ACCEPTANCE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS BY SOME SELECTED AGRICULTURAL SCIENTISTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study determined the acceptance of Genetically Modified Crops (GMCs) by Agricultural Scientists in Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 240 respondents with the use of validated questionnaire. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics tools such as Frequency count, Table, percentage, mean, charts, histogram, bar chart, pie chart, mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistics such as, Chi–Square, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses stated for the study. The findings revealed that male (64.6%) dominated the population of scientist/researchers. The mean age of scientist/researchers was 38 years and 78.4% of the respondents were married. The dominant religion was Christianity (79.2%). All scientists in the study area were well educated with Ph.D degree (40.8%) having the highest formal education. Over 70% of them are engage in teaching and research as their core responsibility as scientist. However, only 22.1% of them regularly attended conferences. Despite this about (87.1%) of the scientist indicated their awareness of GMCs technology. Notably (54.2%) of the respondents had no awareness of the field trial of the cultivation. The general awareness of the technology was slightly high, above half (52.5%) of the scientist were rated high in GMCs technology. Although, scientist recorded high favorable perception of GMCs merits and demerits. Respondents had high disposition towards acceptance of GMCs use, thus recommending the GMCs technology for farmers adoption in Nigeria. Although the level of involvement of scientists identify was low. Scientist in the study area had high disposition towards acceptance of GMCs. All factors considered to influence respondents from adopting GMCs in the study area were found to be serious with low awareness of the technology having the highest mean score of 3.25. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) revealed that age (r = 0.26; p≤0.01) and years of education (r = 0.19; p≤0.05) significantly correlated with the perception of the acceptance of GMCs in the study area. Also, sex ( 2  = 20.4; p≤0.01), marital status ( 2  = 233.1; p≤0.01), religion ( 2  = 233.3; p≤0.01), occupation ( 2  = 331.5; p≤0.01), conference attendance ( 2  = 112.7; p≤0.01), international conference attendance ( 2  = 71.2; p≤0.01) and awareness of GMCs ( 2  = 132.0; p≤0.01) were the selected socio-economic characteristics that significantly associated with the respondents’ perception about acceptance of GMCs at 0.05 level of significance. There was a significant difference in the perception about the acceptance of GMCs among the various categories of respondents with the F-value of 5.86 df (239) and a (p-value of 0.000). Differences existed between Biotechnologist (Mean = 118.33) and University based scientists (Mean = 139.77) and Research Institutes (Mean = 144.25) at 0.05 level of significance. Similarly, experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and ADP had similar perception towards GMCs technologies, although they recorded the least perception about acceptance of GMCs. The study recommends that National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) and Nigeria government should be fast in the distribution of GM seeds that have been tested, accepted and proven safe for human consumption and commercialization for Nigeria farmers’ adoption and other end users through Ministry of Agriculture/ADP and other relevant institutional bodies.