Nigeria’s Future Looks Brighter With IITA Innovations, Says Nigeria’s Agriculture Think Tank

By
AgroBusiness Times
-
33
Post Views: 2 669

Nigeria’s Future Looks Brighter With IITA Innovations, Research and innovations being developed at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) hold promise, and could transform Nigeria’s agricultural narrative, says Nigeria’s agricultural think-tank, the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG).

The think tank, which comprises eminent persons drawn from Nigeria’s private sector players in the agricultural value chain and led by its Vice president, Emmanuel Ijewere, paid a visit to IITA to explore areas of possible collaboration with IITA.

READ MORE: Harvestplus Plans To Reach 1.2m Households With Vitamin A Cassava, Maize

The team was puzzled and excited over the many innovations that have been developed by researchers in IITA ranging from improved seeds that could more than double farmers’ productivity, to technologies that control weeds and double the yield of cassava, to simple processing machines that add value to crops such as cowpea, cassava, and yam. Other technologies such as inoculum production which raises the productivity of legumes such as soybean by about 20 percent, and aflasafe—a biological control product for managing aflatoxins—were also explored. The semi-autotrophic hydroponics which is being used to produce thousands of clean seeds of clonal crops such as cassava and yam, and the yam aeroponics—a system of growing clean seed yam in the air—were also well received by the group.

Nigeria’s Future Looks Brighter With IITA Innovations, Says Nigeria’s Agriculture Think Tank
Nigeria’s Future Looks Brighter With IITA Innovations, Says Nigeria’s Agriculture Think Tank

After a series of presentations by IITA researchers and a tour of the 1000-hectare research facility, Mr Ijewere remarked, “The visit to IITA is an eye opener.”

“Yes, we knew that IITA was doing some things, but little did we realize the extent and depth of what they have done… how far they have gone, and how relevant they have become to Nigeria’s agriculture future,” he added.

READ MORE: $13 Million Fund Targets 15,000 Nigeria And Tanzania Youth With Agrifood Employment

Located in Ibadan—about 150 kilometres from the commercial city of Lagos, Nigeria, IITA was established 50 years ago with the aim of providing solutions to constraints that plague Africa’s agriculture and development.

In the last 7 years, IITA under the leadership of Dr Nteranya Sanginga (Director General), has refreshed its strategy with emphasis not just on research but also partnership building, delivery, commercialization of technologies and dissemination of innovations, and youth in agribusiness.

Mr Ijewere said the NABG would work with IITA to see how the research outputs of the Institute in the last 50 years could be ‘translated to money in the bank for resource-poor farmers.’

Nigeria’s Future Looks Brighter With IITA Innovations
Nigeria’s Future Looks Brighter With IITA Innovations (IITA Innovations)

The President of NABG, Mr Sani Dangote, who is also the Vice President of the Dangote Group said, “What we saw here (in IITA) is amazing.”

Mr Dangote, who was represented by Mr. Baba Girma said, “I never thought we have this in Nigeria. Before, we thought IITA was only about research but what we saw today shows opportunities that can bring synergy between what they (IITA) are doing and the private sector.”

Earlier, the Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery, Dr Kenton Dashiell, reiterated IITA’s commitment to work with the private sector with the goal of improving the livelihoods of millions of farmers in Africa.

READ MORE: Zero Hunger: IITA Set To Offer Solution To Weed Menace As Stakeholders Raise Concerns

The convener of the meeting, Dr Alfred Dixon, Director for Development and Delivery at IITA, said IITA was glad for the exploratory visit by NABG, and was willing to join forces with the group towards eliminating poverty and hunger in Nigeria.

Dixon said the decision to collaborate with NABG and other partners was aimed at paving the way for the rapid delivery of IITA-developed technologies.

Researchers and staff who made presentations at the meeting included Dr Robert Asiedu, West Africa Hub Director; Dr Chrys Akem, Project Coordinator; Mr Frederick Schreurs, Chief Executive Officer, IITA Business Incubation Platform; Dr Sam Ajala, Maize Breeder; Dr Elizabeth Parkes, Cassava Breeder; Dr David DeKoeyer, Yam Breeder; Dr Christian Fatokun, Cowpea Breeder; Prof. David Ojo, Soybean Breeder; Mr Oluwaseun Adedeji, member, IITA Youth Agripreneurs; and Prof. Friday Ekeleme, Weed Scientist. Others were Dr Norbert Maroya, Yam Breeder; Dr Peter Kolawole, Postharvest Engineer; Dr Mary E. Deibiru, Scientist; Mr Wilson Igbaifua, Farm Manager; Mr Oluwadare Odusanya, a youth agripreneur; Mr A. Alonge, NoduMax Specialist, and Mr. B. Zeledon, Aflasafe Specialist.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

33 COMMENTS

  1. Yoᥙ’ve made ѕome good pοints therе. Ι checked on thе
    internet to find out more about the issue and foսnd
    most individuals ԝill go ɑl᧐ng wіth your views on tһis site.

  3. Heya ich bin zum ersten Mall hier. Ich stieß auf fand dieses
    Board und ich finde es wirklich wirklich nützlich und es hlf mir
    einme Menge viel. Ich hoffe, etwas zurück und Hilfe geben, andere wie Siie half me.

  9. Hi and many thanks for the actual blog post ive been recently searching about this particular advice
    on-line for sum hours these days. thanks.

  11. I’m amazed, I have to admit. Rarely do I encounter a blog
    that’s equally educative and amusing, and let me tell you, you’ve
    hit the nail on the head. The issue is something that too few people are speaking intelligently about.
    I’m very happy that I came across this in my
    hunt for something regarding this.

  12. Thanks for ones marvelous posting! I actually enjoyed reading it,
    you may be a great author.I will make certain to bookmark your blog and will often come back in the
    foreseeable future. I want to encourage continue your great job, have a nice holiday weekend!

  15. Hello, i feel that i noticed you visited my weblog so
    i got here to go back the favor?.I’m attempting to in finding things to improve my
    web site!I suppose its good enough to make use of a few of your ideas!!

  18. I was curious if you ever considered changing the page layout of your
    blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got
    to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with
    it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two
    pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?

  20. Thank you, I’ve just been looking for information approximately this subject for ages and yours is the greatest
    I have came upon till now. But, what about the bottom line?
    Are you sure in regards to the source?

  22. Thаnk yоu fοr sharing excellent informations.
    Υοur web-site is so cool. Ι’m impressed Ƅy tһe details tһat үou’ve
    on this web site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject.
    Bookmarked thiѕ website pɑge, will ϲome back foг extra articles.

    Үоu, my pal, ROCK! Ӏ found just the іnformation I aⅼready searched еverywhere and ϳust ⅽould not сome
    аcross. Ꮃhat an ideal website.

  25. Tһanks fօr some othеr informative site. Ꮃhere
    else may јust I get tһat type of infⲟrmation written іn ѕuch
    ɑn ideal ᴡay? І’ve а challenge that І’m simply noᴡ operating
    on, ɑnd I have beｅn at thе glance out for ѕuch info.

  27. Thiѕ design іs incredible! Yⲟu ϲertainly know how t᧐ keep
    а reader amused. Вetween үour wit and ｙoᥙr
    videos, I ѡaѕ aⅼmоst moved to start mʏ oԝn blog
    (well, almost…HaHa!) Excellent job. I really loved
    what you hɑd tߋ saｙ, and more than thɑt, how you pгesented іt.
    Тoo cool!

  30. We absolutely love your blog and find most of your
    post’s to be what precisely I’m looking for. Does one offer guest writers to write content for yourself?
    I wouldn’t mind writing a post or elaborating on a number of the subjects you write about here.

    Again, awesome site!

  31. Greetings from Florida! I’m bored to death at
    work so I decided to check out your website on my iphone during lunch break.
    I really like the info you present here and can’t
    wait to take a look when I get home. I’m shocked at how fast your blog loaded on my mobile ..
    I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, excellent
    blog!

Comments are closed.