An International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) project launched three years ago is succeeding in reducing poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria. The area suffers from excessive heat, poor rainfall, and marginal soils. The parasitic weed Striga and poor soil fertility often cause the total failure of maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea, and groundnut crops, leading to serious food shortages.

The IITA project is demonstrating that crop farming can be lucrative and profitable, producing enough food to meet local needs and a surplus to increase incomes.

Here are a few real life testimonials:

• Seventy-five-year-old Buba Kayamda lives in Ngabu village in Hawul Local Government Area, where Striga hermonthica has caused serious yield losses in maize and sorghum. The septuagenarian abandoned maize farming for more than ten years because Striga had completely blighted his field. He is farming again today because "IITA scientists trained me to plant soybean in rotation with Striga resistant maize varieties…today, the weed is no more a threat and so I am liberated."
• Another farmer, Madu Abubakar of Mandaragrau village, says, "IITA scientists showed me how to make money from soybeans," a relatively new crop in the area. Last year, he bought a N200,000 multi-purpose thresher to handle his farm produce as well as other farms, for a fee.
• At Miringa village, in Biu Local Government Area, Mallam Husasaini Abdullahi, who produces soybean and maize seeds, says of the IITA intervention "…for the first time, I am able to pay the school fees of my children in higher institutions without tears."

According to Dr. Alpha Kamara, IITA agronomist, "the improved technologies introduced to resource-poor farmers are fast-changing the face of farming and food production in the State, while the cost of food is gradually going down in the project areas, leading to wider food security."

IITA works with the Borno State Agricultural Development Program, the University of Maiduguri, and Community Research for Empowerment and Development, a local nongovernmental organization, to improve institutional capacity and sustain project activities. As project economist Dr. Paul Amaza explains, "We mobilize communities and engage them fully in innovative economic empowerment initiatives that improve their living standards, ensure food security, and reduce environmental degradation."