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| 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”.
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| 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”.
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| 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
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