FGN and Agriculture Research Findings

SUN NEWSPAPER: OCTOBER 29, 2025

FGN and Agriculture Research Findings

Eze Onyekpere

Nigeria has fifteen publicly funded agricultural research institutes with mandates to improve crop production, livestock, fishery, horticulture, etc. There is an Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN). ARCN is stated to have a mandate of leading “national agricultural research efforts, developing innovative solutions for Nigeria’s farming challenges. Through strategic planning and collaborative partnerships, ARCN advances agricultural science, promotes technology adoption, and maintains comprehensive research facilities and documentation”. This discourse part reviews the work and mandate of the research institutes and how the effectiveness of their mandates can be enhanced.  

The research institutes are the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan; National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike; Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research, Benin; National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi; Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute, Ilorin; National Animal Production and Research Institute, Zaria; Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan and National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan. Others are Institute for Agricultural Research, Zaria; Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri; National Agricultural Extension Research Liaison Services, Zaria; Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria, Benin City; National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom and National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization, Ilorin.

It is imperative to start by indicating that some of these institutes have histories dating close to and above one hundred years. They are not new and have existed for a period long enough to take stock of their achievements and challenges. These institutes have developed innovative products promoting agroecological practices including preservation and multiplication of local seeds, tubers, seed and crop varieties, organic fertiliser, adaptation and resilience to climate change. Other innovations include low cost locally fabricated mechanization, improved seeds and yields per hectare, pest and diseases control, storage, processing and packaging, reduction of post-harvest losses, value addition throughout the value chain, and improved nutritional value of agricultural products. The findings of these institutions ought to feed into agricultural practice thereby improving the sector’s performance and contributing to poverty reduction through increased assets and income to farmers. 

However, these research results are unknown to majority of small-scale rural farmers who form the bulk of the farming population. A good part of the innovation stays underutilized on the shelves of these institutes. Instances of this disconnect is that Nigeria’s yield per hectare is one of the lowest in Africa. For example, Egypt, Ghana and South Africa in 2020 recorded cereal yield (measured in Kg per hectare) of 6187.9, 1925.0 and 5407.2 respectively, as against Nigeria’s 1420.0. Despite the innovations of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan, tomato blight, Tuta absoluta, between 2016 and 2023 destroyed close to 80% of farms in Kaduna, Nigeria’s largest tomato-producing state. According to the 2022 report by National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLs), the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute states that post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables in Nigeria is in the region of 50% of harvests. Other crops are rated at not less than 20% loss.

The innovations staying on the shelves means that the last mile which is extension services to take these findings to the grassroots is ineffective. Even though there is a recent FGN Agriculture Extension Policy, the states hardly have their own policies. Generally, extension service is very poorly funded. In some states, they are virtually non existent, or exist on paper with a few staff drawing salaries without overheads and capital votes to go into the field to do the actual extension work. Ideally, agricultural research should be demand driven as the farmers and off-takers set the research agenda indicating solutions most relevant to improving productivity and solving their everyday farming challenges. In the absence of the participation of these critical off-takers/beneficiaries in setting the research agenda, their priorities may not have been mainstreamed in research.

On a yearly basis, the Federal Government of Nigeria spends tens of billions in funding these research institutes but simply ignores the utilization through dissemination and mass production of the findings and innovations of these institutes to make them available to actual farming off-takers. These institutes and their innovations are assets belonging to government. It is expected that government should deploy assets maximization strategies to get the best value and profits out of decades of investments in these institutes. Since they are public institutes, assets maximization will focus on getting results that tally with their mandates. The government should have utilised the innovations of the research institutes focused on mechanization of agriculture to break the binding constraint of drudgery in agriculture which is preventing the younger generation from full time practice of agriculture. The utilization could have been through a public venture or public private partnerships. The intellectual property in these innovations could be sources of payments to the public revenue. 

The foregoing raises posers. Should the government be importing and celebrating the importation of tractors and other equipment as achievements when the mechanization institute has developed large and mini tractors, mound makers, planters, weeders, harvesters and other equipment at a cost far cheaper than the imported ones? Why are the research efforts un-utilised? Should tomato blight, Tuta absoluta be ravaging tomato production at a time when a local remedy developed by Nigerians is available. Why use public resources to finance research institutes and ignore their innovations while seeking for solutions outside our boundaries.

It is therefore imperative for government to take cognizance of the innovations from agricultural research findings and use them as springboards for improving agricultural productivity, value added, job creation as well as improving resilience, mitigation and adaptation to climate change.