IITA News no. 2486 Archives

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 guiding its…

Strengthening collaboration between IITA and NM-AIST

The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) and IITA have renewed their partnership after the heads of the two institutions signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 6 May 2019 that spells out the terms of the collaboration. In the MoU, which is an update of a previous one signed in…

ACAI combines machine learning, field trial data, and crop models to optimize fertilizer recommendations

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) site-specific fertilizer recommendation (FR) tool is built to provide optimized and economically beneficial recommendations to cassava growers. The tool considers local soil data, weather conditions, prices of available fertilizers and cassava root produce, planting and harvest dates, and the investment capacity of the farmer. ACAI has been conducting nutrient…

IITA Scientist speaks on the outcome of applying new tools in cowpea breeding

IITA Cowpea Breeder, Ousmane Boukar, has laid out the details of activities, challenges, and successes of the cowpea breeding project from 2016 to 2018. He outlined these in a presentation titled: “Applying new tools to cowpea genetic improvement,” which was part of the contract review seminar held at IITA-Ibadan on 11 March. He also spoke…

Biodiversity focus: The Straw-colored Fruit Bat (Eidolon helvum)

The Straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) is a rapidly declining mammal and has been classified as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Despite being an adaptable species, widespread deforestation and hunting for food and medicinal uses are the main causes of declining populations. Mainly found south of the…