National Root Crops Research Institute Umudike, started on 1st January, 1923 on a 20 hectare land, as a British Colonial Provincial Research Farm, under the Nigeria Colonial Department of Agriculture with headquarters at Moor Plantation Ibadan. Following Nigerian regionalization in 1955, it came under the Eastern Region Ministry of Agriculture that was supervised by the Director of Agriculture at Enugu. In the same year, the School of Agriculture was establishment at the same location. This complex became known as the Eastern Nigeria Agricultural Research Station in 1956.