IITA establishes southern Africa regional support hub for agric research in Zambia
October 19, 2009
Zambia becomes the focal point for agricultural research support in southern Africa as IITA announced the establishment of its Southern Africa Administrative Hub in the country to backstop its research-for-development activities in the region.
The hub will cover Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and, as needed, the DR Congo.
According to Dr Bryan Harvey, Chair of IITA’s Board of Trustees, the institute has, since 2004, been working on how to more effectively operate in sub-Saharan Africa. To this end, IITA decided to focus its administrative support systems at three focal points: the West, East, and South.
The West will be covered by IITA-Nigeria, and the East by IITA-Tanzania. And after extensive deliberation, the institute picked Zambia to be the focal point for the South.
Dr Harvey adds that the selection of the country to service Southern Africa was not easy. IITA had to decide among Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa – all equally good candidates.
The move to have the Southern Africa Administrative Hub in the country also effectively establishes IITA-Zambia.
The establishment of the hub was officially announced by Dr Harvey last week during an IITA-sponsored World Food Day Open Forum on 15 October in Lusaka, which was co-organized with the University of Zambia and the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI).
To formalize its presence in the country, the IITA Board of Trustees is holding the second of its biannual meeting in Lusaka this week from 17 to 20 October to discuss, among other issues, ways to push forward IITA and Zambia’s partnership and lay out an operational plan for the hub.
IITA has had a long and productive history of working with the country. In the early 1980s, the institute, with ZARI and other national partners, launched a massive program to fight two of cassava’s deadliest pests - the mealy bug and the green mite - saving thousands of hectares of the crop. The successes achieved in Zambia were replicated in other cassava-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, saving even more cassava farms from devastation.
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For more information, please contact:
Dr David Chikoye, d.chikoye@cgiar.org R4D Director for Southern Africa IITA-Mozambique
Jeffrey T Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org Corporate Communications Officer (International) Communication Office IITA-Headquarters, Ibadan, Nigeria
About IITA Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and people's lives. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award winning research for development (R4D) is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is an international non-profit R4D organization founded in 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR.
