IITA News

IITA working on Africa’s first genome edited banana

The new frontier for agricultural innovation is genome editing and IITA is already leading the way by using the technology to improve several crops. Principal Scientist and Deputy Director of IITA East Africa Hub, Dr Leena Tripathi revealed this during the Third Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication Symposium (ABBC), which took place in Pretoria South Africa,…

Oyo State Government commits to transform agriculture

The Executive Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, joined state officials and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector at a retreat in Cotonou, Republic of Benin to chart a course for transforming agriculture in the State. The meetings, which took place from 15 to 19 August, were to design an agribusiness implementation plan for Oyo…

IITA strengthens capacity of regulators to monitor scaling out of Aflasafe in Tanzania

To pave way for the mass production and market entry of Aflasafe TZ01—the all-natural, safe, and effective product for aflatoxin control in Tanzania, IITA and the Ministry of Agriculture, organized a three-day training workshop for regulators in the country to increase their knowledge on the technology, how it works, and their role in scaling it…

FMARD and World Bank’s APPEALS project seeks IITA collaboration

A team from the Agro-processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) project’s National Coordinating Office (NCO) and Lagos Project Office, visited the IITA Headquarters in Ibadan on 28 August. The purpose of the visit was to explore possible areas of collaboration with IITA. APPEALS is a project of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture funded…

IITA takes part in annual national farmers’ exhibition in Tanzania

From 1 August, IITA joined tens of hundreds of stakeholders in the agriculture sector in Tanzania that took part in this year’s annual farmers’ exhibition dubbed Nane Nane, which means “Eight Eight”. IITA exhibited its technologies and innovations at both the national event, which was held in Simiyu District, Northern Eastern Tanzania and at regional…

CDO organizes training on R programming for statistical analysis

IITA Capacity Development Office (CDO) facilitated a 4-day training on “Statistical analysis using R programming from 27 to 30 August.” The training taught participants about ‘R’, the commonly used statistical package for data analysis. The trainees were IITA staff and partners from Abuja, Ghana, Ibadan, Kano, and Mali, who have hands-on roles in managing data….

APPEALS project team from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture seeks to partner with IITA

A team from the Agro-processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) National Coordinating Office (NCO) and Lagos Project Office, visited IITA, Ibadan on 28 August. The purpose of the visit was to explore possible areas of collaboration with IITA. Heather Akanni, the National Women and Youth Livelihood Specialist of APPEALS, who led the team…

IITA to participate in TICAD 7 and MAFF-JIRCAS Symposium in Japan

IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga will be taking part in The Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) scheduled to take place in Yokohama City 28–30 August. Sanginga will be joining global leaders from different countries and organizations as they deliberate on ways to advance Africa’s development through people, technology, and innovation. The…

Biotechnology Society of Nigeria to improve Africa’s agricultural system

The Biotechnology Society of Nigeria (BSN) held its 32nd Annual International Conference at IITA-Ibadan on 18–22 August. The conference assembled people from mainstream biotechnology and related disciplines to discuss ways to enhance food security in sub-Saharan Africa through biotechnology. BSN celebrated 38 years since its inception on 11 August 1981 at the University of Jos….

ENABLE TAAT engages Togolese youth in agribusiness opportunities

As part of its effort in extending agribusiness opportunities to more youth in Africa, ENABLE-TAAT, the youth enabler compact of the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) in collaboration with the Togolese government, organized a 4-day comprehensive training for trainers at Centre Pilote des Techniques Agricoles du Togo (CPTA), in Lomé, Togo 11–14 June. The…