IITA Bulletin 2339

The IITA

CGIAR

No. 2339

15 –19 August 2016

CORAF/WECARD explores areas of collaboration with IITA

A

call has been made for the establishment of potential avenues from which national centers could gain from the rich basket of capacity building programs and technologies at IITA. Abdou Tenkouano, the Executive Director of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD), an IITA alumnus, made the call on 10 August, during his official visit to IITA-Ibadan.

Tenkouano said his visit aimed to express the intentions of CORAF/WECARD to initiate a collaborative intervention for national centers under the auspices of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity DG Nteranya Sanginga leads the meeting with CORAF Executive Director Abdou Tenkano.

Program (WAAPP) in partnership with IITA. “Some transformation in the way “Countries will need to see results. In the “IITA is recognized as a key player in Africa’s science, technology and innovation are long run, it is not about how countries are agricultural advancement and consistently deployed to end users is needed…the engaged but how to convince them that plays a major role in helping to generate World Bank acknowledges the need to what is being done is necessary…let us employment, as well as deploying world- strengthen its collaboration with IITA in be aggressive, work together to design class agricultural technologies…CORAF the areas of evidence-based knowledge a plan that will take into account all the is interested in partnering with IITA to tap as this largely informs how programs are ideas discussed with a clear outcome,” from its rich international expertise and designed,” Salau noted. said DG Sanginga. using such to empower national centers,” IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga The team also went on a tour of IITA Tenkouano said. welcomed the partnership proposal, facilities and interacted with the IITA Sheu Salau, an Agricultural Economist noting that the crisis situation in Youth Agripreneurs. The activities and representating the World Bank at the many subregions in Africa makes the achievements of the young men and event, bemoaned the inability of national proposal timely. He further emphasized women under the platform impressed systems to tap from IITA’s rich knowledge that countries need to be assured the visitors. In parting, Salau concluded reserve, calling on a concerted approach that intervention packages will provide that “the approach IITA is using in youth to transform information delivery and the needed solutions to identified development is the best and therefore knowledge sharing for beneficiaries. problems. should be scaled up”.

IITA, Ministry of Youth & Sports, Ministry of Agriculture to promote youth agribusiness in Oyo State

I

n a tripartite agreement with the Ministries of Youth & Sports, and Agriculture in Oyo State, IITA will be hosting a workshop that will see IITA Youth Agripreneurs (IYA) critically engage and train youth corps members serving within the state. This was unveiled during the official visit of the Commissioner of Youth & Sports, Yomi Oke, to IITA-Ibadan on 10 August.

The Commissioner was accompanied by his Permanent Secretary, Amidat Agboola, and representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Oyo State.

IITA Youth Agripreneur Dare gives a briefing on IYA activities in Ibadan, Nigeria.

www.iita.org

Welcomed by IITA DG Nteranya Sanginga, the Commissioner zeroed in on the problem of youth unemployment in Nigeria and the State. He expressed the need for a program that will develop youth capacity in agriculture to curb rising unemployment rates. His sentiment echoed the words of the Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, who in his last visit to IITA stated: “Oyo State has to go back to the land, to agriculture. This is not a choice anymore”.

IYA and its subsidiary, Green Wealth Agripreneurs (GWA), gave a presentation

to the visitors highlighting the successes of the platforms and the ways they continue to train and significantly change the perception about agriculture among the youth, with profitable businesses being run in and outside of IITA. Significantly impressed by the platforms, the Commissioner said: “We need to leverage on these opportunities. We need to find ways to plug in to what is being done here.

We hope our presence here can close the existing gap between us and IITA.”

An agreement to organize a workshop that empowers youth through agribusiness was the outcome of the meeting. The workshop is expected to have thousands of youth trained under the IYA platform by the Agripreneurs themselves. The training is aimed at developing core competencies and entrepreneurial skills that will help the participants identify opportunities in agribusiness. “It will be a comprehensive workshop where youth talk to youth. When the youth communicate with each other it makes a difference,” stated Sanginga. The workshop will be held later in the year.

WorldVeg DG praises growth potential of IITA-Abuja station

A

two-person delegation from the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) comprising the Director General Marco Wopereis and Victor Afari-Sefa, Acting Regional Director, West and Central Africa, paid a courtesy visit to the IITAAbuja station on 10 August. During the visit, Wopereis applauded the development and ongoing projects at the station.

“I am impressed to see so many projects in progress here. It shows the rich potential of the station. I was also surprised to see these research facilities so near Abuja – impressive,” Wopereis said.

The visitors were received by Tarawali Gbassey, Head of Station, and other staff. They also learned more about the IITA youth-in-agribusiness initiative from a presentation by the IITA AbujaAgripreneurs. Excited by the activities of the Agripreneurs at the station, the visitors compared the IITA youth in agribusiness engagement model with the Vegetables for Income and Nutrition in East and Southern Africa (VINESA) project that is being implemented by WorldVeg and identified new lessons and ideas.

WorldVeg Director General Marco Wopereis visits IITA’s Abuja Station.

Plans for a prospective collaboration in the African Development Bank-funded Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) project billed to start off early next year were also discussed.

the Association of International Research and Development Centers for Agriculture (AIRCA), a nine-member alliance.

The Center is committed to alleviating poverty and malnutrition in the developing world through the increased production The World Vegetable Center, with and consumption of nutritious, healthheadquarters in Taiwan, is a member of promoting vegetables.

IITA’s latest annual report now online!

The 2015 IITA Annual Report, Gearing up for impact, is now available online.

It features success stories and achievements from the various hubs and projects.

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).

IITA Bulletin 2339

page 2

Wageningen University to partner with IITA on nutrition study

W

ageningen University is set to partner with IITA on a nutrition study focused on vegetable consumption patterns among urban citizens of Nigeria. The project is expected to outline the clear determinants that influence consumer behavior with regard to vegetable consumption in Nigeria.

visit to IITA-Ibadan on 10 August to lay the groundwork of the study and meet with concerned IITA staff. The team met with Busie Maziya-Dixon, IITA crop utilization specialist, and Adebayo Akinola, IITA economist. IITA will play the lead role in

the collection of data and overseeing the field work.

The project is funded by Wageningen University and will commence in October and run for one to two years.

The project will analyze purchase behavior patterns and the various motives that may affect the purchase of vegetables by Nigerians. It aims to explore the accessibility of vegetables in Nigeria, putting into consideration the aspects of cost, seasonal availability, and other important nuances. The project aims to promote healthy eating behavior patterns. The results will be used to create an intervention that will help consumers eat more vegetables.

Two Wageningen researchers, Youri Dijkxhoorn and Ireen Raaijmakers, paid a Vegetables are an often neglected part of the diet.

DG Sanginga: I didn’t want to be a farmer…

I

n the July edition of the monthly E-Magazine of the World Farmers’ Organization F@rmletter, DG Nteranya Sanginga revealed that crude agricultural practices made the sector unattractive to him as a young boy in the DR Congo.

“As a farm boy growing up in the DR Congo, I have experienced and seen how farming can be a backbreaking and labor-intensive chore for my family and the millions of African smallholder farmers. That’s why I chose not to be a farmer,” DG Sanginga recounted.

But thanks to modernization, DG Sanginga says he is fulfilled today working in the sector, assisting young men and women to create profitable business ventures from agriculture and helping to better the lives of millions of smallholder farmers around the world dependent on the sector to eke out a living.

He also said the rich climatic and arable land endowments of sub-Saharan Africa are resources that could be channeled to make agriculture more innovative, exciting, and profitable.

IYA model is a testament that when empowered, young people can turn a seemingly unattractive venture into a goldmine.

DG Sanginga enjoined relevant stakeholders, policymakers, and communities to rise up to the challenge and to support, promote, and replicate the model.

He also prescribed that stakeholders should provide institutional support, training, access to finance, land, favorable policies, programs and DG Sanginga infrastructures that would enable the youth to see farming as a business and DG Sanginga emphasized the need for also motivate them to take up agriculture the youth to dominate the agricultural on a commercial scale. value chains, noting that for a sector that feeds the world and ensures food He concluded by advising that “there and nutrition security, the involvement of should be a determined effort to ensure vibrant young men and women should that the younger generations tap into the potentials of agriculture. That is the only be unquestioned. way we can save the agriculture sector, He cited the IITA Youth Agripreneurs ensure food security, and increase (IYA) as ambassadors of the sort of agricultural productivity when our ageing change that modern-day agricultural farmers are gone.” Read the full feature practices require and said that the here.

Announcements

IITA 50th Anniversary Kick-off Event: Lecture by IFAD President Kanayo Nwanze, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, 19 October.

First Regional Cocoa Symposium, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, 8–10 November. More details available here.

P4D (Partnerships for Delivery) Week, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, 21–25 November.

Commissioning of the AgriServe Building by AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, 25 November.

7th International Nitrogen Initiative Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 4–8 December. More details available here.

IITA Bulletin 2339

page 3