What is Nigeria’s strategic aspiration in R&D?

Between 2015 and 2016, no fewer than 34 African countries were affected by drought according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). This has grave implication for food productivity and yield. Farmers will certainly need help from governments to address productivity challenges. Most farmers want to be involved in “climate-smart” agriculture, so that when there is drought, they will have tools to survive and thrive. Can governments assist them?

In 2015, I came across a foreign investor at an economic summit in Abuja. During our discussion, he told me that his firm and a few others were requested by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to conduct research on how to improve crop seedlings. I was interested in finding out from him the outcome of the research because high quality seed will aid the nation’s efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. But he said “I cannot do any research as there is no law in Nigeria to protect my investment in it.” I guessed the foreign investor knows that research and development (R&D) is a costly, complex, and risky endeavor.

Honestly, I have forgotten my discussion with the investor until the front-page news of BusinessDay dated 9 June 2017 shows that “Seasonal Farming, R&D Constrain Nigeria’s US$ 10.0 billion fruit industry.”I am not surprised as most dams and irrigation facilities across the country are not functioning. Besides, insufficient funds for R&D and poor infrastructure are also responsible for low agricultural production. Regrettably, funding of R&D by the Federal Government of Nigeria is treated as overhead expense rather than a resource for economic development.To show that funding of R&D in Nigeria is treated as overhead expense, one may recall the unimpressive “N23 million allocated to the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, in 2016, out of which about N9.0 million was used for research.” For several years, this has been the trend. Also, research grants to federal and state-owned tertiary institutions for several years are below acceptable mark.

Innovation in Nigeria’s agricultural sector and other sectors has been hampered in a vicious cycle. Why is it so? On the one hand, most private firms operating in Nigeria’s economy have low opinion on the quality of work emerging from government research institutes. Accordingly, private sector demand for R&D from government institutions is rather too low. On the other hand, the lack of private sector demand is responsible for research institutes’ inability to meet the innovation requirements for the fruit sector in Nigeria. That perhaps, is responsible in part, for Nigeria’s failure to farm fruits all-year-round, and carry out extensive R&D which are major constraints to the nation’s US$ 10 billion fruit industry.

Without R&D to solve the problem of agricultural sector, for example, the formal interaction between the private and research institutions may be minimal, and perhaps, limited to training in pesticides management and support for compliance with international fruit safety standards. Unfortunately, recent reports have shown that the pesticides applied to tomatoes, beans, palm oil, groundnut, and other food items are excessive. Recently, reports making the rounds show that “24 Nigerian food products were rejected by the European Union (EU) in 2016” for failing to meet standards. If Nigeria wants its food products to be exported, R&D is imperative. Without R&D, Nigeria’s fruits and other agricultural products cannot have competitive advantage in the global environment.

Some nations, notably, India, China, Brazil and South Africa are examples of developing countries that have developed a world-class R&D capacity, while South Korea and Singapore are examples of success stories. These are nations that have funded R&D by about 7 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in decades as reflected in several reports. Report shows that funding of R&D in the last 10 years ranges between 0.2 and 0.4 percent of Nigeria’s GDP. Now that the nation is in economic recession, the funding of R&D is below par.

The strategic aspiration of R&D to Nigeria’s economic recovery should be how to solve some of the pressing development challenges facing our nation. Since R&D cuts across all sectors of our national economy, Nigeria should strengthen its research capacity, and state its goal. One objective that readily comes to mind is to enable our research institutes participate in global R&D projects targeted, for instance, at solving our problems in areas such as the production of new vaccines for tropical diseases, improved seedlings, preservation of food, and new drought resistant crop varieties. Another objective would be to develop indigenous capacity to solve local problems in renewable energy, while building the capacity of our research institutes nationwide to collaborate with similar institutions and industrial laboratories in other parts of the world irrespective of the type of problems under investigation.

Considering most states and FG’s debt burden in recession, funding R&D cannot be left in the hands of governments alone. Can the Organized Private Sector (OPS) be made to contribute 2 percent of their profit after tax? I ask this question because industries drive global R&D. And if the OPS is doing well in Nigeria, they must support research endeavors. Or, is it possible for state governments and ministries -agriculture, health, education, trade, communication, transport, solid minerals, and petroleum etcetera, to contribute about 2 percent of their capital allocation for specific R&D projects? I don’t have answers to these questions, but they must be given due consideration if the nation is to develop through R&D.

It’s very necessary to develop strong collaboration and linkages between the academia, industry, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, and other cognate ministries such as those of trade, agriculture, health, petroleum, education, solid mineral, water resources, communication, transport, works, power, and housing. Priority should be given to R&D in accelerating the attainment of self-sufficiency in agriculture through the production of simple farm implements, improved seedlings, crop protection, including fertilizers-chemical, organic, and semi-organic etc.R&D will stimulate mass production of drugs, laboratory and sporting.

MA JOHNSON