Babalola’s Farmer Support Hits N98m

The Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, has disbursed N11.2 million to 81 farmers across the 16 Local Government Areas of Ekiti State, at the grand finale of the 2026 Annual Afe Babalola Agricultural Expo (ABA-EX).

Babalola disclosed that cumulative cash awards under the scheme since its inception in 2015 now stand at N98 million. He noted that the star prize for the overall Best Farmer in the state has grown from N1 million in 2015 to N2 million currently, while best farmers at the local government level now receive between N50,000 and N200,000 each.

"Farming is a divine vocation. God in His infinite wisdom established the Garden of Eden and asked Adam and his wife, Eve, to look after the Garden," Babalola said, framing agriculture as both a spiritual and economic calling central to his motivation for sustaining the annual programme over the past decade.

Unveiling plans for the scheme's future, the legal icon announced his intention to establish an Ekiti Farmers' House in Ado-Ekiti, in partnership with the state government and the state's 16 local government councils. He explained that the proposed facility would acquire modern farm implements, including bulldozers, ridgers, ploughs, and harvesters, which would then be made available for rent to farmers at low rates, an intervention aimed at lowering the cost barrier to mechanised farming for smallholder farmers across the state.

The 2026 edition follows a programme that has run consistently since 2015, when it began with a modest total of N7 million and has since grown steadily, reaching over N44 million in cash disbursed in last year's 10th anniversary edition alone. The scheme, now formally known as the Afe Babalola Agric Expo and Youth Empowerment programme, pairs direct financial rewards for outstanding farmers with youth empowerment components, having previously trained and equipped groups of young people and women in ventures such as plantain chips production, packaging, and marketing.

Speaking at the opening ceremony on Friday, which preceded the grand finale, ABUAD Vice-Chancellor Professor Smaranda Olarinde, who represented the Founder, described farmers as critical contributors to food security. The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee also addressed the gathering, underscoring the programme's role in sustaining agricultural engagement across the state's farming communities.

Babalola, widely regarded as Ekiti State's biggest farmer and one of its highest taxpayers, has consistently used the annual expo to press a broader argument: that Nigeria's declining agricultural output, from a country once ranked among the world's largest producers of palm oil and cocoa, stems partly from diminished interest in farming among both ordinary citizens and the educated elite. He has repeatedly used the programme as a platform to encourage a return to agriculture across all social and economic classes.

In previous editions of the programme, Ekiti State Government officials, represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, have commended Babalola's sustained use of personal resources to support both government objectives and ordinary farmers, describing agriculture as a leading occupation in the state, with more than 65 per cent of the population engaged in farming-related activities.

With cumulative disbursements now reaching N98 million over 11 years, and a proposed Farmers' House aimed at extending the programme's impact into shared mechanised equipment access, Babalola's agricultural empowerment initiative continues to stand as one of the more sustained private-sector interventions supporting smallholder farmers in Nigeria's South-West, with its growth from N7 million to nearly N100 million in total payouts reflecting both the scheme's expanding scale and its founder's continued personal investment in the programme's longevity.