By Elizabeth Osayande

Nigeria’s agricultural sector—long considered the backbone of its economy—faces a dual crisis: stagnant livestock productivity and mounting food insecurity. With over 70% of Nigeria’s protein demand unmet and rural farmers struggling to access quality feed and stable markets, the challenge is not merely one of production, but of systems failure. Climate change, inflationary feed costs, and a lack of coordinated nutrition science are eroding resilience across Nigeria’s poultry value chain.

Amid these challenges, one voice has consistently advocated for a strategic, science-backed transformation: Dr. Adeleye Mathew Ajao, a poultry nutritionist and agribusiness innovator whose work has reshaped how Nigeria approaches sustainable animal agriculture. With dual PhDs in Monogastric Nutrition and Poultry Science, and field experience spanning two continents, Dr. Ajao’s integrated model for livestock nutrition, farmer training, and agritech deployment is catalysing national change.

Nutrition Alone Isn’t Enough—Systems Matter

For decades, Nigeria’s poultry and livestock programs have focused on input delivery—vaccines, feed ingredients, and veterinary support—without addressing the structural inefficiencies in feeding systems. “You can give a farmer antibiotics and vitamins,” Dr. Ajao says, “but if the feed formulation is wrong, if gut health isn’t optimised, you’ve lost the battle before it begins.”

Through his work as Chief Operating Officer of Birdpreneur Farms (now AgPreneur Inc.), Dr. Ajao implemented low-protein, enzyme-enhanced feeding protocols that not only cut feed costs by 21% but also improved weight gain and egg production by 18% across participating poultry clusters in Ogun, Kaduna, and Nasarawa States. His feed strategies, rooted in amino acid manipulation and mineral balance, also reduced greenhouse gas emissions from poultry by nearly 25%—positioning Nigeria as a regional leader in sustainable livestock science.

Innovation Meets Implementation

Dr. Ajao’s research could have remained locked in academia. But instead, he built a model to bring science to the soil. Through AgPreneur Inc., his team rolled out a tech-enabled, community-focused poultry support platform that trains farmers, provides AI-assisted feed recommendations, and connects producers directly to off-takers.

Between 2020 and 2024, over 20,000 farmers were trained—many of them youth and women—on optimised poultry rearing, climate-smart housing systems, and low-cost feed formulation using local inputs like groundnut cake, maize bran, and poultry litter ash. These interventions helped smallholder farmers in rural Nigeria increase income by 30%, reduce mortality during disease outbreaks, and expand into new markets without relying on middlemen.

One of the most impactful aspects of Dr. Ajao’s work was his contribution to the National Livestock Productivity and Resilience Roadmap (2020–2026), developed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. His input shaped the roadmap’s poultry pillar, which has since been implemented in 18 states, leading to the production of over 900,000 metric tons of fortified feed and strengthening the resilience of Nigeria’s poultry industry against shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic and global feed inflation.

From Research to Resilience

Dr. Ajao believes that Nigeria’s livestock transformation must be both scientific and grassroots-driven. His vision of farmer resilience is not built on handouts but on “giving farmers the tools to formulate their own future.” His practical protocols have been adopted by university teaching farms, private feed mills, and state-funded youth agriculture programs, creating a ripple effect that stretches beyond poultry into goat, fish, and pig nutrition systems.

“The real change happens when farmers understand the why—not just the what—of nutrition,” he explains. “It’s when they know how gut health impacts productivity. When they can design diets that maximise feed efficiency using what’s available locally.”

Scalable Beyond Nigeria

While Dr. Ajao’s immediate impact has been national, his approach is scalable across Africa. As countries across ECOWAS look to harmonise agricultural strategies, elements of AgPreneur’s model—especially its AI-powered feed formulation engine—are under review for regional integration. Discussions with pan-African development partners, including the African Development Bank and ECOWAS Commission, are underway to replicate the training, nutrition, and value chain model in Ghana, Benin, and Sierra Leone.

Dr. Ajao’s contributions have also been recognised internationally through peer-reviewed publications, global conferences, and innovation awards. His dual identity as both researcher and field practitioner gives him a unique credibility in rooms where policy, science, and smallholder reality must intersect.

Feeding the Future, Locally and Sustainably

As Nigeria seeks to feed its growing population and reduce dependency on imported animal protein, Dr. Adeleye Mathew Ajao’s work offers a clear, proven roadmap—one that places the farmer at the centre, powered by science and scaled by innovation.

In a sector where solutions are often foreign and disconnected, Dr. Ajao is leading a different kind of revolution—one that is Nigerian-built, Nigerian-tested, and Nigerian-owned.

“Feeding the future,” he says, “starts by trusting our own science and backing the people who work the land.”