Government, private sectors not tasking Research Institutes says Prof. Abba Gambo- Prof. Ayoola, IITA speaks on coordination, off take challenges

Prof. Abba gambo

Prof. Abba gambo, head of crop production, University of Maiduguri has said that in a bit to ensure proactive technology for agricultural development through modern agricultural technologies, government and private sectors must task Nigeria research Institute with demand driven improved varieties that would increased food production in standard global way.

Speaking along side with other experts in the sector on good morning Nigeria programme of the NTA, Prof. Abba Gambo said that demand driven approach technology by government and private agricultural practitioners would ensure more off take of the technologies in the Research Institutes in Nigeria saying that “the issue is research all over the world is supposed to be demand driven”.

 Prof. Gambo added that “In the 50s and 70s, when by then people are buying our groundnut and cocoa, it was as a result of a particular variety we are able to produce and deliver as specified.  So it was a kind of demand that farmers are now working upon to ensuring that the particular demand is certified. But unfortunate today, the demand driven is no more there as the Research Institutes are no more tasks to ensure the demand driven supply. The government is no longer tasking them to produce something and also the private sector. Even Nasco in Jos that is producing corn flakes who is supposed to have talked to serious research Institute for its specific variety of maize it might need for its production as a demand driven research, but rather they always prefer to buy from outside market and thereby imported everything for their mills just as they imported best varieties of wheat and maize from outside. But if Lake Chad Research Institute in Maiduguri with a mandate for wheat production in Nigeria can be given a demand to produce a kind of variety with off take guaranty; this will help the Institute a lot.

On coordination, the University of Maiduguri don said that “we have Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria based in Abuja with a council members and a chairman. So also are the each Research Institute with its council and members. In Brazil, there is only one agricultural research council Institute and it is the best model in the world today. It has a single council and with just one representative that is permanently stationed in the ministry of agriculture, while in Nigeria, we have many council members, and this is part of the reason things are not moving on fast”.

He expressed further that “let me quickly add that the process of registering a new variety is also cumbersome in the country. For example, if I want to breed a new variety of cowpea that is resistance to some pest. You will have to get a team and also write a proposal towards this intention. The team must include even people who are not in Agriculture like social and home economics. Then you have to work on it for two years before going for on station trial research. After this, I will take it for a multi locational trial in two or three different places before it is finally presented before a judge as a candidate. So the candidate is now submitted to the National Varietal sub Research Committee headed by Prof. Olufajo of ABU, Zaria. So your candidate now comes before the sub-committee with 50kg of the seeds and if it is vegetable you come with a sizable numbers that can be planted on a hectare of land. This is a long process which can be made shorter with better equipment”.

Prof. Bolagbade Ayoola

 Also on the programme is Prof. Bolagbade Ayoola, an agricultural economics expert who expressed need for proper coordination of research activities saying “my take is that it is not the number of these Institutes that matter, what matters is proper coordination of what they are doing. In the United States of America, you can find a research based institute in counts. You cannot count them, and the same you will find in India where they are numbering about 106 research Institutes. As a result of Agriculture, research has to be specialized as it goes along commodity lines which are the reason we have fifteen of them in Nigeria focusing on different area of crops. This is in order, but what we lack apart from funding challenges is proper coordination and role definition. For example we have not settled some issues about which of these Institutes performed basic research and those that perform applied research and which one is performing adaptive research, all of them is important without being theoretical”.

IITA Dr. Kento Dashiel said “IITA has been foremost over the year; I will not repeat what has been said by the previous speakers. Our outstanding technologies are always ready for the farmers in Nigeria with significant productivity to the farming. But there are many constraints, and one of them is that the farmers are not getting the information that they needed for the better improved production. For example, we have outstanding market driven cassava which I don’t want to go into detail, but most outstanding basic research are not being deliver to the farmers as they should be”.

Architect Mohammed Kabiru

Responding to research technologies not getting down to farmers, the President of the All Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Architect Mohammed Kabiru said that research technology getting down to farmers must be digitalized as this would enable them getting faster to farmers without any assistance, added the innovation of the extension services was another better idea of technology transfer saying “ well if you renovate extension well, the information will go down to the farmers more faster and we have an innovation in extension today called dessert grace. Instead of using people to research out for farmers, you digitalize research and it is faster to get to farmers