The Department of Agricultural Economics offers a 5 – year programme leading to the award of the Degree in Bachelor of Agricultural Technology (Agricultural Economics). The core field of the programme covers subject areas of Farm Management and Production Economics, Agribusiness Management, Agricultural Finance, Agricultural Marketing and Agricultural Resource Economics. The importance of Agricultural Economics cannot be overemphasized, it contributes in agricultural policy developments of the nation, such policies like the achievement of food security of the nation, production of raw materials for industrial growth, foreign exchange earning to the nation, providing investment opportunities in the agricultural sector and non-agricultural sectors of the nation, to mention but a few. Agricultural Economics is essentially management in nature, it has to do with decisions of effective allocation of scarce resources to achieve an optimal output. Students of the Department also take courses from Crop Science, Animal Science, Soil Science, Forestry and Wildlife as well as Fishery and Aquaculture, as well as other Sciences and General Studies. These are all designed to give the students professional background in agriculture especially in policy formulation, analysis and implementation and in solving the human, societal and environmental challenges of the nation.

The philosophy of the Degree Programme is to produce graduates with in-depth knowledge in both practical and theoretical aspects of agriculture and economics. These are to equip the students for work in the private sector, international organizations, teaching and research as well as meeting the challenges of self-employment. Further, the students undergo one-year industrial attachment for practical exposure in the relevant fields. The programme is carefully designed in a manner to raise graduates who will be job creators rather than job seekers for a job. Graduates on their own can establish, run and manage any of agribusiness value chain, starting from input suppliers, production, processing and marketing. All these are geared towards making the students be globally competitive.

The objective of the programme is to train scientific and professional workers with competence in the analysis of socio-economic problems in agriculture in both micro and macro levels. More specifically, the programme is expected to:

• Produce graduates who are mentally, physically and emotionally ready to be self-employed,
• Produce graduates who are equipped with balanced scientific knowledge and skills in Agriculture and Economics, ready for employment in industries and related areas.
• Provide trained manpower who will become an important source of staffing and replenishing dwindling /retired staff nationally, in Agricultural Economics and related area, especially in teaching and research.