Governance

The NigeriaLics Secretary-General

Professor Opeyemi Eyitayo AYINDE, University of Ilorin, Nigeria.

Prof. Ayinde was born and lives in Nigeria. She was offered admission into the Bachelors of Agriculture program of the University of Ilorin in 1992. During her undergraduate study, she maintained the best position in her class and therefore enjoyed the rare honors of being a university scholar consistently for five years. At graduation in 1999, she was the best student of her set at both Departmental and Faculty level, a feat that won her various honors and prizes at the graduation ceremony. After graduation, she was offered admission into the graduate program of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin in 2000, and eventually graduated with a doctoral degree in May 2008. Her Ph.D. thesis was titled “Risk Management Behaviours of Small-Scale Crop Producers in Nigeria”. The novelty of her thesis won her the South Africa National Research Council’s Post-Doctoral fellowship where she worked on Innovation Economics of Agricultural production from 2010 to 2012.

Prof Ayinde started her lecturing career as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin in 2002. She rose through the ranks, satisfying all the requirements for teaching, research, student supervision, and community services, and was promoted to the position of Lecturer II, Lecturer I, and Senior Lecturer in the years 2007, 2010, and 2013, respectively.

During the course of her career, the University appointed her to several administrative positions. She served as the Postgraduate students’ coordinator of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin between the years 2014 – 2017. She was also appointed in 2017 as the Head of the Department. In 2018, She won the Fulbright Senior Research Scholar which she did for a year at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.

Between 2015 and 2018, she was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the South African Research Chair Initiative (SARCHI) at the Institute for Economics Research on Innovation, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. In 2019, the University of Ilorin formally appointed her a Professor of Agricultural Economics.

Professor Opeyemi Ayinde has served on the international scene. In 2019 she served as a reviewer at the Applied and Agricultural Economics meeting held at Kansa, USA. In 2021, she was appointed as a Research and Innovation Associate at SARCHI due to her high academic outputs. She has also served as editor to several Journals in Nigeria and in South Africa such as AGROSEARCH, and AJSTID.

She has supervised more than 100 undergraduate projects, 30 Masters, and 8 doctoral students In Nigeria, South Africa, and Rwanda. Many of the results of the research endeavors have been published in several reputable national and international journals.

She has presented the output of her research works on Agricultural Economics, innovation and gender issues in many national and international workshops, meetings, conferences and seminars. Her conference attendance started when she presented the output of one of her works on the necessary innovative traits in banana production that will enhance producer’s livelihood in 2008 at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, (CTA) at Kenya where she won the best poster presented award.

She started attending the International Association of Agricultural Economists conference as an early career presenter in the year 2009 where she presented on “Varietal gap in rice production that revealed the innovative gap needed to develop the rice sector”. She has been part of the association since then till date. Her last attendance was at Canada 2017 where she contributed to the idea of solving the financial risk in rice production. In 2012 she was invited by the Innovation Climate Adaptation Futures, University of Arizona where she contributed to the climate risk management strategies in Rice Production.

She joined the Applied and Agricultural Economists Association (AAEA), the agricultural Economics professional body in USA in 2014 where she presented on Price risk in rice production. Since then, she has been actively contributing to the professional body. In 2016 she won the prestigious Uma Lele Award of the association AAEA that enabled her to contribute more in the field of risk management strategies that enhance resistance of the agricultural producers. In 2019 she was selected as one the top reviewer for the AAEA 2020 Kansa meetings.

She has presented papers and served as speaker in many international professional meetings such as in Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tunisia, Oxford, Netherland, Malaysia, Argentina, Italy, Brazil, China India, South Africa, Australia, Canada and Greece.

Prof Ayinde as served as an executive of many local and international organizations. She is presently the Vice President for Africa Agricultural Economists Association, she is also serving as the West Africa representative to the board of African Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence systems (AFRICALICS), a chapter of Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence systems (GLOBELICS).

In 2019, she was nominated by AfricaLics body to initiate the Nigeria Chapter of GlobeLics, a feat she performed well upon returning to Nigeria after the completion of her Fulbright Award at the Ohio State University. The network has fostered the production and use of high-quality research in the field of innovation and development with a view to promote inclusive and sustainable development. It has also mentor young research especially gender inclusive and brings together scholars, researchers and policy analysts who study development, innovation, learning and competence building for sustainable development. It is multidisciplinary network.

She has also served as the World Bank Representative to World Bank Supervision Mission to Nigeria, and as also consultant to United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Rice Supply Chain Development in Nigeria and to Institute International Tropical Agriculture on Maize development for climate change and other stress risk issues.

Her research interest has been in the economics of innovation in agricultural productivity exploring themes such as the agricultural producers’ behavior to risk, especially climate risk and as well to innovation; and determinants of adoption of new technology, Agricultural Management strategies, Effect of Climate change on Agricultural production and gender issues. 

She has focused passionately on women empowerment in food production systems and environmental risk management. She is determined to building capacity for young professionals, entrepreneurs, policy makers, development stakeholders and render service to humanity at local, national and international level with specially attention to women and youth. She is also passionate about the adoption of risk management innovation and contributes actively to support the productive potential of women farmers. Her contribution has enhanced the large deployment of innovative maize seed resistant to climate risk and Stress (Drought Tolerant maize for Africa (DTMA) and Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) in increasing the rural farmers resilience especial the vulnerable rural women farmers.

She has published four chapters in international book projects among several other book titles. She also enjoys wide international readership of her research works. One of her recent chapters in a book, titled “Analysis of Agricultural Innovation and Decision Making among Maize Farming Household in Nigeria: A Gender Approach in Innovation, Regional Integration, and Development in Africa Springer Publisher” has been downloaded over 260 downloads within the few months. She also has more than a hundred (100) publications. She has been cited by several authors since her first publication in 2004. Her publications currently have 1288 citations and still counting.