Esther Ogobe

Nigerian agricultural innovator who transformed cassava farming through gender-inclusive cooperatives

Esther Ogobe (1925-2001) was a Yoruba agricultural scientist whose work revolutionized West African food security through cassava innovation. Growing up in Abeokuta, she observed how cassava blight devastated local economies. After studying botany at Ibadan University (1948), she pioneered the Community Cassava Bank system in 1953, creating village-level seed storage networks that increased crop yields by 300%. Her preserved seed variants now form the basis of CGIAR's tropical root crop collections.

Ogobe's 1960s gender-equality reforms required cooperative membership parity between men and women, a radical concept in patriarchal farming communities. She developed the first female-led cassava processing cooperatives, mechanizing grating and fermentation processes that reduced labor by 70%. Her 1968 book Roots of Abundance became a farming manual used across Francophone Africa. The UN Women later adopted her cooperative models in their 1980s African agricultural programs. Modern genetic studies trace drought-resistant cassava strains to her 1950s crossbreeding experiments. The Esther Ogobe Agricultural Prize, established in 2015, awards innovations in staple crop sustainability.