In August 2001, the National Universities Commission (NUC) approved the request of Bayero University to establish a Faculty of Agriculture, with a rider that the Faculty was required to comply with the NUC’s Approved Minimum Academic Standards (AMAS). In May 2002, a pioneer set of one hundred and nine (109) students were admitted into 100 Level of the new Faculty of Agriculture for the standard five-year Bachelor of Agriculture degree programme specified in the AMAS. At take-off, the Faculty started with three departments as follows:
Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension. Department of Agronomy. Department of Animal Science.
The Faculty has within a period of a decade (2001-2012) witnessed tremendous progress in terms of staffing, research, publications, promotions, conference/workshop attendance and collaborations with both local and international organizations. The number of departments rose from three (3) at establishment in 2001 to five (5) in 2009. These departments include: Agricultural Economics and Extension, Agronomy, Animal Science, Crop Protection and Soil Science. Both the number and quality of academic and technical staff have increased. There were many publications, both local and international by our staff as evidenced in Departmental reports.
In 2006/2007 academic session, postgraduate programmes (M. Sc. And Ph. D) were started in the departments of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Agronomy and Animal Science. In 2007/2008 session, a Bachelor Degree in Agricultural Extension funded by Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education (SAFE) was also introduced. The SAFE programme was introduced to cater for the capacity building of mid-career extension workers,