Pest Control and Innovation Generation for Sustainable Agricultural Development by Nigerian Stored Product Research Institute, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pest Control
Abstract
Nigeria is grappling with low agricultural production with over 40 per cent post-harvest losses. Consequently, Nigerian Stored Product Research Institute (NSPRI) was established to revise dangerous trend. The study described the demographic characteristics of key operational staff of NSPRI, identified, assessed farmers’ perception and constraints of innovations development on pest control. Thirteen key operational staff of NSPRI were purposively selected and used as respondents. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection and analyzed with percentages, frequency count and Pearson Correlation Statistics. Findings showed that the respondents’ mean age was 42.8 years while 53.8% had Master Degree Certificate. Innovations developed by NSPRI include ice fish box, inert silos, fish smoking kiln, pesticide waxes for fruits and vegetables. Small scale farmers reported inadequate awareness on the innovations developed by NSPRI along with mean score of 1.42, the innovations were expensive (2.18) and limited in production (2.14). The constraints rated inadequate funding (4.69), infrastructure (3.61%) and personnel (3.53) to be highly severe. A positive, linear relationship was established between level of education attained and innovation generation for sustainable agricultural production (r=0.28, p≤0.05). It was concluded that sustainable control of post-harvest losses in Nigeria requires that the level of educational attainment of the staff of NSPRI should be augmented to enhance competency for meaningful contribution to innovations development. The constraints on innovation development should be adequately addressed by the superintending agencies of NSPRI and other National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIS).