Productivity
By Mohammed Lawal
Zaria (Kaduna State), April 13, 2018 (NAN) Prof. Ibrahim Umar-Abubakar, Director, Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), on Friday urged Nigerian researchers to focus their attention on demand-driven research so as to boost agricultural productivity in the country.
Umar-Abubakar made the call at the closing ceremony of the forum on Research Extension Farmers Input Linkage System (REFILS) at the institute in Zaria, Kaduna State.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that REFIL is part of the 2018 Annual Agricultural Research Review and Planning Meeting, which is organised by IAR, an institute under Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
Umar-Abubakar said: “The only way to bridge the gap between research and industry is for researchers to focus on demand-driven research.
“You know that in the past, our research used to be supply-driven. A researcher will just develop a concept in his laboratory or in his office; plan for it, take it to the field, execute the research and eventually take it out.
“This is not demand-driven; so, what you think is good for the society may not be good for them but if you focus on demand, the industries will ask for a particular research — strategic or custom-made — and they will be asked to fund it,’’ he said.
The director said that it was only in Nigeria where research outputs were usually released to the end-users (industries) free-of-charge.
According to him, IAR has been releasing improved seed varieties of different crops, which are within its mandate, on an annual basis to seed companies and farmers free-of-charge.
Umar-Abubakar appealed to industries in Nigeria to emulate other countries and see the wisdom in financing research.
While identifying extension agents as critical elements in efforts to disseminate research technologies to farmers, the professor stressed that Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) was the bedrock of agricultural extension services.
Umar-Abubakar urged the federal and state governments to employ graduates of agriculture and mobilise them as agriculture extension workers so as to boost the productivity of smallholder farmers in particular.
In her speech, Dr Karima Babangida, the Director of Agricultural Extension, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, described REFILS as one of the early multi-stakeholders’ platforms established in the peak of Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs).
Babangida, who was represented by Chief Ime Umoh, another director in the ministry, said that REFILS was meant to address the multi-faceted needs of agricultural extension service delivery in the country.
“The REFILS workshop seems to be the most enduring aspect of REFILS activities.
“Other activities such as Technical Coordination Meeting, Monthly Technology Review Meetings, Fortnight Trainings, Field Days and Field Visits seem to have largely fizzled out because of inadequate funding.
“The decline in the fortunes of public extension services support to farmers has been ascribed to many factors. One of the key factors is the absence of a coordinating agency at the federal level,’’ Babangida said.
Also speaking, Prof. Mahmud Ibrahim-Daneji, Programme Manager, Kano State Agricultural Development Agency (KNADA), said that the Nigerian economy had suffered for long because of its over-dependence on oil.
Ibrahim-Daneji, who spoke on the: “Imperatives of Diversifying Nigeria’s Economy through Research and Extension’’, bemoaned the dwindling state of the national economy.
He said that apart from decreasing global oil prices and restiveness in Niger Delta region, which affected daily oil production, there was also a fall in demand for the country’s oil and gas.
Ibrahim-Daneji noted that some countries had developed alternative sources to oil and gas such as renewable energy sources or green energy sources, adding that the development had affected the demand for oil and gas.
“In view of these, we need to look for alternative sources to complement the revenue from oil.
“We have no other alternative than agriculture; it is the only sector that will provide us with whatever we need, in terms of labour, income and prestige.
“As stakeholders in agricultural sector, we need to be sensitised to the need why Nigeria should diversify its economy because the country is spending billions of dollars importing farm produce annually,’’ he said. (NAN)
KLM/COF/OOK
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