Analysis of Stakeholders’participation in Agricultural Innovation Systems in the Oyo State of Nigeria

Abstract

To solve the bottleneck of food insecurity while ensuring food sustainability as the nation's (Nigeria) population increases, agricultural innovation systems that are nonlinear, integrated, holistic, and trans-disciplinary which accentuate diverse stakeholder participation approaches are key factors that proffer a solution to the challenges. This document evaluates the analysis of stakeholders' participation in agricultural innovation systems (AIS) in Oyo State of Nigeria. It specifically examines the involvement, interactions, interdependencies, and interrelationships amongst the array of diverse stakeholders in their linkage activities of agricultural innovation systems to improve productivity. The data for this study were elicited by a pre-tested structured questionnaire from primary sources while a multi-stage sampling technique and purposive sampling method were used to select a sample size of 400 respondents which included farmers (222), extension agents (85), researchers (30), input dealers (33) and agro non-governmental organizations (30). The IBM SPSS was used in analyzing the data obtained from study objectives using frequencies, percentages, cluster bar charts, means, and standard deviation. The stepwise binary logistic regression and the Chi-square were used to analyze the association between demographic characteristics of stakeholders and their participation in the linkage activities in AIS; demographic variables and factors influencing stakeholders’ participation in the agricultural innovation system (AIS); as well as demographic variables and constraints facing stakeholders on their participation in the agricultural innovation system. The results of the study revealed that the respondents were predominantly male, married and with a mean age of fewer 50 years while they had over 10 years of work experience and got their information mostly from workshops/ seminars through stakeholders’ collaboration and personal experience. 5 The linkage activities in AIS amongst the stakeholders were strong while, the majority of them strongly agreed that stakeholders’ collaborative relationship enhances their participation, knowledge generation, and effective communication strategy. Besides, they revealed the constraints they mostly faced in their participation in the agricultural innovation systems were limited resources, poor communication among stakeholders and inadequate finance among other existing constraints. Likewise, from the Chi-square analysis, the variable “age” had dependency (at 5% level) on the participation in the linkage activities of AIS between the extension agents and input leaders, and between extension agents and farmers. The logistic regression showed that the variable “currently studying for a higher degree” had a significant effect (at 5% level) on the participation in the linkage activities of AIS between farmers and researchers. According to the results of the logistic regression, only farmers that posses a master's degree from the variable “highest educational qualification” had a significant effect (at 5% level) on the participation in the linkage activities of AIS between them and extension agents. From the regression analysis, the independent variables that include the “highest educational qualification” and “source of information”(at a 5% level ) had a significant impact on the factors that influence stakeholders' participation in AIS (the dependent variables). To enhance large-scale production and commercialization, stakeholders should implement interactive, constructive, and comprehensive participatory approaches, with input from all participants in the value chain. An investment budget needs to be set aside for role player training necessary to improve capacity building and information sharing on agricultural innovation systems. Enabling frameworks should be put in place to support relevant policies for stakeholder participatory techniques. In addition, strategic initiatives that encourage cooperation and collaboration should be implemented to strengthen relationships between stakeholders.