Agriculture is multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral, and cross-border. Agriculture includes all crops and animals used for food, wellness and health, horticultural crops, fisheries, and other marine endeavors. It traverses from quality seed to the field (whether dirt or container, inside or outside, on land or in water) and travels through a web of value-chains to the consumer. It impinges on the health of everyone and every environment on the planet, The dimensions of agriculture include the sciences (biosciences, environmental studies, computing, chemistry, mathematics, physics, mathematics, and engineering), social sciences, art. economics and business (STEAM). The sectors of agriculture include goods and services along the value-chain from seed conservation and production, yield quantity and quality, agro-processing, and tertiary services. Agriculture is cross-border as we trade sometimes between many countries and over long distances.

The aim of this faculty of USOAD is to connect the diaspora to Africa so that we may wrest back control over our genetic diversity which has been entrusted into our hands by the Creator. Nowhere is this needed more than in the biodiversity hotspots, most of which are in the tropics. These hotspots have been virtually ignored by the existing capitalist system.

Some of the issues this faculty will tackle include, for example, historical studies of ancient systems of agriculture in Africa and in the diaspora, bio-enhancement of tropical soils, development of marketing solutions, integration of information and biotechnology for increased viability, barcoding of tropical organisms, development of seed banks and propagation systems, enhancement of equitability along the value-chain, and sustainable tailored biotechnology solutions developed using a systems-approach for tropical systems.

A problem that this faculty will address immediately is setting up a commodity exchange mechanism. Contrary to what most people think, there is no problem of agriculture in Africa. The tropical countries have been locked into commodity systems external to them. All the biggest agricultural commodity exchanges are outside of Africa. We grow food, but others decide the price. For example. Ivory Coast and Ghana produce two-thirds of the world's production of cocoa, but prices are decided in Belgium and Switzerland, where many children think chocolate is a fruit that grows on trees. As a result, the African farmers get less than 5% of the Chocolate business. 

A similar problem lies with our genetic resources. The tropical countries possess large amounts of the world’s genetic resources but much of this knowledge is locked away in institutions in the North. Seeds are bred for external conditions so we import less than appropriate seeds. Tropical soils are misunderstood and understudied. Biopiracy and the patent system means our plants, which we could farm to bring wealth to our countries, have been misappropriated. This is why we need to create our own exchanges and process our own raw materials to keep the added value at home. That is why this faculty will be not about agriculture, but about agribusiness because we need our people to deal with modern technologies and to be in control of the whole value-added chain.