Commercialising research output can create a lot of job opportunities- Dr Gadzirayi
On Wednesday, 21 February 2018, Dr Christopher Gadzirayi delivered his presentation during a seminar held at the University of Venda (Univen), focusing on the ‘Commercialization of Research Output from Higher and Tertiary Institutions’. The seminar was hosted by the School of Agriculture as part of a collaborative project between the Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe and the Univen’s Department of Animal Science, which is co-funded through a CSIR/SANBio/BioFISA II Partnership Programme.
In his address, Dr Gadzirayi said, “Commercialising research is really not different, in principle, from commercialising anything, except perhaps that it is more difficult in practice because of the steps required to turn basic research into something practical. Another reason would be because we will be looking for a market for a product, rather than designing a product to fit an established, or obvious market in most cases”.
Dr Gadzirayi said there is need to translate knowledge into products and services. “We have a lot from research output in our shelves but we are not commercialising it. We can reduce unemployment by commercialising our research outputs. We must add value to our communities. If we commercialise our research, we can create a lot of jobs because this will bring out new entrepreneurs,” Dr Gadzirayi added.
Dr Gadzirayi emphasised that the reason behind commercialising research is to drive Africa’s socio-economic transformation, adding value to communities, engender inclusivity of the research output from universities in student entrepreneurship and generation of spin-off companies.
Dr Gadzirayi said commercialisation of research is done through selling of patent rights, products and licensing Intellectual Property Rights among many other ways.
When giving the background of the project, Dr Gadzirayi said the project seeks to commercialize an affordable, viable, sustainable and competitive chicken feed within Zimbabwe and South Africa. “The production of commercial poultry meat is expanding in the SADC region at 58.6% for Zimbabwe and 66.4% for South Africa. There is tremendous scope and opportunity for the poultry industry to make profit, but this is adversely affected by constant increases in the prices of protein feed sources,” said Dr Gadzirayi.
Dr Gadzirayi also added that the overall objective of the project is to commercialize sustainable broiler chicken feed with Moringa oleifera as a partial substitute for soya cake in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He said “this will help to produce commercially low cost chicken feed, reduce the use of synthetic feed additives, penetrate the chicken feed market, improve health performance of broilers and improve the quality and taste of broiler meat”.
Dr Gadzirayi is from the Department of Agricultural Economics, Education and Extension in the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science, at Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe.
Dr Christopher Gadzirayi has published more than 50 research articles, a text book on supervisory management and two book chapters on ICTs in Agriculture and Worldwide innovations in Extension. He is a specialist in Animal Production, Education and Extension, with a special interest in the commercialisation of University research outputs. He is currently on a month-long academic and research visit to Univen’s
Department of Animal Science as part of a collaborative project co-funded through a CSIR/SANBio/BioFISA II Partnership Programme.
Prof Mchau says marketing research outputs is very important
When commenting on Dr Gadzirayi’s presentation, the Dean of the School of Agriculture, Prof Godwin Mchau, said marketing is very important in order to be successful in everything.
Issued by:
Department of Communications & Marketing
University of Venda
Tel: (015) 962 8525
Date: 23 February 2018
