Uganda Archives - IITA News

ENABLE-TAAT partners with banks to provide business credit to trained African youth

ENABLE-TAAT is supporting its beneficiaries by linking them to financial institutions that can help start-ups and existing businesses. Youth often have a challenge accessing funding and raising capital for their businesses, whether as loans or grants. Many youth begin their enterprises with their savings and support from their families or acquaintances, but such funds may…

Banana breeding project successfully implements modern track and trace system

Tagging products with barcodes for easy price retrieval in supermarkets is now a regular practice that people often take for granted. But beyond supermarkets, barcodes can be employed across a whole spectrum of settings, including by scientists in their research. The Accelerated Breeding Better Bananas project has developed, adapted, finetuned, and deployed a fully operational…

Ugandan coffee farmers enjoy increased yields through CSA technologies despite COVID-19 pandemic

The IITA Uganda Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Program supports the Ugandan Government in its commitment to increasing coffee quality, volumes, and smallholder farmer livelihoods. The Institute’s activities closely align with the country’s agricultural agenda, with the IITA team collaborating with the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) to implement the Uganda Coffee Roadmap. By developing the Stepwise…

The Belgian Ambassador to Uganda commends IITA’s efforts to transform the agriculture sector

Belgian Ambassador commends IITA’s efforts to transform Ugandan agriculture sector

His Excellency Rudi Veestraeten, the Belgian Ambassador to Uganda, visited the IITA-Uganda substation at Sendusu on 30 October. The Ambassador was accompanied by the Deputy Head of Mission and Head of Belgian Development Cooperation, Mr Koen Van Acoleyen. The visit was on the invitation of Rony Swennen, IITA’s senior banana breeder. The Ambassador and his…

Project to develop Aflasafe technology that controls deadly aflatoxin in Uganda launched

Kampala, Uganda – The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Agriculture Research Organisation (NARO) will collaborate to finalize the development of Aflasafe—a safe and effective natural product for the integrated management of aflatoxin in the maize, sorghum, and groundnut value chains in Uganda. This is through a four-year project, funded by aBi Development Ltd….

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…

COVID-19 highlights the importance of farmers’ associations

Uganda is one of the few countries that has not reported any deaths from COVID-19. However, there are movement restrictions and stay-at-home orders in place. What do this pandemic and subsequent control measures mean for banana farmers in the country? We talked to Brigitte Uwimana, a molecular banana breeder based at IITA Uganda. Below are…

IITA banana research paper in Wiley’s Plant Pathology journal among the most downloaded

A paper published by a team led by scientists from IITA was among the top 10% most downloaded of all papers published between January 2018 and December 2019 in Wiley’s Plant Pathology journal. The research team received the news in a congratulatory message and an online certificate from the Journal. Part of the message stated:…

Study finds that growing own food is better than relying on markets

Think back over the last month. What types of food have you and your family consumed? Have you eaten a balanced and diversified diet? The answer may not matter; what matters is who or what influenced your food choices. These and more are the questions that researchers from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)…

Spraying locust swarm is ineffective – IITA entomologist

As Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya battle huge swarms of desert locusts, great efforts are underway to control these destructive insects. These locusts, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are twice as big in body size and destruction potential. Verenado Meeme talked to one of our entomologists, Peter Neuenschwander about solutions that can bring…