Bede Nwoye Okigbo (September 29, 1926 – March 31, 2017)[1] is a plant pathologist and geneticist,[2] traditionalist and former Vice-Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nnsukka.
[4]) He attended the Government College, Umuahia in 1943 where he developed his love for agriculture and plants[5] and completed his secondary education.
[5] Bede was a former director of the United Nations University Programme on Natural Resources, Nairobi, and was amongst the pioneer agronomists in Nigeria with specialisation in plant breeding and entomology.
[6] He also was, at different times, the dean of agriculture at the University of Nigeria, deputy director at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, and Director of Natural Resources Programme at the United Nations University, Japan.
During the Biafran War, Bede was the coordinator of a unit known as the Land Army whose remit was to boost large scale and small agriculture practices down to the grassroot level.