Research
institution in Nigeria was founded during the colonial administration
(1861-1950) IT passed through the periods of internal self-government
(1951-1960) and had continue to grow up till date. During this period it was not policy
oriented with it the British colonial government developed an implicit science
and technology policy to support and guarantee the research institute.
Agricultural research stations such
as moor plantation, Ibadan, Umudike, Umulahia and Samanizaia were set up in the
1920s partly as a tool to support the supply of export crops.
During the colonial period two forms
of organizational structure for agricultural research emerged. Some department
wad emerged to became ministries, while the second administered research in a
regional frame (Oloyide 1981) After independence, a new research structure
emerged this led to the establishment of research councils and hence research
institutes. Four agricultural research institutes were established in 1964 and
an additional 14 in 1975 (Adedipe, 1993).
Today there are 18 public sector
agricultural research institutes in Nigeria each with a specific mandate
crop/commodity and field of activities to satisfy different agricultural needs.
THEIR MISSION
The
institutions are poised to serve as centre of excellence for sustainable
affordable, efficient and easily adopted technologies to enhance farm
productivity and product utilization in Nigeria.
Also to conduct research in various
areas of Agriculture to enhance agricultural productivity, where by the
research result are communicated to farmers through the extension officers.
During the colonial Era the aim of
government to establish Research institutes was to guarantee the production and
supply of export crops such as cocoa, palm produce, groundnut, rubber, cotton
e.t.c.
PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
INSTITUTE
Poor
funding: after the growth in 1060’s and
70s large financed by revenue from a booming oil sector of Nigerians
agricultural research expenditure constructed sharply during 1980s, currently
they are less than half the level that prevailed during the late 1970s (Pandey
and Roseboom, 1997).
Infact by 1977, funding had been cut
by over 90% form what obtained in 1970 (sahib, Aliyu and Balushi 1997).
Then research expenditure fell form
1.5% to 0.27% in 1991 (Pandy and Roseboom, 1997).
So, activities of Nigeria institute
have been seriously hindered by poor funding and lack of a functional
collaborative mechanism between the institution and the industrial sector.
Explaining the challenges facing
these research institute, the director
general of RMRPC, Peter Onwulau is of the view that research institute in the
country can not go into commercialization of research works because of lack of
adequate funds. It is expected that SME will come to pick the research works
from us but we find that most of the SME do not have the financial resources to
go into mass production.
Some of the industry e.g fruit juice
industry with respect to packaging material and government fiscal polices among
others as it has conducted survey on the production and processing of quality
citrus.
Borodo highlighted other factors as
the general dischantment of manufacturers due to the lack of basic infrastructure, high cost of production,
inconsistencies in government polices, lack of record keeping, poor academic
leadership poor government attitude to research poor dissemination of research
result.
LACK OF TECHNOLOGY
While some significant progress has
been made in implementing agricultural research policy directives, the overall
impact of agricultural research policy directives, the overall impact of
agricultural research in generating yield enhancing and food generating
technologies and building a vibrant rural economy has been limited (Shaib, et
al 1997)
This is probably mainly as a result
of declines in research intensity ration in Nigeria.
PROSPECTS
Firstly, Government should inject adequate funds into
research institutes and encourage industrial establishment to invest in
scientific research and joint projects, in returning for equivalent tax
reduction and other incentives, to make fund available for researcher so that
they will have a better research results.
Secondly, Nigeria government to
focus on Education sector as a priority. Proper education will lead the nation
to over come many problems and develop personalities.
Thirdly, the individuals who
invented machine or tools should be equipped with enough money to produce more.
This money is not to be given to the institute because it will not reach the
individual.
If the nation will encourage
individuals to develop their talents in this way, many people will bring up
heir talents and the Nation will benefit.
Meanwhile Adequate finance, well
organized time, adequate record keeping, Good academic leadership, good
government attitude to research, proper dissemination of research must have to
be in place for the up keeping of research institutions in Nigerian
KEY RESEARCH BASED RECOMMENDATION
1. Conduct
frequent surveys to update information on agricultural stock profile and management
practices in order to facilitate the planning of the institutions.
2. Make research institutes in Nigeria
more market-oriented.
3, there
should be more collaboration between research institutes in order to share
research capacities and capabilities.
4. Government
should formulate a policy to channel a small percentage of industry’s profits
to agricultural resources institution.
5. Research institutes should set up staff
exchange programmes.
6. Research institutions should advertise
their capabilities.
So, the successful application of scientific and
technological research results has led to the emergence of new products, improved
manufacturing processes, improved capacity utilization and establishment of new
resources based industries.