IITA News

Vox pop: What are your impressions about R4D Week?

Paul Dontsop-Nguezet, SARD-SC Project Impact Economist, IITA Bukavu This year’s R4D was special and an improvement to the 2013 R4D in different aspects. The poster arrangements, the organization, in terms of logistics was a bit more impressive. And this kind of arrangement in terms of presentation, organization, and the content of presentations were also impressive….

Bruce Coulman addressing staff and scientists during the town hall meeting in Ibadan.

From the Board of Trustees: IITA’s results… very impressive

During a town hall meeting that brought R4D Week to its climax, Bruce Coulman, Chair, Board of Trustees, IITA, said that despite the biting cuts in the core funding of CGIAR, IITA’s success in 2015 was impressive. “When the Board meets, we have an agenda where we review all aspects of all the Institute’s operations….

Charity Mutegi, East Africa Coordinator for Aflasafe and one-time winner of the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application.

Women scientists can only be as productive as their work environment permits

How do you feel as a young female scientist working in a male-dominated field? It is a good experience that has its challenges largely because the society has not gotten there yet in terms appreciating young women scientists. In many instances in the broader community, women have to keep proving themselves, and going the extra…

DG Sanginga reassuring scientists that the Institute is properly positioned to achieve more impacts.

Key voices: We have done it before, we will do it again!

Why is IITA repositioning its science to achieve its mission of reducing hunger and poverty? Africa is changing. Take Nigeria, for example. Everybody realizes now that crude oil stocks are going down and people are not even buying Nigeria’s oil on the international market…when I visited the Governor of Osun State last week, he told…

Andreas Gisel briings a live cassava plant for his poster presentation.

NRM, teamwork vital to achieving IITA’s mission

“My take home message is that IITA will need a multi-pronged NRM approach, and probably more importantly teamwork, if we are to achieve our mission of returning 7.5 million hectares of degraded agricultural land back into sustainable use.” This was the focus of the presentation of Bernard Vanlauwe, Regional Director for Central Africa and Director…

Robert Asiedu presents on IITA’s biotechnology and genetic improvement strategy

It is not only about how many improved crop varieties we have developed…

There is in no doubt that IITA has been involved in the improvement and subsequent release of various improved crop varieties across sub-Saharan Africa. However, the focus of the Institute especially when it comes to its biotechnology strategy and crop improvement strategy is now shifting with an eagle-like focus on what impact the already released…

David Chikoye gives an overview on the status of research on plant production and health.

We are alert and ready for new plant pests and diseases!

Crop pests and diseases cause significant yield losses to smallholder farmers within sub-Saharan Africa. More than 16% of farm productivity losses are attributable to crop pests; this is expected to get worse with the effects of climate change in the region. What is IITA’s response to these challenges? Is the Institute already investing resources to…

Tracking our impact and bringing the social into our science: Social Science team

How will we track IITA’s progress in achieving its current ten-year mission of lifting 11 million people out of poverty and rehabilitating 7.5 million hectares? Will the transformed banana that are resistant to Banana Xanthomonas Wilt, which have been developed by IITA researchers and partners in the Great Lakes region and are poised for release…

Elizabeth Parkes, Cassava Breeder, highlights major research breakthroughs.

R4D Week 2015 focuses on science and relevant issues

IITA scientists from all over sub-Saharan Africa met in the Institute’s headquarters in Ibadan for R4D Week, 22-27 November, to discuss breakthroughs in science, the progress in agricultural research, and how IITA’s impacts can be better achieved to meet its goals. R4D Week 2015 featured keynote presentations by Nteranya Sanginga, IITA Director General, on IITA’s…

Picture of DG Nteranya Sanginga (left) on the debate floor with Eleni Gabre-Madhin (moderator) and Jim Sumberg (right)

IITA DG wins debate on engaging youth in agribusiness

Africa’s statistics on youth unemployment can be overwhelming but to a visionary it is an untapped resource with the potential of changing the status quo of poverty and hunger which are often synonymous with the continent. The great challenge of youth unemployment can also be seen as an opportunity for them to become the engine…