British Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, visited IITA–CGIAR accompanied by the High Commission’s Head of Prosperity, Kris Camponi, and Senior Advisor, Wale Adebajo, from 17 to 18 November. The delegation discussed IITA’s long-standing contribution to the development of African agriculture, how the UKAid with HarvestPlus is helping scale biofortified seeds and food products to end-users, and ways to contribute further to the enhancement of food and nutrition security in Africa.
IITA West Africa Hub Director and Head of Genetic Resources Center (GRC), Michael Abberton, welcomed the team and highlighted IITA’s focus on four broad areas of agricultural research and delivery—Crop improvement (breeding, biotech, and seed systems), Natural Resources Management (soil, agronomy, plant health, and plant production), Social Sciences, and Agribusiness. He added that the Institute utilizes funding from various partners for research, scaling, and delivery. IITA’s Partnerships for Delivery (P4D) ensures its Research for Development (R4D) output is scaled to impact more beneficiaries positively.