News Overview

On 22 October, C. Woermann Nigeria and STIHL Company in Germany partnered with IITA’s Business Incubation Platform (BIP) and Agribusiness Mechanization Unit to launch a showroom of their agricultural tools at IITA. The event showcased agricultural tools such as the mist blower, earth auger, tiller, pole pruner, chainsaw, etc., to improve agricultural management practices and productivity of the smallholder farmers. Training Manager Bolanle

Giorgi Khitarishvili started potato farming with his parents when he was five years old, living in Vale, Akhaltsikhe, in southwestern Georgia. At that young impressionable age, he could not have imagined what kind of profits would be possible for potato. Now 25, Khitarishvili is one of a growing group of young farmers embracing potato farmer and realizing large gains in income. “This year the price of potato

Up to 16 African countries have now experienced the banana bunchy top disease (BBTD), caused by the banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), which threatens the livelihoods of 70 million vulnerable banana farmers. The virus is also endangering the diversity of banana varieties grown by these farmers. The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is combating the virus through the Alliance

Budding youth-led enterprises often find it challenging to raise capital. In many cases, such enterprises begin with personal savings or financial support from families and acquaintances, which may not sufficiently cater to the business plan. In other cases, the youth may form a cluster and combine their financial strengths to build the enterprise. To bridge this gap, the youth compact

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has announced that IITA is among the Growth Grand finalists to be awarded $100,000 for its project on integrating Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) as bio-inoculants to boost banana production in the East African Highlands. This was announced in a press release issued on the IFT website. The award is part of the Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge–an

Youth migration from rural to urban areas is often attributed to a lack of employment in the rural areas. Statistically, more youth crowd up the cities searching for better opportunities, and those who stay back may find opportunities for income and livelihood in excess. In Kyotera District, Uganda, just like in many other countries, this is the case. In 2020,

To accelerate the development of improved groundnut varieties, ICRISAT’s groundnut breeding team is gearing up to provide seed to research partners for multi-environment testing (MET) during the 2022 rainy season. Two product profiles are being targeted by the team. Resistance to late leaf spot (LLS) as well as rust are key traits for both profiles. To select lines with resistance

Nature Reports published an open-access paper on a big plant-genome sequencing study conducted by ICARDA and ICRISAT scientists which will facilitate the breeding of more climate-smart, disease-tolerant chickpea crop varieties for better food security. Food legumes are essential for nutrition security. Chickpea, ICARDA staple crop and the third most-produced food legume worldwide, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, is