News Overview

By Lucia Carillo and Katrina Kosec  CGIAR Science Week—an April 2025 event at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya that brought together global leaders in research, policy, and development—included one standout session. The session, titled “Science and Innovation for Resilient Food Systems in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings,” drew attention to the pressing need for research-driven solutions in the world’s

A Sudanese Armed Forces soldier walks past small stalls selling basic goods and some food, seen through a blast hole in the wall of the Aalia Specialist Hospital in Omdurman, Sudan. The hospital was under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for months and heavily damaged in the process. [Photo Credit: Ivor Prickett/Panos Pictures] By Tarig Alhaj Rakhy, Shima Mohamed, Khalid Siddig, Hala

While many in the Northern Hemisphere may be preparing for a summer beach getaway, the Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC) will be heading to Edinburgh for its first in-person meeting of 2025. At the top of its agenda: finalizing the external review of 13 CGIAR Program and Accelerator Inception Reports. In an era of constrained funding and difficult trade-offs,

A landmark study published in Nature’s Communications Biology by IITA scientists showcases how CRISPR-based gene editing offers hope for East Africa’s banana farmers. Scientists at IITA-CGIAR have made a major breakthrough in the fight against Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW), a devastating bacterial disease threatening banana crops across East and Central Africa. The findings, recently published in Communications Biology, the prestigious journal from the Nature portfolio, demonstrates how gene

Banana breeding is a slow and time-consuming process, and it is currently taking almost a decade in Tanzania to develop new varieties due to the crop’s complex genetics, sterility, and long generation cycles. In efforts to improve banana breeding through research, there is a great need for research institutes to increase collaboration with the National Agricultural Research System in data

The IITA Kano Station hosted students from Cradle to Career Academy, Zawachiki, Kano during an enriching educational visit recently. The visit was designed to expose the students, comprising Junior Secondary School and Primary 6 pupils, to agricultural research, innovation, and career opportunities in agribusiness. The station administrator, Ado Rabo, warmly received the group and provided an overview of IITA’s work. He explained

IITA–CGIAR has joined the Plant Breeding Innovation Management Program (PBIMP) under the Global Stewardship Group (GSG), reinforcing its commitment to responsible and ethical research in modern biotechnology, including Genome Editing. This strategic move marks another significant milestone in IITA’s continued leadership in agricultural innovation, particularly genome editing. By joining the PBIMP, IITA aligns itself with an international community of research institutions

The CGIAR Research Initiative on Sustainable Healthy Diets through Food Systems Transformation (SHiFT) has published its final annual report, showcasing progress made from 2022 to 2024 in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Viet Nam.   Over the past three years, SHiFT combined high-quality research with strategic partnerships to support country-led food systems transformation toward sustainable healthy diets. The 2024 report provides a snapshot