News Overview

The GIZ Employment and Skills for Development in Africa (E4D) programme has partnered with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Uganda and Olam Food Ingredients (OFI) to improve the livelihoods of 5,000 coffee farmers in the Mount Elgon region of Uganda. Instead of blanket support provided through traditional service delivery models, the partnership will co-design a suite of scientifically

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Uganda Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Team spent a week in Kasese district, western Uganda, in May conducting focus group discussions with more than 150 smallholder coffee, vanilla, and cocoa farmers. The activity is part of a collaboration between the Sustainable Food Lab, USAID, Touton, and IITA bringing together the private sector, agricultural researchers, and smallholder farmers to improve smallholder

Oyo State has realized that the interest of teenagers and youth can be captured through modern agriculture. In partnership with IITA on the Start Them Early Program (STEP), the Oyo State government (OYSG) commissioned the first STEP-Oyo project at the Methodist High School, Ibadan, on 28 May. The project was established to introduce this initiative in agriculture and encourage agribusiness, generate employment for

A large delegation from IITA joined other cassava stakeholders in the official launch of the National Cassava Development Strategy by Tanzania’s Minister of Agriculture on 7 May in the country’s capital, Dodoma. IITA was also among the main sponsors and played a key role in the event’s organization, which provided a forum for all stakeholders to discuss how to operationalize the strategy to commercialize

As part of efforts to ensure sustainability and scalability of efforts to build capacity in Tanzania to respond to the challenges posed by climate change to agriculture, IITA organized a series of awareness creation sessions for councilors and other district-level planners on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) planning and budgeting. The team from the USAID-funded Building Capacity for Resilient Food Security project specifically met

A long-time collaborator and partner, the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS), honored IITA with the “Service Support Award” for excellent support and collaboration towards the achievements of its mandate. The plaque was given during the passing out ceremony of new NAQS staff on 16 April 2021, at the Regional Post Entry and Diagnostics Centre, Moor Plantation, Ibadan. Dr Vincent Isegbe,

With Africa’s population predicted to double by 2050, creating challenges such as high unemployment rates, low income, food insecurity, and persistent poverty, there needs to be a systemic change targeting the continent’s youth, who will make up about 60% of the overall population. IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga highlighted some of the required systemic changes in a joint IPS News Agency op-ed with Young Africa Works

IITA’s Director for Eastern Africa Hub and leader for Biotechnology research, Leena Tripathi, has been selected to be part of the External Advisory Panel of the newly launched Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD), UK. NISD is a world-leading institute that fosters sustainable development through transdisciplinary research and innovation. It is a partnership of leading research institutes working towards the UN Sustainable