Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Mr. Olasunkanmi Olajide, Ag. Head, Directorate of Public Relations, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB). E-mail: olajideoa@funaab.edu.ng
Institute of International Education (IIE), AfricanDiaspora@iie.org
Collaborative Project will focus on Curriculum Co-development
Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme to Support Projects at Universities across Africa
Abeokuta, January 14, 2025 – The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), was selected by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) to host two African Diaspora scholars from Virginia State University, United States to work on a collaborative project on “Benchmarking Virginia State University’s Land-Grant Programmes Against the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta’s Agriculture Programmes and Unlocking the Potential of Integrating U.S. Land-Grant Experiences with Nigerian Home-Grown Farm Practices,” from June 01 to July 30, 2025.
Professor Jonathan Atungwu of the Department of Crop Protection, College of Plant Science and Crop Production, the Host Fellow, will lead the Project with Professor Richard Omotoye, Carnegie Diaspora Fellow from the Department of Agriculture, College of Agriculture, VSU, Petersburg, Virginia, United States.
The key goal of the project is to strengthen FUNAAB’s institutional capacity to deliver its agriculture programmes along the lines of its tripartite mission of Teaching, Research, and Extension Services—in a manner that is consistent with globally accepted educational learning standards and practices. Specifically, this partnership will build the technical capacity of FUNAAB’s agriculture faculty, improve knowledge advancement/experiential learning in greenhouse management, showcase Nigerian/home-grown, and strengthen collaboration with the Nigerian food industry allies to establish the groundwork for a foreign-domestic-partnership-based food value chains model that is strategically designed to address the needs of Nigerian farmers and consumers, sensitisation of the Nigerian youth to the abundant educational and career advancement opportunities in modern-day agriculture, and encourage adult mentoring groups, among others.
The project will promote global best practices of FUNAAB agriculture programme, sensitise students and society to educational opportunities in agriculture, and help to attract the Nigerian youth to agro-career opportunities. The partnership will enable FUNAAB to tap into the pool of U.S. land-grant resources/expertise, consisting of Virginia Cooperative Extension, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, other government agencies, and the private sector to institutionalise land grant system into FUNAAB’s agriculture programming—particularly, the practice of integrating instructional, research, and farm extension activities into a cohesive delivery platform that simultaneously connects student learning experiences in all the three areas towards bringing FUNAAB closer to accomplishing its longterm vision of further internationalising its agriculture programmes, the project initiatives has the potential to impact the future of Nigeria’s agriculture industry and enhance partnership-building/networking among Nigeria’s food industry allies. On the side of the CADFP Fellows and VSU, the project represents an opportunity for the VSU College of Agriculture to collaborate at the global level consistent with its land-grant mission, representing a groundwork for future collaborations in agriculture between VSU and FUNAAB in faculty/student exchange, grants, research, etc.
The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) project is one of 60 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars with higher educational institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-development, collaborative research, graduate training, and mentoring activities in the coming months.
The CADFP, now in its tenth year, developed long-term, mutually beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa, the United States and Canada. It is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the Association of African Universities (AAU).
Nearly 650 African Diaspora Fellowships have now been awarded to scholars to travel to Africa since the programme’s inception in 2013. Fellowships match host universities with African-born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits of between 14 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend, and the cost of obtaining visas and health insurance.
The Vice-Chancellor of Africa’s top-ranked University of Agriculture, according to THE (2024), Professor Babatunde Kehinde, eagerly anticipates the arrival of the two African Diaspora Fellows – Professor Richard Omotoye and Professor Laban Rutto, as planned.
Please direct all questions related to the application process to AfricanDiaspora@iie.org.
