Three Nigerian universities and their role in agricultural development

supported three newly established Nigerian universities via three cooperating U.S. land grant universities - Ahmadu Bello University (Kansas State University), the University of Ife (the University of Wisconsin), and the University of Nigeria at Nsukka (Michigan State University). This study identifies the impacts of these projects. All three universities have expanded exponentially - from a few hundred students to 21,000 at Ahmadu Bello (including its non-degree granting schools), 13,000 at Ife, and 12,000 at Nsukka. Their brief history encompasses four eras of Nigerian history: the heady period of independence beginning in 1960; the 1967-70 civil war; the oil-boom years of the later 1970's; and the oil-bust period from the early 1980's to the present. Efforts to transfer the tripartite land-grant model (teaching, research, extension) to Nigeria had mixed success. Ahmadu Bello comes closest to the model in practice. Staff at the other two universities understand and appreciate the concept but have been limited in their ability to practice it. All three universities have adopted the model's teaching component, but only Ahmadu Bello, because it incorporated established Nigerian research institutes at its founding, has produced significant achievements in research and extension. Thus, while the universities have contributed to solving Nigeria's agricultural problems (e.g., through staff participation in state, federal, and parastatal commissions, the development of improved food crop varieties, and research in production economics and animal health), their impact (except at Ahmadu Bello) has been less than expected. Three factors seem to have determined the universities' impact: (1) the reluctance of government ministries to transfer research and extension responsibilities to the universities; (2) the failure of the universities' promotion and incentive systems to reward research and outreach by staff; and (3) the declining financial fortunes of the universities resulting from the sharp drop in oil prices in recent years. Several lessons were learned. (1) Of the three components of the U.S. land-grant model, teaching is the easiest to transfer. (2) Structural factors in many countries inhibit the development of relevant, problemsolving research and extension. (3) It is unrealistic to expect a university to be a major influence without a suitable incentive and reward system for its staff. (Author abstract, modified)