Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy

Research Interests: Production Economics, Development Economics, Household Consumption and Poverty Analysis.

Research Supervisors: Dr. Jonathan Okechukwu Alimba (Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki) and Dr. Oyinkansola Tasie (MSU)

Semesters at MSU: Spring and Fall 2019

Google Scholar profile

Mr Chukwudi Charles Olumba arrived in January 2019. His MSU supervisor is Dr. Oyinkansola Tasie (Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics. 

Mr. Olumba’s research focuses on assessing various issues relating to Urban Agriculture and its implications on Food Security including issues of land for Urban Agriculture. The design, implementation and output of this research work could stem the tide of current land grabbing in the urban and peri-urban areas for non-agribusiness purposes. In addition, his work could influence policy regarding improved urban food production which could complement other sources of food supply to households in Southeast Nigeria.

Olumba conducted a survey (June 25– 30, 2018) in one of the six USAID focus states as part of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agricultural Policy Project to study the linkages and pathways of Land Access, Migration Decisions and Youth Employment in the Nigerian Agricultural Sector. The survey was tracking households from the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) especially 2016 surveyed households (Wave 3) using CAPI software.

Training received from the project prior to arriving at MSU:

• R Program Language-Statistical Package. Center for Petroleum and Energy Economics,  University of Ibadan, July 9-20 2018.

Meetings with University and State Ministries. These meetings were to inform them about the Project Scholar progam and to introduce them to the scholar and their supervisor. During the interactions, the Ministries articulated areas of desired policy support. As an incoming Project Scholar, Mr. Olumba will leverage opportunities and facilities at MSU to realistically support the policy needs of the Ministries in line with the Project Objectives.

• Policy Personnel of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Women Affairs, and the Ministry of Health (three agricultural related ministries of the Ebonyi State Government). December 10, 2018,
• Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki (EBSU). Vice Chancellor, Professor Chigozie Ogbu.  Monday, December 10, 2018.

Capacity Building

Mr. Olumba assisted with “Introduction to STATA”  training for:

• June 22‐24, 2017. Ebonyi State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Abakaliki. Civil Servants
• June 28‐30, 2017. Delta State University, Anwai Campus Asaba. Faculty and graduate students
• July 3-5, 2017. Delta State Ministry of Agriculture, Civil Servants
• Aug 18-19, 2017, Cross River University of Technology, Faculty and graduate students
• Aug 21-22 ,2017 , Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (FUNAI), Faculty and graduate students
• August 25-26, 2017, Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu, Faculty and graduate students