IITA News no. 2540 Archives

Wodada Wilberforce from IITA interviewing farmers for a survey

Middlemen play a vital role in strengthening Ugandan coffee value chain, study finds

In many countries in Africa, middlemen are often perceived as the “bad guys” out to exploit and defraud farmers. However, a study by IITA found that on the contrary, middlemen play an important part in the Ugandan coffee value chain. It further recommends the exploration of opportunities to include middlemen as active contributors in building…

The IITA Forest Center maintains a rigorous system of nature conservation in its parks and forest.

IITA celebrates World Environment Day

To celebrate this year’s World Environment Day, the CGIAR-IITA Forest Center, Corporate Services Directorate, and Communication Office organized a virtual event on 5 June as part of activities to create awareness and action for protecting the environment. The theme for this year’s event, which is celebrated annually, was “Time for Nature” to emphasize the importance…

Top Tanzanian officials seek ONE-CGIAR collaboration on scaling research technologies

The Permanent Secretary (PS) at the Tanzania Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Ms Dorothy Mwaluko, has identified the scaling up of innovative technologies from research to farmers as a major challenge to the growth of the agriculture sector in the country and therefore a priority area of collaboration with ONE CGIAR. The PS noted that farmers…

Manual weeding is labour intensive and cumbersome which causes farmers to delay weeding their cassava fields. Weeds account for over 30% in yeild loss

Scientists recommend additional herbicides for weed control in cassava farming

Cassava is the second most-consumed staple food after maize in sub-Saharan Africa, feeding more than 300 million people. Nigeria is the world’s biggest producer of cassava at 59 million tons per year. However, this food security crop that can tolerate prolonged droughts is yet to attain its yield potential. Smallholder farmers in Africa harvest 8‒12…