IITA, FARA committed to boosting agriculture in Africa

5 - 8 August 2013. Ibadan, Nigeria. In his first official mission as the Executive Director of the Forum for
Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo visited Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, Director-General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Both leaders reiterated their commitment to speed up institutional efforts and boost the agricultural sector in Africa.

IITA and FARA also underscored the need for deepening their institutional relationship to generate scientific innovations and create impact at farm levels. Speaking on the theme: “The Science Agenda for African Agriculture: Implications for IITA and other CGIAR actors, Dr Akinbamijo stated that to make impact and improve agriculture on the continent, there is need to work together, pull together and deliver together.

He noted that IITA had a unique stake in the context of African agriculture, and that a synergy between FARA and IITA was inevitable for agricultural development on the continent. He explained that the development of an agriculture science agenda for Africa was a result of the Dublin Process — an initiative of African stakeholders in agricultural research and development, the CGIAR consortium and development partners aimed at improving alignment of CGIAR to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) agenda.

According to Dr. Akinbamijo, the Dublin Process was inspired by the realisation that CGIAR research programmes could be focused – at least in Africa – to better address agricultural research for development needs articulated in country and regional agriculture and food security investment plans. He also said IITA and other CGIAR partners had strategic roles to play in the science agenda, especially in terms of building and developing capacities on the continent.

Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director-General, Partnerships and Capacity Development, shared IITA’s refreshed strategy with the FARA delegation, which aims to raise 11 million people out of poverty and redirect 7.5 million hectares of degraded land in the tropics into sustainable use. To achieve the vision, Dr Dashiell noted that partnerships would be the main driver in addition to capacity development and involving stakeholders in a joint communication process.

Related:
Vanguard 26/08 Investment in agricultural research has gone down – Akinbamijo

This Day 25/08 Africa’s Food Import Bill in Excess of $40 Billion, Says FARA CEO Akinbamijo

Nigeria is a high consumer of poultry and we also produce poultry so how do we meet the need of the poultry industry. Cassava peels are high energy compliment and can be fed to non-ruminants and ruminants alike. In my opinion, I see a great potential of developing animal nutrition industry emerging from the cassava sub-sector, the cassava value chain itself, so we are beginning to see how we can optimize our resources, optimise the crops and the whole value chain of just one commodity where the waste product becomes the raw material of another chain.

Daily Independent 25/08 Nigeria’s agric at all time high –Akinbamijo, FARA ED

I see a great potential of developing animal nutrition industry emerging from the cassava sub-sector. So we are beginning to see how we can optimise our resources, optimise the crops and the whole value chain of just one commodity where the waste product becomes the raw material of another chain.

Nigerian Pilot 10/08 The Nigerian federal government asked to contribute to the FARA Multi-Donor Trust Fund

We would like to request the possibility of Nigeria championing a call for African countries to provide support for the functioning of FARA and calling a meeting of development partners to discuss future support for continent-wide and regional programmes in agricultural research