The curtains of the 4th edition of the Excellence Days for Scientific Research and Innovation (JERSIC) 2013 have been drawn and eyes are now turned towards the future.
Organised under the theme “Scientific research and technology in the face of natural catastrophes in Cameroon: Challenges and prospects”, the 2013 JERSIC is said to have ended on a positive note. Participants exhibited to the fullest their research results and discussed at length in forums research challenges in the country with some of them receiving prizes in compensation for their research knowhow.
As one would expect, these are things that were expected to happen at this bi-annual event. But as Cameroon celebrates the milestone covered in research, the question remains, and this question has been on every lip several decades back; how do these results translate on the field? In effect, this is not supposed to be a rhetoric question. Research in the real sense of the word is the key to development and research results can only be considered valid if they are published and made useful on the field. The Minister of Scientific Research and Innovation, Madaleine Tchuinté has on several occasions hammered on this. Many other people have done same.
The question is, how then do we ensure that research results are taken to the field? Whose responsibility is it? When and who should shoulder the cost? From the look of things, the trouble with our research stems from the inability to provide an appropriate answer to these questions. Research, any Tom, Dick and Harry know, is not for the drawer. That is why one of the factors in compensating researchers at the JERSIC has been how far results have been implemented on the field. Considering the difficulties involved in putting into practical implementation research results, some Cameroonians think actors who have successfully done so equally deserved a prize. This reasoning seems logical, if one considers that translating research results on the field is not really the duty of researchers but that of individuals, groups and industries among others.
The exhibitions that took place in Yaounde from 23 to 25, July were quite revealing and many visitors could not understand why a country like Cameroon should continue to bask in poverty in the midst of such wonderful research prowess. In fact, the event was a rare attraction. While hailing government’s approach towards enhancing research, it is important to underscore the fact that the private sector in the country is long overdue in its sleep. Cameroonians are well noted for questioning government’s initiative towards boosting development effort in the country. This, of course is quite an easy question to ask. But the other dimension of the question needs to be asked too. Now that researchers have done their job and come out with results, what part has the private sector play to ensure they are effectively put into use?
The development of a nation is a collective endeavour and to say the least, the private sector has a greater part of the role to play. Groups, industries and financiers are in essence suppose to rush to research centres to ask for the newest development in order to help boost their projects. Cameroonians, many of whom are yet to understand, ought to know that research institutions, be they private or government-owned, are there to assist in improving the quality of what producers produce.
The role of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Development- IRAD, one of the main research institutions in the country is not to open plantations, neither is it to create seed multiplication farms. Its main role, even though, it might have been running sample nurseries, is to work in the laboratories and come out with innovations that can boost production. Once this has been done, it is left for the private sector to take the results to the field, multiply them and expand production. Perhaps these are some of the things that could be considered or measured during the fifth edition of JERSIC. This in essence, is the new research challenge for Cameroon.
