The Role of Research and Findings Dissemination in Industry Development in Kenya: The Floriculture Industry in Perspective.

This paper provides an incisive look at the link between research findings dissemination and industry development. The focus is precisely the floriculture industry in Kenya. The large flower growers (who dominate flower business) are private companies who are interested in keeping trade secrets to ensure their survival and competitiveness in the market. On the other hand, the local research system consists mostly of public institutions, such as, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the universities whose mandate includes service to the nation and are obligated to disseminate any information that would help improve the livelihoods of the general populace. The public research system therefore considers such information, knowledge and technologies as public goods. This divergent approach to information and knowledge acquisition, sharing and use undermines a close interaction and sharing of knowledge and information between the industry and the public research institutions. Moreover, the slow, bureaucratic procedures in the public research institutes undermine their ability to respond to urgent farmers’ requests. Farmers’ needs (such as disease outbreaks) are usually urgent and require immediate solutions. The delays from the local public research system forces farmers to seek solutions from international research establishments. More often, research priorities in public institutions are set by the scientific community with little attempt to involve the beneficiaries in priority setting. This tendency has led to research institutions being isolated from the immediate needs of society. This approach is often motivated by the assumption that the scientists and researchers know what the farmers want. As such, research often ignores farmers’ perceptions hence the outcome often does not satisfy farmers’ needs.  The paper concludes by highlighting the need for more focused research  and direct dissemination of findings  to  farmers, more so those in the SME sector who are often disadvantaged when it comes to adoption of new ideas

Industrial conflict in Nigerian universities : a case study of the disputes between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN)

ABSTRACT This thesis examines the prolonged industrial conflict between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). This thesis provides a historical and sociological account of the origins, development, primary causes, and effects of this industrial conflict in Nigerian universities. Data was sourced from both primary and secondary (documentary) sources and analysed using comparative historical analysis, theoretical analysis and secondary analysis. The thesis concludes that the ongoing industrial conflict between ASUU and the FGN can be understood as having the features of a class dispute and that it entails both economic and political factors. Besides domestic factors directly affecting the disputes (e.g. low wages and conditions of service, poor and erratic funding, rising student population and weak institutional autonomy), this study revealed that external factors (particularly the effects of Nigeria’s macroeconomic policies) contributed to the intensity of the disputes. Moreover, it is argued that historical antecedents, especially the colonial legacies of ethnicity, regionalism, weak legitimacy, corruption and autocracy have helped to shape the growth and development of the higher education system in Nigeria, and therefore of these disputes. Regarding the effects of the crisis, findings reveal that the poor emolument of academic staff coupled with the deterioration in teaching and learning facilities have contributed to the ‘brain drain’ from Nigerian universities, that is, the migration of staff, students and other professionals from the country in search of better opportunities abroad. Consequently, this thesis concludes that the factors affecting the industrial disputes between the ASUU and the FGN have been largely propelled by historical, economic and political factors which have become institutionalised and embedded in the Nigerian polity so that the disputes will continue to be difficult to resolve