IITA is the lead center on the CGIAR research program (CRP) Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics which is the focal point for the Institute’s R4D programs. Flagship projects are underway in south-east Asia, Central America, and two areas of Africa. Six CGIAR centers are partners in Humidtropics and the program has numerous non-CGIAR collaborators. IITA is a partner in … Read More
It is my pleasure to present to you the IITA Annual Report for 2014. Aptly themed Moving Forward, this report highlights our research-for-development and innovative partnership efforts for 2014 which bring us closer to our goal of lifting 25 percent of African households above the poverty line. We are moving forward to achieving this goal by continuously increasing average farm … Read More
“I am happy to be within the first generation of researchers who can use the state-of-the-art lab facilities in the IITA Science Building in Tanzania,” says Harun Muruthi, an associate professional officer (APO) in plant pathology and recipient of the Wageningen University-administered Lukas Brader scholarship program for outstanding students from sub- Saharan Africa. “I am currently working on soybean rust … Read More
‘‘Most people our age are not attracted to agriculture, probably because it is not very glamorous or the money isn’t very good. A few are interested but are stymied by lack of training, resources, and capital support,” say Bankole Akinyele and Evelyn Ohanwusi, both in their mid-20s, and co-leaders of IITA’s Youth Agripreneurs Program or IYA. “Our vision is to … Read More
“When I first came to IITA about 30 years ago, I was part of the team developing the early farming systems concept and that was when much work was done in the villages outside IITA. This development-oriented on-farm research was a context in which we were doing our work in the fields because we found it necessary to have a … Read More
“Having grown up on a farm in a very rural part of Colorado, I naturally had a lot of interest in agriculture. Living in an area where we had problems with soil erosion and water management, I was keen on learning more about the solutions to agricultural problems”. Today Jerry Glover is the Senior Sustainable Agricultural Systems Advisor with USAID, … Read More
“Eve did not give an apple to Adam but a banana” — says Rony Swennen, a world-leading banana breeder, although he considers himself simply a banana lover. “Banana was one of the first crops domesticated by people, and improved drastically over time thanks to farmers all over the world. I started getting interested in banana in 1979 by working at … Read More