Introduction 

I feel honoured and I thank God Almighty and the Vice Chancellor for this opportunity to give this inaugural lecture. It is an opportunity for me to share my thought, my research and my experience. This inaugural lecture is unique in a number of ways. It is the first in the area of Crop Production and Physiology, the second in the Department of Agronomy and the third in the College of Crop and Soil Sciences.

Let me start this lecture by noting that my interest in crop agriculture was aroused in the early years I spent with my-parents at Ndian in the South West Province of the Republic of Cameroon. My mother was particularly a great and prosperous farmer and she drilled me as we traversed the fertile fields of sandsand, Bikoko, Potopoto, Ikassa, Ngumu and Mbute in all practical aspects of crop farming during the holidays in Cameroon. Infact, I was always reluctant to join her to farm because she would normally insist on returning home at night. Mama was the industrious and resolute type and part of her strategy was to ch us early in life that there was no food for a lazy man and that starvation ■is not only a weapon of war but also a weapon to force recalcitrant children to n and market produce. Her resolve yielded fine results as there was a ready Market for our farm produce at Bulu, Centre, Mundemba, Manna, Makeke and Mundemba town.

In all, fertilizer or pesticide was never applied but very high yields were always obtained from such crops as cassava, cocoyams, maize, okra, fluted pumpkin, eggplant, groundnut, melon and pepper. The fertility of the soils and bumper harvests in Cameroon contrasted sharply with the situation in south eastern Nigeria, where farmers are having a difficult time with poor land or soil. The Nigerian situation after the civil war was exacerbated by high population pressure which resulted in more intensive agriculture, declining soil fertility and weed problems. As the population grew, pressure on land caused several communities to farm on marginal lands. When land was abundant and the population less, fallow period was long enough for soil rejuvenation, but with more pressure on land, fallow period became too short for any meaningful soil rejuvenation. In some high population areas in south eastern Nigeria, the fallow period is almost zero.