Business
Expert Urges Investors’ Confidence On Agric Research
A researcher with the
Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Samuel Adeyinma, has attributed low private sector investment in Nigerian agricultural research to the lack of confidence in researchers.
Adeyinma made this known to The Tide shortly after his visit to the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), Rumueme, Port Harcourt for an in-house review meeting last Thursday.
He said more needed to be done in the area of agricultural research, to earn the trust of investors and consumers.
According to him, Nigeria has potentials and good research findings, but the researchers are not being showcased to the world.
He said “Nigerian Researchers have produced excellent researches but most of these researches are kept on the shelves of research institutes. The research institutes need to be able to attract both local and foreign markets through adequate and efficient communication of their mandate and research findings”.
The researcher maintained that research institutes need to engage small scale producers, farmers and consumers in effective use of their products and urged the Federal Government to increase the financial allocation to research in the budget.
Adeyinma expressed regret that only 0.02 per cent of the GDP was allocated to research, saying that there is no value in Nigerian research.
“For research findings to be trusted, and adopted in the country, there should be efficient communication between research institutes and the general public”, he said.
Corlins Walter