Bulletin no. 2324 Archives

Picture of Virologist Lava Kumar, project lead, explains the importance of the CDS platform

IITA and NAQS pilot digital Cassava Disease Surveillance platform

IITA has launched a digital surveillance platform called Cassava Disease Surveillance (CDS) to facilitate cassava disease surveillance in Nigeria. “The CDS is a virtual network for rapid diagnosis of cassava diseases, communication, and coordinated deployment of emergency response,” said Lava Kumar, IITA Virologist and lead investigator of the CDS project. This interactive program—accessible through any…

Picture of IITA DG Nteranya Sanginga talks about how to increase cassava productivity.

New project to build commercially sustainable cassava seed system

A four-year project (2015–2019) to develop a commercially sustainable cassava seed value chain in Nigeria, was launched on 18 April at IITA headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria. Titled ‘Building a Sustainable, Integrated Seed System for Cassava in Nigeria’ (BASICS), the US$11.6 million project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and led by the…

Picture of Participants at the IARSAF annual meeting

IARSAF annual meeting challenges young researchers

During the 19th annual symposium of the International Association of Research Scholars and Fellows (IARSAF) at IITA, over 200 young researchers were encouraged to undertake agricultural research for providing lasting solutions to the bottlenecks threatening food security and economic growth in Africa. The symposium took place at IITA’s conference center on 27-28 April, with the…

Picture of Dr Mansoor, guest of honor at banana project launch.

International researchers meet to discuss how to improve banana production in the Great Lakes region

A team of researchers from around the world gathered this week, 2–5 May, at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha, Tanzania, to discuss how to focus their combined expertise on improving banana, a hugely important crop in the East African Region. The researchers—drawn from Australia, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Tanzania, Uganda,…

Group photo of the participants of the AfricaYam annual review and planning meeting.

AfricaYam partners, Technical Advisory Committee meet in Cotonou

The AfricaYam annual review and planning meeting took place at IITA Cotonou, Benin, on 14-18 March with participants from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Japan, USA, and UK. They gathered to review the progress made in the previous year and to chart a new course for achieving the project’s goals. Manuele Tamo, Entomologist and IITA…

AfricaYam completes digital data capturing training at CNRA, Bouaké

Partners in the National Centre for Agricultural Research (CNRA), Cote d’Ivoire, have benefited from the training on digital data capturing organized by AfricaYam. The training aims to teach hands-on electronic data collection and management using Fieldbook version 3.0 with optimized use of mobile phones. The training exercise was held at CNRA Bouaké on 7-8 April…