IITA News

IITA and partners organize seed fair in Kano and Jigawa

From 10 to 15 June, IITA and partners organized a joint seed fair in the northern Nigerian Kano and Jigawa states. The seed fair aimed to create awareness among farmers on the availability of seeds of improved crop varieties and help them to access quality seeds for enhanced productivity. Additional objectives are to provide market…

YIIFSWA II hands over project outputs to GoSeed for post-project sustainability

The Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa Phase II (YIIFSWA II) project has handed over some project outputs to IITA GoSeed to ensure the post-project sustainability of the technologies. In a short ceremony on 14 July, the project turned over 42 plant form temporary immersion bioreactors (TIS) and 40 plantlets, as…

A life-changing experience with I-Youth – Series 1

The Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth) project has completed year 1 activities across various project components in Kaduna, Kano, and Lagos states. IITA is implementing the I-Youth project in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, cutting across six components: agricultural orientation, agribusiness internships, technical internships, young farmers’ cohort, Start Them Early Program (STEP), and e-commerce. The…

AGRA Board chair, former Ethiopia PM, and Tanzania President tour IITA-Tanzania

IITA-Tanzania recently hosted the Board Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), former Ethiopian Prime Minister H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, and the former Tanzania President H.E. Jakaya Kikwete, who is also an AGRA board member and senior staff of the organization. H.E. Desalegn was in the country to familiarize himself with AGRA’s…

IITA DG encourages teachers to create agribusiness enterprises

The impact of the IITA youth program Start Them Early Program (STEP) is far reaching; it goes beyond focusing on students alone and influences teachers to make the right entrepreneurial decisions to generate more income for themselves. The communities, by extension, enjoy the intervention because of the numerous benefits from the program, including the provision…

I want to become a classy farmer—STEP club member

Oluwadamilare Opadotun is the secretary of the Start Them Early Program (STEP) club at Vetland Senior Grammar School in Lagos. She was one of the panelists that discussed teachers’ and students’ experiences in teaching and learning agriculture during the I-Youth Connect conference, organized by the Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth) project in Lagos recently. The…

Study identifies new sources of resistance to Black Sigatoka in banana

A study looking for additional sources of resistance to the deadly fungal disease of banana, black Sigatoka, has identified 11 new accessions that are potential sources of resistance to Pseudocercospora fijiensis. These accessions are from a collection of banana germplasm maintained by IITA at Sendusu, Wakiso District in Uganda. They can be used to broaden the…

IITA Forest Center staff named among top 100 Young African Conservation Leaders

IITA Forest Center Manager and Conservation Biologist, Adewale G. Awoyemi, has been honored as one of the Top 100 Young African Conservation Leaders. The conservationists were selected from 23 African countries in the first-ever Top 100 list for Africa. The award is a collaboration between the Africa Alliance of YMCAs, the World Organization of the…

Credit access impacts productivity among Tanzanian youth agripreneurs

Horticulture, an aspect of agriculture practiced by millions of youths across Africa, has helped improve the livelihoods of a vast majority living in poverty and struggling to find employment. The continent hosts the world’s youngest population of around 200 million youths aged 15–24 years, with many of them in rural areas engaging in farming activities…

Experts share opportunities in the Nigerian agricultural sector

On 5 July, the United Nations Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) in Nigeria launched the maiden edition of an agribusiness Master class series, themed “The Business of Agriculture in Nigeria”. The series educates Nigerians on the immediate, mid-, and long-term opportunities for Agri-Entrepreneurship in Nigeria to help potential entrepreneurs and investors understand its broad dynamics…