Prior to the 1960s, engineering problems on Nigerian farms were addressed using the expertise and services of agriculturists and civil engineers, as agricultural engineering was not yet recognized as a discipline in Nigeria.
Due to the popularity these agriculturists and civil engineers enjoyed in providing engineering services on the farm, some of them took interest in the profession and sought opportunities to retrain themselves in what today forms the agricultural engineering curriculum.
Some of the pioneer agricultural engineers in Nigeria were therefore also specialists in other disciplines. Because there were no local training opportunities, those interested had to train outside Nigeria. Many pioneer agricultural engineers had part or all of their professional education outside Nigeria.
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Admission and Graduation Requirements for Agricultural Engineering
Two criteria must be met by candidates who wish to be admitted to a university degree program in any discipline in Nigeria, agricultural engineering included.
One is obtaining passes at credit levels in a minimum of five subjects at one sitting or six at two sittings in the Senior Secondary School or the General Certificate Examinations. For agricultural engineering, these subjects include English language, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and any other science-related subject.
The second criterion is sitting for and passing the universities matriculation examination and obtaining a grade higher than the cut-off mark for the program during the year the examination is taken.
Graduation requirements have undergone changes over the years. At present, a number of Nigerian universities operate the cumulative grade point average (CGPA) system. Under this system, all courses taken by a student are used in calculating the class of degree.
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Professional Regulatory Bodies and Their Roles in Agricultural Engineering
A professional regulatory body is a body established by a decree or law whose primary function is to regulate the training of members of the profession and professional practice, while a professional society is an association formed by members of the profession with the primary objective of providing a forum where members of the profession can interact to share ideas.
For most programs in Nigerian tertiary institutions, there are two regulatory bodies. One is an organ of the Ministry of Education responsible for funding the program. The second is a professional body concerned mainly with ensuring adherence to the ethics of the profession.
The National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) are organs of the Ministry of Education that oversee all academic programs in universities and polytechnics/colleges of agriculture, respectively. Each program also has its own professional monitoring body.
Early agricultural engineering curricula focused mainly on tractor application and repairs. When the name changed to farm mechanization and later to agricultural engineering reflecting a better understanding of the profession and its widening curriculum and role in agricultural development many still perceived it as limited to tractor maintenance.
This misconception, coupled with the difficult task of correcting this view, has affected the development of the profession in many areas. In many universities, the agricultural engineering program is located within the faculty or college of engineering, where several other engineering disciplines are offered.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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