A renewed partnership of CIRAD with Ivory Coast

11 March 2016. CIRAD signed a general cooperation agreement with the Ivorian Ministry of Agriculture on 2 March 2016, renewing its partnership on agricultural research, appraisals and training. In particular, the agreement covers the topics of food safety and cocoa diseases. It follows on from those signed with the CNRA in 2014 and FIRCA in 2015 and confirms the resumption of operations in partnership between CIRAD and Ivory Coast.

Renewed cooperation on agricultural research, appraisals and training is the objective of a general agreement between CIRAD and Ivory Coast, signed on 2 March by CIRAD President Managing Director Michel Eddi and Ivorian Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly.

This renewed partnership will centre on:

• food safety, with a contribution to establishing a specific structure;
• oil palm varietal improvement and seed production;
• plantain banana, in terms of plantlet production;
• pineapple growing, with the launch of a study to identify the problems associated with the crop;
• mango, with regard to improving quality;
• cocoa, with the extension of the study to map soil fertility in the Savannah zone of Ivory Coast;
• rice growing, with the launch of CIRAD-CNRA-AfricaRice-Office National de Développement de la Riziculture (ONDR) collaboration.

Michel Eddi: "This agreement is the sign of a strong partnership dynamic and of a resumption of collaboration, which had been halted due to the situation in the country. I am keen for our researchers to return our partners in Ivory Coast very shortly, to work on agricultural development priorities. "

The signature, which confirms the resumption of operations in partnership between CIRAD and Ivory Coast, follows on from three previous general agreements signed with Ivorian institutions:

• in April 2015, with the Fonds interprofessionnel pour la recherche et le conseil agricoles (FIRCA)
• in July 2014, with the Centre national de la recherche agronomique (CNRA)
• in 2012, with the Institut national polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny (INP-HB) in Yamoussoukro, where socio economics researcher, François Ruf has since been based.