Bulletin story Archives - Page 41 of 138

Oyo Governor commissions IITA Projects

Former President of Nigeria and IITA Goodwill Ambassador, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR, together with the Governor of Oyo State, HE Senator Abiola Ajimobi, commissioned two key projects at IITA, Ibadan, on 25 May. These include the Agricultural Transformation Building dedicated to research and delivery of innovations to farmers across Nigeria and Africa in general, and…

Nigerian farmers get free advisory services on cassava production via mobile phone

Nigerian farmers can now access extension and advisory services related to weed control, best planting practices, and other aspects of cassava production on their cell phones free of charge, thanks to the African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI). The mobile telephony service is powered by Airtel using the 3-2-1 Service of Viamo. Farmers with Airtel sim…

Danish company visits IITA-Abuja, seeks partnership for sourcing shea nut in Nigeria

To sustain effective collection and utilization of shea nut for the benefit of key stakeholders, especially women, a two-member delegation comprising Mr Guillaume Noirot, Sourcing and Logistics Manager, AAK Benin Republic and Mr Arne Strauss, Project Manager, AAK Denmark, visited IITA-Abuja Station on 18 March. The visit was to explore opportunities for partnership with IITA…

IITA Scientists carryout preliminary bird survey in Benin Republic

A survey was carried out by IITA scientists in Drabo Forest Reserve (DRF), Benin Republic between 26 February and 4 March 2019, to assess the species diversification of birds. The survey was carried out in DRF due to its location in the Dahomey Gap as both forest and savanna bird species. In addition to bird…

Akilimo Dashboard: ACAI develops data management system for field activities and validation of agronomy advice tools

ACAI has developed a dashboard that will be used to curate project activity data and provide a real-time summary of results from field activities as entered by extension agents. The Akilimo Dashboard is a suite of code in R language combined with the Open Data Kit (ODK) data collection tools to form a data processing…

IITA Board of Trustees spring meeting held in Arusha, Tanzania

The Board of Trustees of IITA convened in Arusha, Tanzania, from 6 to 10 May, for their annual spring meeting. This was to enable them to familiarize themselves with the Institute’s research activities in that part of the country as well as conducting their usual business of keeping abreast of developments at the Institute and guiding its…

Strengthening collaboration between IITA and NM-AIST

The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) and IITA have renewed their partnership after the heads of the two institutions signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 6 May 2019 that spells out the terms of the collaboration. In the MoU, which is an update of a previous one signed in…

ACAI combines machine learning, field trial data, and crop models to optimize fertilizer recommendations

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) site-specific fertilizer recommendation (FR) tool is built to provide optimized and economically beneficial recommendations to cassava growers. The tool considers local soil data, weather conditions, prices of available fertilizers and cassava root produce, planting and harvest dates, and the investment capacity of the farmer. ACAI has been conducting nutrient…

IITA Scientist speaks on the outcome of applying new tools in cowpea breeding

IITA Cowpea Breeder, Ousmane Boukar, has laid out the details of activities, challenges, and successes of the cowpea breeding project from 2016 to 2018. He outlined these in a presentation titled: “Applying new tools to cowpea genetic improvement,” which was part of the contract review seminar held at IITA-Ibadan on 11 March. He also spoke…

Biodiversity focus: The Straw-colored Fruit Bat (Eidolon helvum)

The Straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) is a rapidly declining mammal and has been classified as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Despite being an adaptable species, widespread deforestation and hunting for food and medicinal uses are the main causes of declining populations. Mainly found south of the…