We are thrilled by the experiences of Prof (Mrs) Funke I. Olagunju- the Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oyo state, Nigeria, as we celebrate her this month. The Publicity team is excited to share her inspiring interview
for the October edition of our monthly showcase.
Publicity Secretary (PS): Please tell us about your background.
Funke Olagunju (FO): I was born into the reverend family of Late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Babatude Odunlami who hailed from Itunyeleru Compound, Ijebu Isiwo, Ogun State, on the 12th of October, 1971. My parents lived in Ibadan, Oyo State till they passed on to eternal glory. I started my educational pursuit from Onireke Nursery and Primary School, Onireke
Ibadan at the ripe age of four years. Due to family relocation to a farther destination, I completed my primary education at Ibadan District Council, Erinkoja-Obe, Owode Estate, Apata Ibadan by the year 1983.
In 1984, I gained admission to St Michael’s African Church Grammar School, Owode Estate Apata, Ibadan where I got distinctions in all my science subjects. My secondary school education was very interesting. I was loved by almost all my teachers due to my ability to display gentle habits, dedication and hard work. This led to beefing among my colleagues especially female students, though I was able to handle the
situation by providing any required assistance (extra coaching) to my friends so as to make them meet up in the class. With this act, I was able to gain their loyalty and we peacefully co-existed. I was the class captain from form one till form four and eventually became the head
girl in the final year. Going through secondary school was so exciting as I discovered that I had passion for science subjects and also have leadership spirit.
In 1990, I gained admission to the then Oyo State University of Technology (OSUTECH) but was later changed to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. By 1995, I graduated with second-class upper division in Agricultural Economics. In 1996/1997 I went for NYSC service year at Baptist Girls High School, Gbodofon Osogbo.
PS: Growing up, did you have any experience that informed your choice of career?
FO: Despite the fact that I come from a humble, well-informed and educated family, my humble background did not mean that I had no shoes. I was never denied education despite the rampant notion in those days which my maternal grandfather also shared, that no matter what achievements females made in life, they would end up in a man’s kitchen.
However, this belief, due to which my mother was denied education in her own days, became the impetus that inspired her resolve to send me, and of course, all of her girl children to school against all odds. My father was a class teacher and a Modern Three school principal, who later by dint of ambition and hard work furthered his education, and became a civil engineer until his death in 2013. My mother’s story and choice to educate the girl child, coupled with my father’s lifestyle motivated me to take to science, and inspired my determination to stay focused and to get to the peak of my chosen career. With this at the back of my mind, I decided to face my education with keen interest and the determination to make it to the point where I could also make impact in people’s lives.
My parents’ footprints encouraged me to stay motivated and focused and thus instigated a spirit of resilience in me, never to give up on
my studies even in the face of financial challenges. I followed my instinct, made good grades, and made the best terminal results in my school with distinction in all of my science subjects in 1989 at St Michael’s African Church Grammar School, Owode Estate Apata, Ibadan.
Thereafter, I became a reference point to other girls in my community.
Furthermore, my parents, especially my mother, were also farmers in addition to my father’s job as a civil engineer. My mother belonged to an association of women farmers in my community where their major challenge was post-harvest losses. This further instigated my interests in
agriculture, agricultural technology, and agribusiness in the rural areas and among, especially, female smallholder farmers. This has informed my choice to pursue an academic career in the Department of Agricultural Economics, and my intention to see how value could be added to agricultural produce that suffers after-harvest losses and degradation with the intention of increasing the farmers’ profits.
PS: At what point did you decide to take up issues surrounding your research interest and area of expertise?
FO: The challenges that my parents and their farming group members faced from lower farm income due to losses incurred after produce harvest, lack of market access and low or no financial aids made it easier for me to choose agribusiness aspect of agricultural economics as
my area of specialization. Immediately after serving on the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) scheme after university graduation, I was employed to teach Agricultural Sciences on temporary basis as Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) teacher at Nurudeen Grammar
School for 7 months. Later on, I was gainfully employed in the department of Agricultural Economics at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso as Graduate Assistant.
My undergraduate thesis was basically on production economics where I discovered that the technical know -how is not the major challenge for the farmers but how to secure means of actualizing their dreams. I’m talking about financial aids. Afterwards I proceeded to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria where I bagged my Master of Science (M.Sc) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the year 2001 and 2006 respectively with the option of Agricultural Economics.
From the experiences I gathered from the past, I decided to opt for the impact of credit corporations on food production of farmers, agricultural credit administration and farmers’ repayment performances. These were well captured in both my M.sc and Ph.D. theses “ Impact of Osun State Agricultural Credit Corporation (OSACC) on Food Production in Osun State, Nigeria” and “Agricultural Credit Administration and Repayment Performance in South western Nigeria” respectively.
Fortunately, these research titles revealed an emerging trend of a researcher who is an advocate for financial inclusions in agricultural production, processing, value addition and food security.
Therefore, my research interests were geared towards Economics of Poverty and Food Security, Climate Change Adaptation, Impact Assessment and Sustainability and Value Chain and Food System Analysis especially for women (one of the vulnerable groups). From
this backdrop, I had access to some short courses (just to mention a few) to improve my expertise in the chosen field.
Some of them include:
- Netherlands Fellowship Program grant for attending Short Course fellowship on ‘Optimizing the Performance of Producers’ Organizations (OPPO): Farmers in Agribusiness’ at Wageningen University,
- African Growth and Development Consortium grant for attending training course on Poverty Measurement and Analysis at Dakar;
- African Growth and Development Consortium grant for attending training clinic on tools for gender thematic area, NAIP Appraisal and Design ProcessTraining, Dakar, Senegal;
- Orange Knowledge Program grant for attending workshop on Building Agribusiness Relations For Sustainable Profit-Key Skills for Inclusive Business Brokerage at Ibadan and
- Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation Ministry of Foreign Affairs travel grant for Regional Course for African Countries: “Agribusiness: A Tool for the Empowerment of Rural Women”.
With my exposure to international trainings, my research team and I worked extensively on value addition to farm produce especially stem and root crops to provide solutions to problems encountered with post-harvest losses. The farmers/processors were advised and assisted in providing linkages with credit sources so that they could increase the volume and quality of their product because there is ready market for these products in the local market areas. Establishment of cassava flour industries by investors were encouraged because of high demands for the products in the area clamouring for creation and encouragement of more off-farm activities like processing, storage and marketing. It is envisaged that increased production of such produces will generate employment opportunities for the rural households (especially women). Efficient post-harvest handling, storage and marketing can tremendously contribute to social economic aspects of rural communities in Nigeria and notable application of the training has the potential of minimizing the menace of nutrition insecurity in the country.
I worked as a visiting lecturer at the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, kwara State and later at Landmark University, OmuAran, kwara state. I had the taste of both Federal and Private university settings. I had the opportunity to work (in diversity) with different farm communities at different times, so was able to make impact on people’s lives through my research and teaching.
PS: Kindly tell us more about your impact oriented activities and research.
FO: Building capacities of students, farmers and processors to encourage self-confidence, promote sustainable food production, increased income and improve livelihood have been my impact oriented activities and research. I have taken the scope of my research farther towards female gender livelihoods, coping strategies and food security. This was evident in the 2009 – 2012 TETFUND Research Project Intervention research grant that I received some years back where physical and practical demonstration of adding value to cassava tubers by producing instant ‘Fufu’ Powder for small holder women farmers in Oriire Local Government, Oyo State was carried out.
As part of my community service to my institution and to society at large, I have provided targeted solutions to some agribusiness challenges locally and nationally and also offered administrative and other services to the University community. An example of such interventions was the creation of Agribusiness Research Group (ARG) among my colleagues and Postgraduate students through which I have mentored many younger researchers, academic faculty members, and built their agribusiness research, administrative and leadership capacities. I have also played some leadership role in Development Economics Research Group (DERG), founded by a colleague from University of Ilorin (Prof. Babatude,R.O) who has a long-standing record in teaching and mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students who have special interest in agribusiness, marketing agricultural finance and policy development.
In developing my mentoring capacity, I secured a post-doctoral Fellowship of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD; 2013-2015), and the Netherlands Fellowship for Agribusiness Programme (2013 and 2018). I was also a resource person for the mentor-mentee programme at AWARD, through which a graduate student (Awe, Titilola) in the Department of Agricultural Economics, LAUTECH also became an AWARD Fellow Mentee.
At the local/university outreach level, I also organised a role modelling event to familiarize the female students of Ogbomoso Baptist High School, Ogbomoso in 2015, on what it takes to pursue agricultural Science as a career. On a social level, I have been the matron of the
Man O’ War in LAUTECH from 2012 to date.
Some of my national level community services include giving a public lecture on the issues and options available to the building industry in Nigeria during economic recession’ a paper presented at the 13th Annual regional Conference of Nigerian Institute of Surveyors (Women
in Surveying) held at the Leisure Spring Hotel, Osogbo in 2017.
I have worked in various administrative capacities at University, Faculty, and Departmental levels. I have carried out 10 different official community service functions for my department, the Department of Agricultural Economics in the past 18 years. I was privileged to have been the Staff Advisor to 200 and 300 Level students of the Department of Agricultural Economics; the Chairman of the department’s finance committee; member of the Departmental Undergraduate Seminar Committee; and member of the department’s Staff Seminar Committee. My other departmental community functions include serving as Business Manager for the International Journal of Agricultural Economics and Rural
Development(IJAERD); Chairperson of the Departmental Journal; member of the Departmental Review Committee; and Chairman of the Departmental Examination/Result Processing Committee. Presently, I am the Head of Department, Agricultural Economics.
PS: Do you face any challenge because of your gender as a female in the process of transferring your expertise to proffer solutions for groups you have worked with?
FO: Being a female has assisted me tremendously in my place of work. I had stood in the gaps for many female students who in one way or the other have been marginalized or cheated in the course of pursuing their life career. This includes molestations from male students, sexual harassment from male lecturers and students etc. When such cases arise, I am among those beckoned upon in the department to mediate in such matters. In fact, we have more than 5 female lecturers in my department, whose presence have contributed positively to my chosen career growth. Due to this social role, some of our male gender colleagues used to pick offence and hence partially affect our team work.
As an assertive leader, it was so easy to surmount such challenges with unwavering behaviour, leading by examples and being upright. Let me also say here that being a female paved way for seamlessly interactions with my respondents on the field for data collections while conducting various field surveys. In addition, being a female had assisted in my nominations for several capacity building trainings and professional opportunities both local and international since preferences were always given to female applicants.
PS: Please tell us what has motivated you to keep growing in your field despite the many challenges women face daily including balancing career and family.
FO: When you solely depend on Solid Rock, Jesus Christ as your foundation and pillar of support, I can categorically tell you that you have nothing to fear. God is my divine inspiration from whom I draw my motivation. I had received grace to balance my life and work career. I also have the support of my darling husband, Prince A.B.C. Olagunju who has been there for me right from my Masters days. He has been a support especially in taking good care of the home front whenever I was away for studies, conference or workshop.
My colleagues at work have been good guidance to me, my willingness to mentor others and collaborate with them have also contributed to my growth. I’m a woman of great passion, enthusiastic and relate freely with colleagues. I prioritize my family above any other events so that I can have peace in delivering my expected jobs. Delegation is part of my watch word for official duties. I make use of my colleagues to achieve a lot. Investing in people is a great gain.
I don’t mind saying “No” to some offers when I feel I can’t cope with such work load. In a nutshell, I have an enabling and comfortable environment. These positive motivations did not rule out some challenges but I can categorically say that they were not strong enough to
hinder my career progression. All glory be to God.
PS: Please share with us your future aspirations
FO: I had the opportunity of benefitting from AWARDS in the past years 2013 to 2014, where we were trained to develop our long term plans. I could remember that on my road purpose map chart, I had at the top, to become a CEO of an NGO that will advocate for enhanced value addition for agricultural processing women. This is already in a pipe line and I believe very soon it will come to pass. Secondly, I will continue to positively make positive impacts in the lives of people around me.
PS: Apart from research and lecturing, what other thing(s) do you love doing?
FO: I love surfing internet for interesting short movies. I love travelling for conferences, workshop, reading interesting stories. Above all, I enjoy the presence of God in prayers and singing of inspirational songs.
Inspiring. You are celebrated.