4. The theory and practice of the Economics and Management of Agricultural Resources with a view to optimizing farm production and maximizing farm profits, i.e. Farm Management and Production Economics, Economics of Resource Use, Agricultural Finance, Agribusiness Management, Farm Accounting, Agricultural Project Planning and Implementation and Agricultural Policy Analysis.

The Faculty runs a five years programme and awards a single degree, the Bachelor of Agriculture degree, to all students in the Faculty regardless of the limited specialization (Option) at the 500 Level.  For those admitted through the UME, the 100 Level courses taken at the Faculty of Science are regarded as pre-requisites’ for movement into the 200Level courses.

Between the Harmattan Semester of the 200 Level and the end of the same semester at the 500 Level all students are exposed to prescribed courses in Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering Statistics and General Studies, that are regarded as compulsory.

The period spanning the Rain Semester of the 400 Level and the end of the Harmattan Semester of the 500 Level, including the long vacation between these semesters is devoted to the Farm practical programme.

During the period of the Farm Practical Programme, students are expected to be engaged in the cultivation (planting, maintenance, harvesting, processing and bagging) of different arable crops commonly grown in the locality, exposed to husbandry practices for different classes of farm animals and be involved in the administration, collation and analysis of questionnaires in designated villages around the Ilorin environment in the area of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management as well as Agricultural Extension and Rural Development.