The IITA
CGIAR
No. 2325
9–13 May 2016
IITA and Ghana sign host country agreement
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he Government of Ghana, realizing the immense benefits that will accrue to its people through collaboration with IITA, has secured Cabinet and Parliamentary approval to give legal status to the operations of the Institute in Ghana. Accordingly, IITA and the Government of Ghana signed a Host Country Agreement at the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology Information (MESTI), Accra, Ghana on 12 May. The Agreement passed through the Legal and Consular Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Attorney General’s Department, Cabinet, and the Parliament to bring it into conformity with relevant legislation. The agreement was signed by the Deputy Minister of MESTI, Honorable Dr Alfred Tia Sugri on behalf of the Ghana Government, with Asamoah Larbi, IITA’s Country Representative signing for IITA. It confers legal status and personality as well as privileges
and immunities on the beneficial relationship in accordance with the Laws of Ghana; and provides key reliefs, including exemptions for communication and transportation controls. The agreement also permits the Institute to partner with state agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector in sharing new knowledge on major staple crops. In his address, the Deputy Minister noted that a stronger Ghana-IITA collaboration will bring significant benefits to farmers and the national economy, through building individual and institutional capacity in science and technology, improved farm productivity and profitability, household income and nutrition as well as consumer welfare. On behalf of IITA, Larbi thanked the Government of Ghana for the agreement. He recognized the support of the Council for Scientific and Industrial
IITA’s Asamoah Larbi and the Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology Information, Dr Alfred Tia Sugri, shake hands after the signing.
Research, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Attorney General’s Department, Cabinet and Parliament organizations and everyone who assisted to get the agreement approved by the Government of Ghana.
Rockefeller Foundation provides up to US$1 million in grants for global cassava innovations
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he Rockefeller Foundation, Dalberg, and IITA, launched on 12 May an Innovation Challenge to uncover innovative solutions to increase cassava shelf life in Nigeria. The Challenge was announced at the World Economic Forum – Africa annual meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, and will provide up to US$1 million in funding, as well as technical assistance to implement business model development and product design. Cassava is critical for food security in Africa. It is the main source of nutrition for around half of the continent’s population, or 500 million people. Yet this root crop has a very short shelf life
World Economic Forum Africa Annual Meeting, Kigali, Rwanda.
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and if unprocessed it will spoil within 24-72 hours after harvesting – less if it is damaged during harvesting or transport. Nigeria is the world’s largest cassava producer, accounting for more than 20% of global production – more than 50 million tons annually, grown by nearly 30 million smallholder farmers. Approximately 40% of this cassava is lost due to spoilage, a tremendous problem that limits farmers’ incomes and rural economic development. Cassava is a global crop and is grown outside of Africa in countries as diverse as Thailand, Indonesia, and Brazil. According to the President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, “The agricultural transformation agenda is beginning to open up new income streams for farmers. A good example is the case of cassava.” In his previous tenure as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria, Adesina championed cassava commercialization in the country and grew the capacity to process cassava into flour, starch, and several other products. The Rockefeller Foundation Cassava Innovation Challenge will consider applications that are incremental as well as those that are transformative to the Nigerian cassava value chain. The shelf life issues arise from some of the following barriers: limited access to existing cassava varieties; poor and inefficient handling, storage, and transport between harvest and processing; and far-away processing, with processors far from cassava farms and use inefficient manual peeling. The Challenge is global and is open to organizations with innovative products/ technologies, processes or services— in various stages of development— from anywhere in the world. Any innovation that could enhance shelf life
Nigerian women farmers selling dried cassava in the market.
or reduce postharvest losses will be considered and those organizations that have ideas for transforming this critical link in food security – but may not have food security expertise – are encouraged to apply. IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga comments, “We have been working on cassava improvement and value chain development for many years from our base in Ibadan, Nigeria, and our substations all over subSaharan Africa. We are very excited about the potential of this Challenge to bring to light innovations but also to get these innovations into the hands of smallholder farmers in Nigeria in a sustainable way”. “The Rockefeller Foundation has a long history of supporting agricultural innovation and enhancing food security and farmer income,” said Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director of The Rockefeller Foundation Africa
Regional Office. “Our Yield Wise Initiative, launched earlier this year, is committed to halving postharvest loss on the continent, and enhancing the shelf life of cassava will be key to achieving this goal, while having a significant positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of farmers and their families.” Nneka Eze, Agriculture Practice Co-Lead and Associate Partner at Dalberg, remarks: “If we solve the shelf life issues in cassava in Nigeria, we can solve them everywhere else. Our role in designing and managing the Challenge has allowed us to work directly with a diversity of innovators, agronomists, and business people keen to solve shelf life issues. We hope that the Cassava Innovation Challenge and the significance of the award will help to harness this energy from across agricultural value chains and even bring non-agricultural innovators into the cassava value chain.”
Announcements • 7th African Soil Science Society ASSS conference, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 29 May - 1 June. • 7th Africa Agricultural Science Week and FARA General Assembly, Kigali, Rwanda, 12-17 June. More information available at http://www.faraafrica.org/aasw7/. • Africa RISING ESA project review and planning meeting, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, 30 June -2 July • Africa RISING - NAFAKA scaling project review and planning meeting, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, 4-5 July • 3rd All Africa Horticultural Congress, Theme: “Horticultural for Improved Livelihoods”, Conference Center, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, 7-12 August. • 7th International Nitrogen Initiative Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 4–8 December. More details on the conference are available here. IITA Bulletin 2325
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PASIC influences policies at national and local levels in Uganda
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he Policy Action for Sustainable Intensification of Ugandan Cropping Systems (PASIC) project has successfully proven that evidencebased policy making is possible by influencing the development of agricultural policies at the national and district level in Uganda.
strategy outlines a plan to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the extension system through the delivery of information, best practices, and other technologies to an array of beneficiaries. “This strategy is intended to effectively and efficiently provide agricultural extension services, to support sustained progression of smallholder farmers, from subsistence agriculture to market-oriented and commercial farming,” noted Byarugaba Beatrice, the Agriculture Director of the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services, in her opening remarks during the final validation workshop of A group of women in group work during one of the feedback workshops. the extension strategy on 12 April.
PASIC is a four-year project supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands (EKN) in Uganda to strengthen the capacity of Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) in setting up policies and actions for sustainable agricultural intensification to boost the production of smallholder farmers to improve their food security and livelihoods. The project is managed by PASIC provided additional funds IITA in partnership with MAAIF. to support the development of the At the national level, working in policy. “We specifically supported collaboration with partners such as the the consultants that developed the United States Agency for International monitoring and evaluation (M&E) matrix Development (USAID)’s Feed the and the strategy together with Feed Future and the World Bank, PASIC the Future,” said Odiirah Nansamba, has supported Uganda’s agriculture PASIC Communication Officer. ministry to transform the country’s Supporting policies at district level extension system. To boost the production of rice and Currently different actors from public, potato, the project further conducted private, and nongovernmental and shared the results of various studies organizations have been providing on the production and marketing of the advisory services to farmers two crops in six districts in Uganda to independently often times giving identify gaps in their value chains and contradicting information. Therefore, to spur investment on then. The Districts provide policy direction, Uganda’s first were Kanungu, Kabale, and Kisoro for ever National Agricultural Extension irish potato production and, Tororo, Policy and strategy was developed to Bugiri, and Butaleja for rice production. provide long-term strategic direction Taking a systems approach to policy for agricultural extension services. action, the PASIC studies included The aim of the policy is to transform agronomic diagnostics, socioeconomic extension into a well-coordinated, household surveys, and analysis of harmonized, regulated pluralistic value chains, policies, and institutions. service with multiple providers From the study, access to quality seed addressing diverse needs while the for potato was identified as a major
challenge in south western Uganda. It was found that, although the farmers were growing improved varieties, they seldom used good quality seeds because they recycle their own seeds up to more than four times. The study also established that the potato varieties grown by the farmers were not suited for the potato chips industry and hence the fast food chains such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Java House, and Café Javas resorted to importing frozen potato chips. In the rice sector, the yields were found to be low due to lack of application of good agronomic practices and inability to meet the amounts required for milling machines to operate at required capacity. The findings were shared in feedback workshops in south-western Uganda for potato and eastern Uganda for lowland rice production. They brought together actors along the value chains of the two crops including farmers, and the district leadership. Interventions and action points were developed to integrate the study findings into the Districts’ five-year development plans which will go into the country’s Agricultural Sector Strategic Plan for 2015/16-2019/20.
Group photo of workshop participants.
IITA Bulletin 2325
The plans have been presented for approval to the respective district councils by the District Production Officers of the Agriculture Ministry and in three of the six districts (Kanungu, Kabale and Butaleja) they have been approved. page 3
“Improved inputs will boost Nigeria’s cocoa system”: Outcome of USAID Nigeria/NEXTT training
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he question of how to revive the glory days of Nigeria—one of the cocoa producing giants of the 1960s was at center stage during the just concluded USAID Nigeria/ Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) training of trainers workshop held at IITA, Ibadan.
“Lack of funds coupled with inadequate government support which, even when in existence, hardly trickle down to us small farmers, making it difficult for us to adopt irrigation”, said Oladokun Wasiu, a cocoa farmer in Iddo local government area of Oyo state.
According to a report by BusinessDay, the global cocoa supply from Nigeria witnessed a 59% reduction from US$666.4 million in 2014 to $270.7 million in 2015. Experts anticipate another decline of about 15% in production capacity which will further affect the values for 2016.
The inability of Africa’s biggest economy to sustain and improve its production of cocoa over the years has led to a sharp decline in productivity to below 0.350 tons per hectare, when other leading countries produce between two to five tons per hectare using improved varieties.
Currently fourth place in cocoa production behind Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Indonesia, Nigeria was celebrated in the 1960s as the highest producer and supplier of the crop. The downturn results from prioritizing the oil sector over cocoa production in the 1970s coupled with bad weather and an increased number of unreplaced, old and worn-out trees in the country. “We experienced a long drought in 2014/2015 season and the weather has been very harsh. Most of the crops in the south-west of Nigeria were affected. It was only in Cross River that we had some respite, but yields in the south-west dropped,” said Robo Adhuze, chief operating officer, Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative.
Ranjana Bhattacharjee, IITA Molecular Geneticist, joined other stakeholders at the workshop at IITA on 7-11 March, and made a presentation on ‘Cocoa: The sweet and bitter truth about chocolate’ and noted that the sector still suffers because of a poor input and network system. She also warned that a change in crude and indigenous practices is necessary to reverse the trend. “Globally, the chocolate and cocoa industry are in crisis due to low productivity which is failing to meet a growing demand that is increasing by two percent annually…For Nigeria to get it right, then it must use high quality planting materials in the right environment, while management and market demands must all be linked and developed to increase cocoa yield.”
Cocoa was one of Nigeria’s major cash crops in the 1960s.
Ranjana also noted the government’s role in structuring the right linkages for all players in the cocoa system as vital to revitalizing the country’s cocoa producing glory days. Additionally, Lava Kumar, IITA Virologist, presented on the pest and disease threats to cocoa production and productivity in the changing environment and the need for developing climate-smart varieties to combat existing and emerging biotic and abiotic threats.
IITA celebrates world migratory bird day
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tudents, ornithologists, and bird lovers celebrated the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) at IITA-Ibadan, on 10 May. The day comprised educational talks by ornithologists on the importance of bird conservation, followed by an opportunity for the guests to view and learn more about birds, especially migrants.
With support from BirdLife International, the WMBD campaign is organized by the Secretariat of the African-Eurasian Migratory Water-bird Agreement (AEWA), in collaboration with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). It aims to raise global awareness, highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. The event is celebrated every second week of May. IITA Bulletin 2325
This year, focus was given to the millions of birds lost through illegal capturing, killing and trade during migration. “Every day is meant for birds,” remarked Taiye Adeyanju, an ornithologist at the University of Ibadan attending the event. “However we want to mark it significantly by choosing a day, so we can raise awareness and reduce the amount of killings of birds”, he stated. The guests learned about palaearcticafrotropical migratory birds—those that are suffering a substantial decline from the frequent capture and killings that occur during their migration. “These birds breed in Europe and ‘winter’ (spend the European winter months) in Africa. While migrating to and from Europe they have Pupils from the IITA International School several stopover sites. However, along participate in celebrating World Migratory Bird the way people trap, cage, and even kill Day in Ibadan. page 4
them” explained Adewale Awoyemi, IITA Projects and Products Supervisor, Forest Unit. Trapped or killed, the birds cannot return to breed and their demise has negative effects on the environment. “We have to raise awareness about the bigger picture and the roles birds play in the ecosystem, from pollination to climate change. We invited students to celebrate the day with us here in hopes that we can make them understand why we need to preserve birds,” he further explained. “We need to raise awareness so people give birds a chance to survive along their migratory pathways. Birds are
an important part of the environment,” added Adeyanju. Speaking about the importance of the day Adun Okupe, a guest, said “If you look at what is happening around the world, particularly with rapid urbanization, you realize that a lot of birds and their migratory patterns are being affected. So in terms of relevance of today, it is for us to get a keen appreciation for how important nature is, and how our activities as humans are affecting the ecosystem and how we can in our own little way try and preserve this for our children” she stated.
Fifth grader Issa Abdoulaye of the International School of IITA, promised to take the message home to his brothers. “We need to stop killing birds. On my own part, I have a brother who sits and draws the birds around. I will tell him that we can make a poster together to raise awareness.” The IITA Forest Reserve in the Ibadan campus is an Important Bird Area. IITA has partnered with national and international bird organizations to ensure the conservation of birds in Nigeria.
Welcome Abdulai Jalloh has assumed the position of Project Coordinator – ACAI at IITA-Ibadan. Abdulai started his professional career as an agronomist at the Sierra Leone Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) in 1987 after obtaining his MSc degree in crop science at the University of Alexandria in Egypt. Under the mentorship of the late Professor Mohamed Tejan Dahniya, an IITA alumnus, Abdulai led cassava agronomy research at IAR and rose through the ranks to become Director of IAR (1999–2008) and then Deputy Director General of the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (2008– 2009). He was a key member of the IAR team that won together with IITA the first CGIAR Chairman’s Excellence in Science award in 1996 for outstanding scientific partnership for improving Roots and Tubers in West Africa. Abdulai earned his PhD degree in crop science at the University of Sierra Leone (1996). He has more than 25 years of diverse agricultural research for development experience in Africa.
Office: Room 44, Building 400; Telephone ext. no. 2299, mobile number +234 803978 4122; Email: a.jalloh@cgiar.org
Before joining IITA in March 2016, Abdulai led the Natural Resources Management (NRM) Programme of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/ WECARD) (2009–2016). Abdulai is married with three children.
Prior to joining IITA, He was a Scientific Officer and Special Project Scientist (2008–2012) at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India; Postdoctoral fellow (2012– 2013), McGill University, Canada and Molecular breeder (2013–2015) in US Agriseeds, Hyderabad, India.
S i v a k u m a r Chamarthi, an Indian national, is a postdoctoral fellowCowpea molecular breeder based int IITA-Kano station. He is working on marker assisted breeding (MAB) and trait introgression for biotic and abiotic stresses in cowpea using advanced genomic tools by collaborating with breeders, physiologists, entomologists, pathologists, and virologists. Siva obtained PhD (2009) in Biotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), while he was a research student in the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India. He obtained MSc (2003) in Biotechnology from Bharathidhasan University, Tamil Nadu, India and BSc (2001) in Microbiology from Madras University, Tamil Nadu, India.
Contact details: IITA/Kano, Sabo Bakin Zuwo Road, PMB 3112, Kano, Nigeria; Tel: +234 8020804809, +234 7010101220, +234 8170282229 and +234 8036479031; Email: s.chamarthi@ cgiar.org.
Abou Togola is a Postdoctoral Fellow on entomology working with breeders on cowpea host plant resistance to increase the performance of improved varieties and make them available to smallholder farmers across West Africa. He is based in IITA Kano Station, Nigeria. He obtained a PhD in Entomology and a master’s degree in Project Management. Togola worked previously at the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) and before that at the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). His professional background is research on integrated management of insect pests of tropical crops including cowpea, rice, sorghum, pearl millet, cotton, and groundnut. Contact details: IITA/Kano, Sabo Bakin Zuwo Road, PMB 3112, Kano, Nigeria; mobile number +234 8020804809, +234 7010101220, +234 8170282229 and +234 80 99 99 33 11; email a.togola@cgiar.org
Got a story to share? Please email it with photos and captions every Wednesday to Katherine Lopez (k.lopez@cgiar.org), Jeffrey T. Oliver (j.oliver@cgiar.org), Catherine Njuguna (c.njuguna@cgiar.org), or Adaobi Umeokoro (a.umeokoro@cgiar.org).
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