Comparative assessment of agricultural technology generating practices in universities and research institutes in north central zone of Nigeria

To understand the technology generating practices among universities and research institutes in north central zone of Nigeria, this study examined sources of funds for technology generating activities, compared agro-technology generating practices and identified constraining factors hindering technology generating practices. One hundred and fifty-two academic staff were randomly selected from universities and one hundred and thirty-six respondents were drawn from research institutes. Validated questionnaires with reliability coefficient of r = 0.92 were used to elicit data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Likert-scale, T-test and Factor analysis. Majority (93.4%) of universities’ respondents used their personal funds to generate new technology compared to their counterparts in research institutes. The most widely employed mechanism for generating agricultural technologies was joint radio programmes (mean = 3.38) while the least was biotechnology (mean = 2.57). Major areas of differences in technology generation between the two institutions were the physical distance (t = 13.54; P < 0.05), farmers participation in field research trials (t = 8.50; P < 0.05), farmers co-finance of adaptive research trials (t = 3.77; P < 0.05) and adequate research facilities and incentives to workers (t = 2.05; P < 0.05). Factors constraining technology generation for universities were poor access to knowledge and information on new innovation (r = 0.815) while for research institutes it was limited physical resources (ICT, Telephone) (r = 0.801). It was recommended therefore that respondents should look into options of writing alternate fund proposals and submitting to a wider range of funding bodies. Governance of innovation could be strengthened through the formation of a formal technological linkage advisory council.