LEVELS AND DRIVERS OF VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE CHANGE BY IFAD-VCDP FARMERS IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Although a number of studies have been carried out on climate change but the levels of vulnerability of farmers and factors affecting vulnerability of the farmers to this topical issue have not been sufficiently determined in the study area, giving rise to this study. The study was conducted in Benue and Niger States involving 483 IFAD-VCDP farmers. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed, however only 96.6% were completed and returned. As such the data analysis was based on 483 farmers under International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) from 10 participating Local Government of the two States. Both primary and secondary data were utilized for this study. The primary data were collected via questionnaire administered by trained enumerators, while the secondary data were collected from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, vulnerability index and Beta regression model. The farmers were aware of eighteen climate change variables with assorted levels of occurrences. There was moderate vulnerable to climate change in the study area necessitating the need of enhanced awareness and capacity building to upgrade their home-grown adaptation strategies. Poverty status (3.0) was found to increase vulnerability while adaptive capacity (-23.8), age (-0.1), education (-0.7), gender (-2.8), distance to market (-0.1), livestock ownership (-0.4), social amenities (-1.9), total livelihood activities (-2.4) and membership of association (-3.8) decreased vulnerability by the percentages indicated in parenthesis. The study therefore recommended that the level of literacy among farm households and availability of social amenities should be critical issues when formulating climate adaptation policies and developmental issues. Government and NGOs should install processes that can enhance the adaptive capacity of the farmers

The role of industry and economic context in open innovation

Using innovation survey data on a sample of UK manufacturing firms, Laursen and Salter (2006) documented a non-monotonous relationship between external search strategies and firm-level innovative performance. We find partially similar results in a combined sample of Nigerian manufacturing and service firms. A major discrepancy is that external search appears not to matter for radical innovation in our sample. Based on multiple research streams including economics of innovation and development economics, we develop and test new hypotheses on sectoral differences and the role of the economic context. We find that in a developing context, a wider range of innovation obstacles implies broader external search and more intense obstacles require deeper search. We explore the implications of these results for management research and theory

Interação universidade-empresa no Brasil: evidências do Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa do CNPq

O presente trabalho investiga a interação universidade-empresa no Brasil por meio de informações disponíveis no Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa do CNPq coletadas no Censo 2002. Apesar dos problemas inerentes à base de dados, estas informações fornecem um panorama recente da interação entre universidades e empresas no País. Os resultados encontrados apontam que as relações de colaboração são concentradas em termos de áreas do conhecimento dos grupos de pesquisa, instituições às quais os grupos estão vinculados e setor de atividade das empresas. As interações mais freqüentes entre os agentes foram as atividades de Engenharia não-rotineira, de Consultoria Técnica e Treinamento de pessoal. À medida que estes resultados forem ao encontro das especificidades do Sistema Nacional de Inovação presente no País, incentivos podem ser dados com vistas a aumentar a transferência do conhecimento acadêmico para as empresas.<br>The present work investigates university-industry interactions in Brazil through available data from CNPq's Research Groups Directory collected in Census 2002. Although limitations intrinsic to information collected, the database supplies some evidence from recent university-industry interactions in Brazil. Collaborative relations are restricting to some members, and the agents involved are concentrated in both sides. The more frequent relationships were no routine engineering, consultancy and trainament. This result were in accordance with Brazilian's NSI, but also suggests that's much more can be done fostering academic knowledge transference to firms in the country