EARTH serves as a model for creation of new African university

Producing food for the most populated country in Africa is not an easy task. So what better place on the continent to open an international agricultural university than in Nigeria, one of the fasting growing nations in the world?

From November 8-9, EARTH welcomed on its campus a delegation from Nigeria headed by the Governor of Adamawa State, Vice Admiral Murtala H. Nyako. Their objective: to understand more closely EARTH’s educational approach as a model for a new African institution. While on campus, they visited the commercial and academic farms, learned about EARTH’s academic model and curriculum, and held meetings to define EARTH’s potential involvement in the project.

In 2011, Governor Nyako, who is also the main agricultural advisor to the President of Nigeria, contacted EARTH President José Zaglul for advice on the creation of a new university. At the end of last year, former EARTH professors Richard Taylor and Carlos Chaves traveled to Adamawa. Joaquín Víquez, visiting waste management professor and EARTH alumnus, also traveled to Nigeria to further assist the project.

The new university in Adamawa is slated to be established on the land of Sabore Farms, one of the largest mechanized farms in the country whose president is Major Adul-Aziz Nyako, son of the Governor. EARTH alumnus, Carlos Briceño (‘09, Costa Rica), also works on the farm and forms part of the advisory team for the new institution.

EARTH’s educational model is transcending boarders, and is now serving as the foundation for an educational institution that hopes to improve lives not just in one of the most populated nations on the planet, but in the entire world.