President Muhammadu Buhari recently signed into law the amended Act establishing the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN). The Executive Secretary of the Council, Professor Garba Sharubutu in this interview by COLLINS NNABUIFE gives insight on the amended Act.
CAN you give us an insight into the amendment on the ARCN Act?
The ARCN was established as far back as 1999. But it actually came into being in 2007, with the appointment of the first Executive Secretary, Professor B Y Abubakar, and all along the Council actually has been performing its function of supervising the various research institutes which themselves were also established by an Act and regulated by various Boards, then attached to these research institutes, were also training arms, which were the Federal Colleges of Agriculture, themselves also within the last dispensation given boards and the structure of the council is such that it is under the Ministry of Agriculture with a governing board, and this governing board comprises of a Chairman and members of the Boards of the various Research Institutes; you can see where I’m heading to is already an unwieldy board because decisions that are taken also included membership of the various boards of the colleges and the Research institutes. Remember that we’re coming from a background of low revenue, low finances, but the primary function of this Council actually is that of advising the government on matters that bother on research, training and extension.
So, any form of agricultural research, any form of agricultural training or extension, falls under the purview of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, so, that is our primary responsibility.
This responsibility is bulky, so, it has to be broken down into other mandates like designing, research and supervising research for all the Research Institutes, supervising training for all the colleges of agriculture, it is also within our purview to ensure that we document most of these researches and from us, we will be able to propagate these research findings to the various farmers, so that they will adopt the new technologies that we have developed.
So, this in essence is the history of the Agricultural Research Council and the act that established it. If a body is being supervised by another body that tends to be superior and then the administrative structure is made in such a way that you have equal status with the Executive Secretary and the various Research Institute, with each having a Board, you can see there is likely going to be a conflict in terms of decision taking, because whatever decision a board takes, has again to be brought to the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, for them to also take a decision on that.
So, that structure to us was not also good and invariably, you will find out that the aim of establishing the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria in such a way that it is supposed to reduce bureaucracy, it is supposed to be a straightforward thing, it is supposed to enable the various research institutes to function as academic bodies in order for them to be able to be in charge of their responsibilities is now defeated.
The need for synergy between the various research institutes is no more there because if a research institute says I’m going by this, another one says I’m going by this, now, if the Council at the level of the Board now comes to say, this is what you’re going to do, you know, Boards cannot likely counter what another Board is doing. So you’ll find out that the synergy is not there. So we were more or less rather than achieving the synergy, we were more or less operating in isolated fashion, and thereby reducing productivity as far as the Research Council is concerned.
So invariably, most likely, you find out that the research will not be more targeted, that means our advice to the government may not likely be taken, and that there are some Research Institutes that feels that maybe when they bring their decisions here for harmonization may not likely go down well, so they will prefer now to follow the same bureaucratic way and going to the Ministry, because the law establishing them also recognises the role of the Minister.
The person I will give real credit to for initiating this bill in order to make sure that the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria actually takes its proper place is Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
He actually conferred with the Agricultural Research Council management at that time, and said, if you are having these type of Boards and we are not having the best, why can’t you come up with a law for us to be able to unify these Boards, because in his wisdom it is going to reduce cost, it is going to ensure that there is synergy, it is going to make sure that you now perform your function of designing research project in tune with what the government policy actually is.
So honestly, I give him the credit, because he was the sole sponsor of the bill and all of us bought his wisdom, we then went down to work, we toured the whole of this country from one zone to the other, and what we did was we looked at the geopolitical zones, and held meetings with stakeholders, before we came up with a bill.
And, of course, again, I have to give credit to the Ministers, in fact, the three Ministers that were involved, number one is Audu Ogbeh then Alhaji Sabo Nanono, then this current minister, even though he met it at the tail end, but when his advice was sought, he actually sought serious briefing before he consented to the fact that there is no problem with that bill, that the bill is definitely going to serve the interests of the country.
We also give credit to the House of Representatives because the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Agricultural Colleges also participated actively by making sure that they concur with the bill.
Does the bill look at the funding of the research institutes in a coordinated manner?
Let me give you what the new Act contains so that we go into the details. We targeted mainly three to four things. Number one is the fact that we are going to harmonize the Board now so that we have a unified Board and let people not be surprised, the whole Research Institutes in this world now is coordinated by a single Board which is CGIR that is a consultative group for research Institutes, we are members, in fact, the ARCN is a coordinating Research Institute for the West Central African sub region.
So in a similar way, this Act seems to achieve that by unifying the decisions, so that decisions are taken centrally and dispatched, but it has also made provision for Technical Committees at the various Research Institutes and Colleges, for them to be able to advise the management, so that the management will not be seen to be operating just without anybody supervising them. So there’s a room for the technical committee.
The second aspect of it is that since the establishment of the Federal Colleges of Agriculture, about 16 of them in number, they have never had a Board, and in fact, there was no statute establishing them. So they were actually running without any Board and no law. So all along, they had just been appendages or attachments of the various Research Institutes. So anytime we go for accreditation, we rely on the laws that establish their composite Research Institute, which gives the Research Institutes the right to establish training colleges.
An agency that is independent, and has its own budget, should not be seen to be hanging on the law that was established by another agency. So of course, in the wisdom of this initiator, there is a need for us to establish under this Act, the various colleges of agriculture, and more so five of these 16 Colleges of Agriculture, were actually running under the department in the Ministry. So you will find out that their staff, their promotion, their condition of service, their retirement age, and everything was subjected to the same civil service procedure.
So staff were being posted to them, lecturers were being posted from the Ministry; heads were being posted from the ministry. And so with the establishment of this law, they now come under the real academic structure as envisaged.
Thirdly, that most of our Research Institutes were also producers of technology, and there was a need for us to market this technology. But as it was, there is no way we can market these technologies, because we will be doing things illegally, because we did not have the right to go into marketing.
So this law established spinoff companies, that we now can establish spinoff companies for us to be able to operate. Before now, there has been this controversy as to why some of our Colleges of Agriculture are establishing consultancy outfits and it has been a subject of serious debate. So in the wisdom of this Act, there was now a need for us to actually establish spinoff companies with a view to making sure that they now market their products, not as part of the core mandate of the Institute, but as a branch, so that the revenue generation capacity will now be increased, because subsequently what we are targeting is to beat our chest to say, some of the products, or technologies we have developed, have been marketed.
If Cocoa Research Institute is able to come up with viable seedlings that are disease resistant, that are climate smart, you’ll find out that because of the inability of off-takers to come and take this, these products will now be handed over to these spinoff companies and then they will now go into it. If the National Veterinary Research Institute produces a vaccine now. Now the selling of the vaccine will now be taken over by the spinoff company so that they will do the marketing, so that the Research Institute will now be allowed to concentrate more on the issue of their own research, rather than doing one thing or the other.
Before now, I’m definitely sure that you’ll find out that some of our outstations were not actually doing very well because all activities are concentrated in the centre. If you have some outstations, they are just there for seed distribution or extension work.
Then the fourth aspect is to ensure that we are not just concentrated on the headquarters. We are also establishing outreach centres and strengthening our own outstation in such a way that they will be able to undertake their research, be it direct research or adoptive research.
You will find out that for our Root Crop Research Institute, for example, it is stationed in Umudike, now ginger is a root crop, it doesn’t grow in Umudike, Irish Potato is a root crop, it doesn’t grow in Umudike.
In order to address this issue, we have an outstation in Kachia for ginger, and in Jos for Irish potato. Now, this Act will now make sure we concentrate development in these various outstation, so that you find out that our research institute will now be spread round. It is the same thing when you talk about rubber research, you find out that gum Arabic is in the North Eastern part of this country, but the headquarters of Rubber Research Institute is in Benin. So you have this Research Institute in Benin, but strengthening the outstation in the North East.
The same thing we are also trying to do with our Cereals, it was in Ibadan, now, the headquarters moved to Badeggi in Niger state, that does not mean that the one in Ibadan should be allowed to now rot away.
So, this bill is giving backing to the fact that whatever we are going to do, we must make sure that we are spread across the length and breadth of this country.
And finally, of course, you know, that is going to reduce cost, because instead of you having a proliferation of Boards from one place to the other, these Boards have been reduced now to a single Board with professional memberships that is supposed to drive the agricultural sector.
This bill went together with a bill on the endowment fund. I don’t know how we will appreciate Senator Abdullahi Adamu, maybe because he has been long in the area of agriculture, he has been an agriculturalist, he has been the Chairman of Committee on Agriculture for a very long time, so he has all the wisdom.
Rather than making provision for a separate form of funding only for the Research Institutes and the Colleges, in his own wisdom, he said let there be or not the Act that will establish an Agricultural Development Fund. Now, this Agricultural Development Fund is supposed to harmonize all the various sources of revenue that are agriculture related, so that we all have a TETFUND type of organization so that the Research Institutes will draw from, the colleges will draw from, the universities of agriculture will draw from, but most importantly, those that are into processing will also draw from and every industrialist will now have the chance of opting to either come to the agriculture development fund or go to the industrial fund to go and draw their money depending on what he wants to undertake.
So, there is a separate bill, and I know that the bill again sponsored by Senator Abdullahi Adamu has passed the Senate, it has also been concurred with at the House of Representatives and we are praying that very shortly, the minister may decide to push it for presidential assent.
What are we expecting from this new bill?
Our expectation is we are likely going to have a better collaboration now with our external bodies. Before these things were done virtually at individual level, a research fellow will go and get his grant and run it, a Research Institute also go and negotiate a grant and run it, at the end of it, you’ll find out that some of these grants are passed through without the knowledge of the Research Institute, or they are taken directly without the knowledge of the ARCN.
This time around, we expect better way of collaboration, and with that, you will find out that there will be transparency, because some of these external donors, they want the government actually to be held responsible for whatever money they are pumping into the system, and that’s the more reason why we feel that this bill is really timely.
We are likely going to expect an increase in revenue that is being generated, because of the creation of these spinoff companies. I can assure you that, from what is there now, each of the Research Institutes will be given targets, and that’s the reason why I said regulations must come in.
For example, if you say, we are budgeting N20 million to produce seedlings, at the end of the year, we should be able to know what you do with the seedlings. Did they get rotten? If they got rotten, why should they be rotten? Did you sell them, if you sold them is it cost recovery?
So you see the spinoff company aspect should be able to give us better revenue generation.
And of course, you will find out that people must also be held accountable for whatever money they have been given, today, with this bill will be able to know for example, we have budgeted 20 million for us to be able to develop a new variety of cowpea, every year now we’ll be able to take stock. If you said it is going to be in five stages and they have released the money for you in those numbers of stages, what is the end result?
So Nigerians will not be able to follow up and know the type of progress we have been making. Let me say this with clear emphasis, we have not been heard for a very long time, and people assume that things are not really happening in the various research institutes.
Yes, we may not have the money to fund most of these researches, but through individual and institutional collaboration and some of our research fellows, we’ve been able to develop quite a number of products that are being used in this country. Most of the inputs that we have in this country were produced here.
If you go to the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) you will see that what they are fabricating is really big. Some of the private sector actually go to NCAM to go and get the technology and go and fabricate, but because spinoff companies were not actually done for them to own some of these discoveries, you will find that people steal these technologies.
Just recently Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria came up with a variety of beans and it is doing perfectly well in collaboration with some international organizations, but it is doing really well.
The IAR in Ibadan came up with varieties of maize, and they collaborate very well with the various state governments and they give them this hybrid maize and they grow and people are making money. If you go to Umudike, they have incorporated vitamin A in their cassava, if you look at some of the sweet potato, they have incorporated vitamin A in it
Yes, we underreport ourselves, but I can tell you that you are going to witness a different Research Institute this time around because whatever structure they are going to have on ground will be dictated by what we tell them to do here.
Are we expecting new varieties of crops?
Once money is made available through an endowment fund, the funding template is going to be different; now, the funding template is through budgetary allocation. So it’s only when you release money that research will start.
For example, if I start a research project today, it is supposed to run in phases, these phases maybe two, three years, the cowpea was developed over 15 years.
Now, if I start the research, I and I store some of the germplasm inside my bank, and then all of a sudden I do not have money to run the generator to maintain that germplasm, it will dry off waiting for another budget. But with the endowment fund, it will be structured in such a way that ‘how much do you want for this aside’? N15 billion for example, we budget N15 billion, they keep the 15 billion by side, so it is there.
Now phase one will take N2 million, as you are finishing phase one and entering into phase two, the money is already there. So once the budgeting template changes, there’ll be no loss of genetic material, there will be no loss in the various stages of research, so you expect the best.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents
In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital…