IITA News

Scientists show which genetic loci is associated with bunch weight in highland banana

Scientists have, for the first time, located the position of major quantitative trait loci associated with bunch weight and its component traits in Matooke, the East African Highland cooking banana. This is an important breakthrough in efforts to speed up breeding of improved high-yielding varieties for both food security and improved household incomes in the…

IITA participates in TICAD 7 in Japan

IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga participated in The Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) on 28–29 August, held in Yokohama, Japan. The TICAD was launched in 1993 by the Government of Japan, to promote Africa’s development, peace and security, through the strengthening of relations in multilateral cooperation and partnership, particularly with the country. Read more

IITA DG pays courtesy visit to Japanese government, MAFF, and MoFA Japan

In related news, Sanginga embarked on courtesy visits to MAFF and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). IITA Board Member, Dr Shuichi Asanuma, and Yam Agronomist, Dr Ryo Matsumoto, completed the IITA delegation. Mr Yoshihisa Hishinuma, Director-General, Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries Research Council Secretariat, and Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) President, Dr Masaru…

IITA yam breeding team visits yam processing company in Japan

The IITA yam improvement team consisting of Asrat Amele, Head of Yam Breeding, Patrick Adebola, Project Leader of AfricaYam, and Ryo Matsumoto, Yam Agronomist, visited the Maruko Foods yam processing factory in Japan together with IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga and IITA Board Member, Dr Shuichi Asanuma, on 27 August. Also in the delegation were…

AfricaYam holds activity meeting at IBRC

An AfricaYam project meeting was held with collaborators Dr Ryohei Terauchi, Lead Scientist at the Iwate Biotechnology Research Center (IBRC), and Dr Satoru Muranaka from Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). IBRC is one of the 11 partner Institutes of the AfricaYam project led by IITA. Terauchi invited scientists from IITA, Dr Patrick…

Sanginga visits IITA Accra

On 4 September, IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga visited the IITA-Accra office in Ghana to interact with staff members. The visit to the station coincided with the DG’s attendance at the 2019 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), which took place in Accra on 3–6 September. The DG also delivered a presentation there as an introduction…

IITA working on Africa’s first genome edited banana

The new frontier for agricultural innovation is genome editing and IITA is already leading the way by using the technology to improve several crops. Principal Scientist and Deputy Director of IITA East Africa Hub, Dr Leena Tripathi revealed this during the Third Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication Symposium (ABBC), which took place in Pretoria South Africa,…

IITA launches STEP at planning workshop

A 3-day planning workshop for the Start Them Early Program (STEP) is ongoing at IITA Headquarters, Ibadan. The purpose of the workshop is to launch STEP and make plans for its operations in the next one year. STEP is currently operating in Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Nigeria, with the vision of transforming African…

Oyo State Government commits to transform agriculture

The Executive Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, joined state officials and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector at a retreat in Cotonou, Republic of Benin to chart a course for transforming agriculture in the State. The meetings, which took place from 15 to 19 August, were to design an agribusiness implementation plan for Oyo…

IITA strengthens capacity of regulators to monitor scaling out of Aflasafe in Tanzania

To pave way for the mass production and market entry of Aflasafe TZ01—the all-natural, safe, and effective product for aflatoxin control in Tanzania, IITA and the Ministry of Agriculture, organized a three-day training workshop for regulators in the country to increase their knowledge on the technology, how it works, and their role in scaling it…