University-based agricultural research institutions in Nigeria are established to change the face of agriculture in Nigeria based on the recommendations of UNESCO. These institutes are affiliated to Federal Government owned universities and nationally mandated to undertake agricultural research. Authorship pattern is perceived as a behavioural study component that influences research output. From 2009 to 2018 authorship pattern was investigated to establish influence on collaboration and geographical spread of research output. The result shows that research output published contained more than one author, the highest number of authors per paper was those papers with four (234, 23.90%). On collaboration, two third of the paper 349 (41%) showed internal collaboration, the least was intra-institutional collaboration (23%) which suggest that inspite the related institutional mandates collaboration seldom take place among them, and should be blamed for research disconnect. Geographical spread showed large dissemination media outlet used to be traced in Africa (47.30%) and the least South America (4.6%). The study has facilitated understanding of areas needing intervention to sustain research output to include intra-institutional collaboration and the visibility of research beyond the continent of Africa.