IITA News no. 2553 Archives

IITA DDG-P4D, Dr Kenton Dashiell spoke extensively about opportunities in Nigerian agriculture sector.

Hundreds of sustainable and profitable agribusiness opportunities available in Nigeria – IITA DDG

CGIAR-IITA Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery, Kenton Dashiell, has encouraged Nigerians to take up sustainable and profitable opportunities in the country’s agriculture sector. He made this appeal during his keynote address at the National Conference on Agricultural Innovations for Food Security in the Post COVID-19 Era. In his presentation, Dashiell highlighted multiple technologies and…

The gender equity gap: An inside look at vegetable producers and traders in northern and central Tanzania

Researchers have found that female vegetable farmers and traders in northern Tanzania earn less than their male counterparts while providing the same amount of labor, highlighting the need for more effort to tackle gender inequalities in agriculture. A study published in The European Journal of Development Research (February 2020) analyzed how gender inequality has affected…

New potato varieties introduced to combat potato cyst nematode

Scientists from NemAfrica, the nematology unit at CGIAR-IITA, and the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) are currently assessing new potato varieties that are resistant to the potato cyst nematode (PCN) pest. These damaging pests significantly reduce yields and tuber sizes and consequently impact farmers’ income and food security in Kenya and the…

STEP impact goes beyond secondary schools to communities

The Start Them Early Program (STEP) of IITA is making more impact than was envisioned at the beginning of the program. STEP, which was initially meant to change the negative mindset of secondary school students about agriculture, has also begun to positively impact parents and the communities where these secondary schools are located. The STEP…