Agric suffering because research institutions are underfunded ― Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono has lamented the inability of research institutions to carry out researches that would help revamp agriculture due to underfunding.

The Minister said the salaries professors in research Institutions are higher than the money being given to them to carry out researches.

Speaking at the Seed Fair organized by National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), the Minister said urgent steps are needed to address the challenge.

“One of the fundamental problem facing the country are probably in the hidden activities of the research institutions and I know that most of the research institutes are underfunded as they have big buildings but lack funds for research.

Giving instance of a professor paid N500,000 monthly but is not given up to N200,000 for research yearly, and that is basically the truth. If we don’t move forward in that direction how do we progress. We as a government must examine what can be done.

“We must rationalize research institutes and make it more cost-effective and more productive if we are going to achieve our goal”, Nanono said.

The Minister said with about 70million farmers in the country, agriculture hold key to the economic development and political stability of the country.

Speaking on seed “as a farmer I know what it means to have good and bad seeds, farmers have been complaining of getting bad seeds, that is not only the problem, but also when they get the good seeds, the application itself is a problem because there just 14,000 extension workers in Nigeria against a farming population of 70million”

He further lamented that Nigerian farmers do not enjoy the activities of extension services due to the inadequate extension officers in the country.

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“The standard is 1 extension agents to 25 farmers, but if you work out the arithmetic you will understand why we are in

this mess. It is the role of the private institutions to support the government in providing this extension services.

“What is needed is the standardization of the seeds so as to be able to produce a uniform and good product that can be marketed abroad, and that is a serious issue that we must look into it closely” he added.

On the issue of chemicals use on-farm, the Minister called on research Institutes to develop crops that would require less chemical on farm so that Nigerian products would not be rejected at the international market.

“Last year Nigeria was banned from exporting beans due to high content of chemicals, there is an high application of chemicals on the red beans so it was banned, this is one of the crucial things that all the research institutes must take note of, and we must try as much as possible to clean this mess so that we can progress further.

“I will also allow some group of people to come into seed production in this country, apparently most of our research institutes are doing a good job and producing good foundation seeds but the seed multiplication companies are being adulterated and at the end of the day the research is rendered useless when it gets to farmers.

“I am going to give them authority to produce and distribute seeds under their own patent so that there would be intense competition in the seed production in the country”, he said

In his address, the Director-General of NASC, Dr Philip Ojo said the improved seed is a cost-effective way of improving agricultural productivity.

He said with the 5 year strategic plan of the Council, they would track their progress in achieving distribution of quality seeds to farmers and evaluate it in a more effective manner.

“Improved seed as we all know is the most cost-effective means of enhancing agricultural productivity. The development and adoption of improved seeds were instrumental to the achievement of the green revolution, making food available at profitable prices to producers and affordable for consumers leading to a reduction in rural poverty as is the case in many developing nations.

“We now have a 5-year strategic plan and operational plan that will guide our operations going forward.

“This will allow us to clearly track progress and evacuate ourselves better in a more effective manner. Also, we have expanded our collaboration base as we now have a meaningful partnership with embassies such as those of Hungary, Israel, India and the Netherlands to mention a few with many more in the pipeline.

“We are engaging more support of the states to step up our regulatory activities with the enhancement of our public enlightenment and sensitization programmes in the seed market in major cities across the country.