IITA News

IITA DG Sanginga awarded Doctor Honoris Causa for visionary leadership in historic ceremony

KU Leuven has awarded IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga with the prestigious Doctor Honoris Causa. VLIR-UOS (The Flemish Interuniversity Council – University Development Cooperation) hosted the ceremony in Brussels, Belgium on 15 May as part of celebrations marking its twentieth anniversary this year. History was made as this was the first time five recipients were…

IITA Scientist Julius Adewopo wins an international award!

Dr Julius Adewopo, a geodata scientist working IITA-Rwanda, has won 2019 Agropolis Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food, in the “Young Promising Scientist” category. Dr Julius Adewopo heads the project titled ICT4BXW in Rwanda, which focuses on the use of ICT for advancing the prevention and control of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt in…

IITA DG Sanginga awarded Doctor Honoris Causa for visionary leadership in historic ceremony

DG Sanginga conferred doctor of honoris causa by KU Leuven, Belgium

IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga will, today, receive the degree of doctor of honoris causa from KU Leuven. The award will be conferred on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of VLIR-UOS, an organization that supports partnerships between higher education institutions in Flanders and the South. Prof Luc Sels, Rector of KU Leuven, said that the…

IITA hosts Australia Awards symposium on irrigation and water resource management

Irrigation specialists from Australia, Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria gathered for a symposium at IITA headquarters on 28 March, as part of the Australia Awards Africa short course on Irrigation and Water Resources Management for Agriculture (IWRM). The Australia Awards, funded by the Australian government and managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, offers…

Project to improve nutritional value of plantain launched in Cameroon, Gabon, and Nigeria

Project to improve nutritional value of plantain launches in Cameroon, Gabon, and Nigeria

IITA in partnership with the University of Buea, Cameroon; Institut de Recherches Agronomiques et Forestieres (IRAF), Gabon; and the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Nigeria have launched a new project that aims to enhance the nutritive quality of plantain in the three countries. The launch ceremony of the project, which is funded by the African…

IITA hosts STMA 2019 Annual Planning Meeting

A 3-day planning meeting was carried out from 24 to 26 April to review project implementation progress and present work plans for the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project activities in 2019. National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) and universities in Benin, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria are implementing the STMA project, which aims at contributing…

Interventions to Enable African Rural Youth participation in agribusiness record more success

African governments and development partners such as IITA, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and others, have devised ways of engaging youth in agribusiness to reduce unemployment and increase standards of living, especially in rural areas. These are outlined in the recently published journal article, “African Rural Youth Engagement in Agribusiness: Achievements, Limitations, and…

Extension workers and agribusinesses receive aflatoxin management training in Ghana’s Ashanti and Eastern regions

It was moment of learning, capacity strengthening, and networking for participants at the regional training of trainers (ToT) workshop held in Ghana’s Ashanti and Eastern regional capitals of Kumasi and Koforidua in March 2019. As part of its Aflasafe technology transfer strategy, IITA, in partnership with the Green Innovation Center (GIC) of GIZ and Ghana’s…

IITA Board of Trustees spring meeting held in Arusha, Tanzania

The Board of Trustees of IITA convened in Arusha, Tanzania, from 6 to 10 May, for their annual spring meeting. This was to enable them to familiarize themselves with the institute’s research activities in that part of the country as well as conducting their usual business of keeping abreast of developments at the Institute and…

Cassava farmers in Tanzania to benefit from new industry partnership with ACAI project

At a recent meeting in Tanzania, IITA, through the African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) and the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI-Naliendele) agreed to explore areas of collaboration with the Cassava Starch Tanzania Corporation (CSTC). Demand for cassava is increasing as more companies are seeking to process the roots into high-value, starch-rich flour. New processing capacity…