Abstract
Problem statement: Scientists in National Agricultural Research Institutes and University faculties of agriculture and veterinary medicine were surveyed to explore their participation in agricultural biotechnology research in Nigeria. Multistage sampling was used. Approach: Two Federal universities and two state universities were randomly selected from a list of Federal and State universities. In addition to these, one university each was selected from the four universities of Technology and three Federal universities of Agriculture. Results: Forty three scientists were purposively selected based on participation in agricultural biotechnology research. Nine research institutes were purposively selected based on their mandates. A total of 105 scientists were selected from the research institutes, based on their participation in agricultural biotechnology research. The total number of respondents from the selected amounted to 148. A structured questionnaire was used. Majority of the respondents fell within the medium participation category (63.5%). There is a significant relationship between availability of training/self development opportunities (r = 0.278, p<0.05) and career advancement opportunities (r = 0.348, p<0.05) and participation in agricultural biotechnology research. Inadequacy of electricity supply was significantly related to participation. Regression analysis show that human resources capacities available to scientists had positive relationship with participation in agricultural biotechnology research and development but only career advancement opportunities (r = 0.003, p<0.05) and royalties on findings (r = 0.151, p<0.05) were significant. Conclusion/Recommendations: There is need for strengthening both human resources and infrastructural capacity to increase participation in agricultural biotechnology research in Nigeria.
Highlights
Much effort has gone into tackling the challenge of intractable food shortages in Nigeria
The study reveals that majority of the scientist fall within the medium participation level
This agrees with the views of Mathews-Njoku and Adesope (2008) judging Nigeria’s activity as not being impressive and stating that Nigeria is not taking the lead in agricultural biotechnology research and development activities in Africa
Summary
Much effort has gone into tackling the challenge of intractable food shortages in Nigeria. On the one hand population growth has been spiraling over the decades, with the latest rate put at 2.6%, while on the other hand food import bills have been on the increase. Despite its enormous potentials in agricultural production, Nigeria has had to at one time or the other resort to aid dependence to meet its local food requirement. In the year 2003 for example, Nigeria received 11,000.6 metric tones of soy meal as food aid from the US Food for Progress Programme (Olaniyan et al, 2007). The consensus among many development interests in the country is that there is an urgent need to develop the ability of the agricultural system to produce at such a level that can ensure food security. For many in research circles, agricultural biotechnology presents a very viable promise for this
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