OUR LAND HAS CHANGED: REFLECTIONS ON THE EXTINCTION OF INDIGENOUS YAM CROP IN A RURAL OGBAKU COMMUNITY IN IMO STATE OF SOUTH-EASTERN NIGERIA

Agriculture remains the main stay and occupation of the Ogbaku people since ages. However, from the beginning it has been subsistence and faced many risks and vulnerability; which has led to the extinction of the indigenous yam crop. The objective of this study therefore is to examine the causes and consequences of the extinction of indigenous yam crop in Ogbaku land in Imo State of South-Eastern Nigeria. Over time and space and due to technological gap between developed and developing countries, traditionalism and modernization, the community has failed to develop rapid expansion and productively in this sector. To worsen it, since the mid -1940s when white collar jobs became popular, the agricultural sector came more to experience a shrinking stature. To belong to the white collar industry meant advancement, sophistication, urban living and a higher standard of living, and to the smallholder farmer, poverty, lack, insecurity, superstition and alienation. The age-old smallholder farming community is now confronted with the realities of modern existence in a country where poverty elimination, sustainable development and food security have become mere pious proclamations. The present study is qualitative in nature. The study conducted a survey of focused group discussion with traditional chiefs (rulers), the rural farmers and notable leaders of thought in Ogbaku community. The research concluded that the extinction of the indigenous yam crop in Ogbaku land is majorly as a result of modernization, climate change, poor government policies on agriculture and preference to white collar jobs and rural- urban migration.