John Oyedepo

John Adebayo Oyedepo is now a Professor of Applied Remote Sensing and Geospatial techniques at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. He was the immediate past Deputy Director of the Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources, and Agricultural Research of the University. Professor Oyedepo is the Desk Officer for the Caribbean countries and the Team Lead for Sustainable Development Goal 13 at the University. He holds a Doctorate in Environmental Resources Management, a Master of Environmental Management and Protection, a Master of Science in Geographic Information System (GIS), and a Bachelor of Agriculture degree. He is a seasoned academic with up to 20 years of experience in applied Geo-information Sciences and Remote Sensing of the environment. He is keen on Geospatial analysis and modelling of the environment. John joined the services of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta Nigeria in January 2005 and has since gathered and improved on his experience in Environmental Resources Management and Sustainable Agriculture. This wealth of experience stems from more than a decade of the combination of teaching, research, and extension. He has 16 years of experience in research and teaching, more than 10 years in student project supervision, and about 11 years of scientific grant-winning proposal writing, project implementation, and management including the multi-million dollar World Bank grant on the African Center of Excellence in Agricultural Development and Sustainable Environment.

As a researcher, John Oyedepo has applied his skills in environmental resources management, Remote Sensing, and Geo-information to over 50 different studies. As an Environmentalist, he has worked as a consultant and team member on 20 different local and international environmental projects. For over one and a half decades, Dr. Oyedepo has been in collaborative research with seasoned and leading academics across the nation and other parts of the world. An example of such collaborative research is the development of an innovative mobile application for smallholder farmers in Nigeria. The project had collaborating scientists from three institutions in the United Kingdom. He has participated as a Remote Sensing and GIS specialist on several highly-rated projects including the development of land use/land cover and base maps for the Millennium Village Project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Kaduna Nigeria in 2006, he participated in the production of maps and spatial analysis for the Welcome Trust Project on Health consequences of population change amongst pastoralists in SW Nigeria, Mapping of Ofada Rice Production Areas in SW Nigeria and Mapping of Soyabean Value-chain in Nigeria both being ProOpcom (DFID funded) studies by Chemonics in 2007. He contributed immensely to the project on the Vulnerability of Settled Fulani Agro-Pastoralists’ Livelihoods to Climate Change and Emerging Innovations for Adaptation and Land Accessibility in Southwest Nigeria. He participated in the diagnostic survey of Southwestern Nigeria by providing maps and compiling information from 2008-2012. Prof. Oyedepo also coordinated the development of land use planning for a 2000-ha research farm for IFSERAR in 2010 to date He was a key factor in the Hydrogeological mapping of South-western Nigeria in 2018.

Prof. Oyedepo has served and is still serving as a consultant to several international organizations in Nigeria. including the United Nations, Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, USAID-Catholic Relief Services’ project, NEWMAP, and others. At the moment he is working on several research projects of interest to Sustainable Agriculture and environmental conservation; these include Site-specific Crop Management and Associated Environmental and Economic Benefits and the establishment of Climate-Smart Villages. He recently concluded a project on the development of early warning systems for farmers’ preparedness against the impacts of climate change. The project established a ground receiving station in collaboration with EUMETSAT, Germany developed an Early Warning System for more than 1400 farmers in South-Western Nigeria.

At the moment John is working with some scientists on some research projects of interest to Sustainable Agriculture and environmental conservation; these include digital soil mapping for sustainable land management in SW Nigeria; a project funded by the European Union, Organisation of African,
Caribbean and the Pacific States as well as the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology. Other projects include Site-specific agriculture and associated environmental and economic benefits