There are myth based theories pertaining to agriculture in Nigeria that have been passed on for ages, bringing about huge constraints in the country's agricultural practices and development. Surprisingly, these assumptions have found a way into our schools/learning institutes which ought to be in the best position to conduct meaningful research that will either debunk or validate unfounded theories and aid agricultural growth, instead the reverse is the case because agricultural research in our institutions is highly limited by a number of factors, leaving us with a handicap learning system that teaches more theories than practicals. Unfortunately, the few research works that have somehow reached successful conclusion are sparingly put into good use , but let me not digress further into that.
An assumption based theory that has largely been accepted by alot of us is the myth that some crops can simply not be grown at all in Nigeria or in some parts due to factors like soil type, weather and climate etc. This may be true for some crops but it is definitely not true for a number which many have completely written off as regards their chances of survival/growth if cultivated with zero attempts of experimenting. A typical example is the believe that crops such as apples grown in the temperate regions of the world cannot be grown anywhere in a tropical country like Nigeria except probably in northern parts like Jos were the temperatures are mostly low and the soil is more conducive but this is not true because I can personally attest to the fact that these apples can be grown in typically tropical regions. We decided to plant one in our hometown in delta were we currently reside a couple of months ago and it is doing pretty well, it even survived brutal disturbances in the early stages from our domesticated turkeys that kept attempting to feed on all the leaves. Coincidentally, some time later, my brother met a man who had successfully grown the green variety to maturity in his delta state home.
He instantly identified ours to be the red variety and stated his interest to grow it too. According to the man his green variety had already beared him fruits and d only observed difference is that they weren't as sweet as the one whose seeds he planted, this I believe may be attributed to the fact that cooler temperatures have been proven to contribute to the sweetness of certain fruits/vegetables like carrots but for these temperate region apples now grown in tropical Nigeria, it is yet another assumption.