IITA News no. 2382 Archives

Picture of IITA’s Abebe Menkir addressing the workshop attendees in Ibadan.

Breeding for grand challenges

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, IITA had mounted a one-day symposium tagged as “Breeding for the Grand Challenges”. This full-house event was held on 11 April at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, and attended by more than 200 collaborators from the national agricultural research system, including advanced research institutions and various universities, and private sector partners working on crop improvement.

Picture of Building a strong partnership that works.

AgYouth Lab project, a rescue operation—Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Nigeria’s VicePresident, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, has tendered his support for the joint AgriFood Youth Opportunity Lab project (AgYouth Lab) of the Michigan State University (MSU) and IITA, saying that the initiative will harness employment and entrepreneurial opportunities among African Youth.

Picture of a wing of the renovated office block.

IITA Onne, back and better

After almost 10 years of dormancy, IITA in Onne—which has produced tremendous breakthroughs in breeding plantain varieties with resistance to Black Sigatoka disease and advances in Musa genetics that have won for IITA various prestigious awards among which is the CGIAR King Baudouin award, is back and better.

Picture of STMA holds annual planning meeting in IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria.

STMA empowers seed companies to produce

The Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project has identified seed companies in its target countries, (Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, and the Republic of Bénin) in 2016 and empowered them with the necessary funding support and technical capacity and capability to produce breeder and foundation seeds at scale.

IITA researchers present on climate change policy studies at CCAFS climate change meeting in Ireland

IITA researchers working on climate change were among the scientists gathered in Galway, Ireland, for an international conference on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security – Where is the cutting edge?

CBSD control project for Rwanda and Burundi launched

IITA in partnership with the Institute of Agricultural Science of Burundi (ISABU) and Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) have launched a new project titled “Fighting Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) through the deployment of new resistant germplasm and clean seed in Rwanda and Burundi”.

IITA-ATASP-1 youth corps member bags prestigious state award

For meritorious service to his country and host community, Azeez Akanni Salawu, an ex-IITA National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program, Phase One (ATASP-1) project, has earned the 2017 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) State Honors Award as “the most outstanding National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member in the FCT-Abuja.