On 7 November, IITA signed an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food in Gabon to provide Technical Assistance to the Graine Phase 1 Support Project (PAPG1). The ceremony was presided over by Ndoutoumou Charles Theodore, Cabinet Director of the Minister of Agriculture and Food, representing the minister.
IITA Central Africa Hub Director Zoumana Bamba represented the Institute at the ceremony. He was accompanied by Deputy Director Komi Fiaboe and IITA Specialists Apollin Fotso Kuate and Rachel Zozo.
IITA’s technical assistance to the PAPG1 project is based on two main axes: seed system and capacity building. For the seed system, IITA is expected to provide 5 million healthy cassava cuttings and 667 thousand plantain tissue culture plants to the Gabon government. In turn, they will multiply these seeds further through Société de Transformation Agricole et de Développement Rural (SOTRADER), a national structure promoting annual crops for further multiplication and distribution to the farmers by December 2023.