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American Phytopathological Society honors IITA scientist with Fellowship

American Phytopathological Society honors IITA scientist as a Fellow

IITA Principal Plant Pathologist Ranajit Bandyopadhyay has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society (APS). He will receive the award in July 2021 during the APS annual meeting. APS grants this honor only to a few members to recognize distinguished contributions to plant pathology. Fellow recognition is based on significant contributions in…

GIZ–GIAE and IITA target job creation and increased maize and cassava productivity in Nigeria

The Green Innovation Centre for the Agriculture and Food Sector Program (GIAE) – Nigeria is launching an 18-month project to boost maize and cassava production and create jobs for youth and women in the value chains. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) implements GIAE on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation…

African Yam Bean (AYB): Rehabilitating a leguminous crop with many uses

To revitalize underutilized crops in Africa, the “Bean-preneur” team organized exploratory interviews with African Yam Bean (AYB) growers and non-AYB growers in Nigeria to identify its cultivation and utilization challenges. They also used the opportunity to create more awareness about AYB’s economic and nutritional benefits among farmers and other stakeholders. In the southwestern part of…

Food security: Scaling innovation towards banana production in Rwanda

To improve food security in banana production in Rwanda, IITA has commenced a project titled “Multiplatform delivery of co-developed tools for national control and prevention of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) in Rwanda: Scaling innovation for enhanced Banana production and Food Security – ICT4BXW@Scale ” In Rwanda, banana is the leading staple food and source of…

Research finds no basis for farmers’ negative perception of the quality of fertilizers in Tanzania

Soil fertility and nutrient management are crucial factors in crop production; however, fertilizer adoption in Tanzania (and indeed Africa) remains below the recommended rate contributing to poor crop yields and poverty. This is partly due to farmers’ persistent suspicion that the quality of fertilizers in the market is sub-standard. However, a recent study titled “Misperceived…

IITA holds Climate Smart Agriculture awareness session for local-level policymakers

As part of efforts to ensure sustainability and scalability of efforts to build capacity in Tanzania to respond to the challenges posed by climate change to agriculture, IITA organized a series of awareness creation sessions for councilors and other district-level planners on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) planning and budgeting. The team from the USAID-funded Building Capacity…

Farmers recount the benefits of AKILIMO in cassava production

The outgrower farmers of Psaltry International Limited (PIL) have started experiencing the positive impact of the AKILIMO tools from the African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI). Multiple success stories have emerged in relation to the use of the tools. Farmers from Ado Awaye in Iseyin Local Government of Oyo State under the outgrower scheme of Psaltry…

Visiting nematologist receives Schroth Faces of the Future Award

Kanan Saikai, a visiting scholar at IITA-Nairobi from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science, working on nematodes under the supervision of Danny Coyne, has received the Schroth Faces of the Future Award 2021. The award is given to early-career scientists to present their research and speculate on the future directions of their discipline. The…

Study shows way to influence youth performance in agripreneurship

To address the challenge of unemployment in Africa, it is imperative that governments across the continent tackle factors responsible for impeding youth engagement in agribusiness. There has been much controversial discourse about whether the youth population surge across the African continent is a ticking time-bomb or a blessing in disguise. A study under the IFAD-sponsored…

How gender norms prevent women from using technology to shell maize in Tanzania

“Shelling maize by hand is an easy task and should be left to women. Men should do tough jobs”, said an agro-dealer from Central Tanzania in 2018 during an interview. Gundula Fischer, a gender expert at IITA, picked up on this topic; her research tells a different story. Fischer investigated the drudgery of maize shelling…