Fifteen years ago, we travelled as a family to Berlin, Germany, to present the exciting results of our research, at our own expense, which we carried out at our own farm, to an international audience during the International Soil Science Conference in Germany. The groundbreaking work, Integrated Nutrient Management for Sustainable Production of Cassava in Southwestern Nigeria, was well appreciated by global scientists as it resonated well with concerns of low productivity of cassava farms amid rising costs of organic fertilisers and little is known about integration, climate resilience, and environmental concerns. When we returned home, we started adopting for ourselves what we had recommended to the whole world, and this has been consistently done, year after year, without a break. We leased 50 hectares of land in Uso and Ita Ogbolu, near Akure, when the management of my place of work showed displeasure about truckloads of cassava moving out of the land I was using in the college then. I was given a quit notice.

We had earlier, as a family, also presented, at our own expense, our research on the Influence of Improved Planting Materials on Jumping the Yield of Cassava Five Folds at an International Crop Science Society conference in Cape Town, South Africa. In South Africa, I did the presentation. As soon as I projected the results, obtained in our own farm—that we could get 50 tons of cassava per hectare, at a time when the average yield in the continent was between 6 to 10 tons per hectare—I was shouted down with a loud voice of, “No! Please, this is not possible!” with some people already walking out, and some saying, “These Nigerians have started again.” A scientist from Kenya kept shouting, “Let’s listen to him, there must be something to learn,” and with her insistence, I managed to finish the presentation with half of the room having gone out in “I don’t want to listen to this nonsense” protest. I’m happy the International Crop Science Society published the work, and it’s featured in other international journals—sought after online today, forming the basis for emerging cassava agronomists striving to improve yields.

When we got back home to Nigeria, I told my wife, “As from now, we are going to separate roles: you will continue with the research and contributing to knowledge, while I continue using the results to contribute to food and money to improve the family.” We extended our farms and dived into commercial cassava stems production enterprises as a business, and the scale we were operating was pioneering in sub-Saharan Africa. Two years later, in the years 2012, 2013, and 2014, we became the major supplier of fresh cassava roots to Matna Starch Company in Ondo State and won their Best Farmer of the Year for these years. They didn’t know I was a lecturer in the nearby College of Agriculture, and when they found out, they took my case up with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was then helping large-scale cassava processors meet their installed capacity by helping their farmers get more yield. One thing led to another, and I became a USAID highly paid consultant in helping cassava factories source raw materials by helping their farmers all over Nigeria. The success of my intervention spread to other cassava international intervention agencies like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation CAVA project, where I served as International Productivity Adviser to Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Uganda, crisscrossing those countries and working with farmers and factories.

In effect, when I agreed to serve as Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State, I was already in that landscape, having worked with stakeholders in the sector in Ogun State before; for example, I was responsible for training fisheries officers in Ogun State on Fish cage culture as sponsored by FAO/South South Cooperation Project in my capacity as desk officer under the National Program for Food Security (NPFS) in 2012; between 2008 and 2016, I worked with Agricultural agencies, factories, and farmers in Ogun State on Productivity of Cassava farms and inclusive supply of raw materials to Cassava farms as sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gates CAVA I and CAVA II Project; In 2017, my work with CIAT Colombia took me to Akinale village in Ifo to launch introduction of Vitamin A cassava to Ogun State: It was easy for me to hit the ground running and make impacts immediately. People who were critical of my speed and visibility when I was Commissioner of Agriculture in Ogun State did not fairly take into account my back story, background, and my understanding of Agriculture in Ogun State; I even started my Agricultural career with the Ogun State Agricultural Development Project as an Agricultural extension agent in Ajebo in 1986 covering Obafemi, Fodoko, Gbalesu, Owojo, etc. in Obafemi/Owode Local Government Area. I consulted for all known international development projects—on cassava—from Colombia to the UK, USA, Brazil, etc., and also kept my farm going and expanding. We had 30-ton trucks for moving cassava stems across Nigeria, with sufficient patronage, and at one time, we started training people as our outgrowers and selling their cassava stems for them.

One day, I listened to an interview on TV where a Nollywood actor who had just bought a house at Lekki said, “This is not a proceed from the farm, I worked for it!” And I said within me, “So you can’t buy a house in Lekki from proceeds from the farm?” I wanted to act and call an agent to get me one and bring me a receipt to prove a point, then I remembered that we’d decided we didn’t need any property in Lagos—for what? Up till now, some of my friends do not understand why I don’t have a single plot in Lagos and its environs. I then chose another path. I convinced my wife that we needed a brand new utility car. She agreed, and we settled on a brand new Toyota Prado Jeep. I went to Lagos and bought it for 14 million, cash down—as we called it in Egbaland. I remember the legendary Apala musician, Late Ayinla Omowura, who bought a Peugeot 404 and a Toyota, cash, from rare proceeds of music, and flaunted it in a nation-gripping album. I just paid, returned home, and asked the dealer to deliver it. Before he arrived, I’d got the sticker “Proceed from the farm. Ready,” which I had pasted on the vehicle to make a statement.

My advice to early- and mid-career scientists, even senior scientists who are still active, is to also strive to work out ways by which they can also be beneficiaries of their own research and improve their lot in life. There will always be challenges; be it eviction, abuse, or even forceful takeover; please look for an alternative place to play your game—it’s legal. There’s nothing wrong if one contributes to knowledge and also contributes to one’s pot of soup and bank account.

Dr Adeola Odedina is the Former Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, and the Former Rector, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, and the Immediate Former Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State, Nigeria.