January 2016 - IITA News

Picture of Farmers shelling maize at Yohana Isaya’s farm during the postharvest training organized by the Africa RISING–NAFAKA scaling project in Ndurugumi village

Tanzania farmers save on labor and cut food losses

For 56-year old Yohana Isaya, a farmer from Ndurungumi village in Kongwa District, central Tanzania, maize farming was always a losing game: a stressful, but extremely important subsistence venture. He has to do something or how else would he feed his family? To begin with, shelling the maize harvest from his 5-acre plot was a…

Former IITA staff member gets prestigious pan-African award

NewAfrican―Pan-Africa’s best selling magazine has named John Godson, a former IITA staff member, one of the 100 most influential Africans in 2015. Godson was recognized for his laudable efforts to change Polish attitudes about Africa. The magazine wrote: The Nigerian has managed to accomplish one of the most interesting feats in the Diaspora. He became…

IITA appoints deputy directors

Three IITA scientists have been appointed to provide administrative support for the Research for Development (R4D) Directors in the East, Southern, and West Africa Hubs: Leena Tripathi, Plant Biotechnologist and country representative, Kenya for East Africa; Stephen Boahen, Legume System Agronomist and country representative for Mozambique for Southern Africa; and Michael Abberton, Head, Genetic Resources…

Picture of Participants at first ACAI Meeting in Ibadan

African Cassava Agronomy Initiative to change the fortunes of cassava farmers

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) project kicked off on 27 January, with plans to improve the livelihoods and incomes of cassava farmers in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, and DR Congo through research and tapping into and implementing best-bet agronomic practices. The project, which is led by IITA with funding support from the Bill &…

IITA clarifies position on 3.2 million Kshs received from the National Irrigation Board (NIB)

Recently a daily newspaper in Kenya wrote two articles that put IITA in a negative light in relation to monies paid to the institute by the National Irrigation Board of Kenya. The Institute wrote a right of reply to provide more details on the payment which was published on 27 January 2016. Below is an…

Picture of DG Sanginga and AfDB President Adesina

DG Sanginga leads CGIAR delegates to AfDB’s Feed Africa planning meeting

IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga led a CGIAR delegation comprising other DGs from AfricaRice, the International Livestock Research Institute, and the International Food Policy Research Institute, to a planning meeting on 21-22 January in Abidjan. The meeting was convened by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to discuss resolutions from AfDB’s High Level Conference on African…

Picture of Staff members having a cordial discussion in Ibadan.

Staff proud to work for IITA

A staff satisfaction survey undertaken by the IITA Human Resources Service (HRS) and Management in 2015 has revealed that members of staff are proud to work for the Institute. They ranked “pride in working for IITA” highest among other parameters. The survey also highlighted other key areas where the Institute is excelling as well as…

Ghana fetes farmers in a Farmers’ Day

IITA participated in celebrating and acknowledging the contributions of local farmers in Ghana last December. The National Farmers Day is a day of celebration and appreciation of the good work by the farmers and awarding of gifts to the farmers. This is celebrated every first Friday of December each year and includes fisherfolk and all…

A second New World hoverfly, Toxomerus - floralis (Fabricius) (Diptera: Syrphidae)

Discovery of a second New World hoverfly newly introduced into the Afrotropics

In the framework of collaboration between IITA and the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium, hoverflies preserved in IITA’s biodiversity center at Cotonou were recently studied using molecular biology techniques in support of morphological identification. Surprisingly some specimens from Benin and Cameroon could not be identified using existing morphological keys for Syrphidae of the…

Picture of IITA’s Uchenna Ene demonstrates the use of the cassava weeding machine to training participants.

IFAD/ IITA/HQCF value chain project provides Kwara farmers with a weeding machine

Young cassava farmers and outgrowers of Arogunjo Farm Limited, in Kwara State, Nigeria, were given a cassava weeding machine last December 2015 to ease the back-breaking work of removing weeds from their fields. The machine was donated by the IFAD/IITA High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) Project in collaboration with the IITA Cassava Weeds Management Project….