IITA News

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…

Norbert Maroya (left) explaining project field trials to new TAC members as well as IITA YIIFSWA project team.

YIIFSWA has two new Technical Advisory Committee members in Nigeria

The Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project welcomed two new members: Prof E.A. Salako from the University of Abuja and Chief Tola Adepomola, Chair of the Root and Tuber Crops Subcommittee of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, who was represented by Rev. J.O. Adeleye to its Technical Advisory…

Giving small-scale farmers in Burkina Faso options

The appropriate varieties of early-maturing cowpea for Burkina Faso (AVEC-BF) project organized a farmers’ participatory varietal selection (FPVS) for 1,011 farmers from 14 villages in the north and south of Burkina Faso to promote the use of improved cowpea varieties by small-scale farmers. The AVEC-BF project aims to develop a large-scale dissemination system for improved…

Hon. Kayitesi (centre) during her visit to IITA-Burundi.

Former Burundi minister lauds IITA’s significant support

To mark the end of her term in office, Hon. Kayitesi Odette, the immediate past Minister of Agriculture in Burundi visited IITA, and thanked the Institute and staff for their support during her tenure. She also urged the Institute to extend the same gesture to the new minister. During the commendation visit on 25 September,…