Adoption Process of Agro-biotechnology Among Researchers in Nigerian Universities and Research Institutes: The Logistics Regression Approach

Abstract

Aims: Food insecurity in most developing countries was a result of their low/small scale of operation in farming enterprise resulting to low yields. To increase agricultural productivity, biotechnology has been considered as a strong potential to improve agricultural production. This paper examined the biotechnology adoption scenario in Nigeria from the viewpoint of academic researchers. Study Design: A purposive sampling technique was adopted and the target population was limited to 100 academic biotechnology researchers. Methodology: Eighty percent of the researchers came from Universities while 10per centeach was drawn from College of Agriculture and Institute of Agricultural Research respectively. Mean age was 44.5 years; mean teaching/research experience was 7.5 years. Logit model estimates for the study areas showed that the effect of the three independent variables: level of knowledge, level of acceptance and level of transfer of technology were statistically significant at 5% level. Results: These findings' revealed that knowledge about an innovation is an indicator of the level of adoption. As the awareness of knowledge increases, it is more likely that there will be a corresponding increase in the level of adoption. The acceptance variable has a positive impact on the decision to adopt biotechnology.

Traditional farmers’ pig trait preferences and awareness levels toward reproductive biotechnology application in Zambia

“…Biotechnology adoption by farmers, particularly in African countries, remains minimal; one major factor that affects adoption is information acquisition or biotechnology awareness [ 18 , 30 , 31 ]. This is because people’s attitudes, including the decision to accept and/or adopt technology, change when they become aware of it [ 16 , 25 , 32 ].…”

“…This is because learning new biotechnology starts with becoming aware of it and understanding its relative advantages. A person forms attitudes toward it and thereby derives social and personal choices like biotechnology adoption [ 16 , 18 ]. However, there is a lack of information on farmers’ biotechnology awareness, which would affect the prediction of acceptance and adoption rates and thus lead to ineffective policy formulation and implementation.…”