iita bulletin no. 2201

8/13/2019 IITA Bulletin No. 2201

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THE

Issue No. 2201 25-29 November 2013

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Board commends IITA Management team

THE

BULLETINTHE

Sanginga

Refreshed IITA strategy aims to raise 11 million out of poverty, restore 7.5million hectares of degraded land

The International Institute of TropicalAgriculture has refreshed its strategy,with a vision of raising 11 million peopleout of poverty in the tropics and alsoredirecting 7.5 million ha of degraded landinto sustainable use.

The refreshed strategy has been approved bythe IITA Board of Trustees and emphasizesthe need for scientic research to achieveresults at the farm level

In Ibadan, addressing more than 200 nationaland international scientists during the week-long annual planning week (otherwise knownas Research-for-Development Week), Dr

Nteranya Sanginga, IITA Director General,called on scientists to ensure that the outcomeof their research is creating this favorableimpact.

In his presentation, Its time for IITA, DrSanginga gave a picture of the constraintsto development in the tropics, particularly inAfrica. He highlighted factors such as poornatural resource management (soils, water,and biodiversity), yield gaps, postharvest

losses, and pests and diseases as majorconstraints to the growth of the region.The unfolding scenario has placed

responsibility on IITA as a research Institute

to help tropical nations to overcome thechallenges.

Everyone is looking up to IITA to providesolutions to food insecurity in Africa, hesaid.

Dr Sanginga who assumed ofce two yearsago also gave a progress report, highlightingthe successes recorded, the problems, andthe task ahead.

During the period, the Institutes researchreputation soared to a record high.Three scientists were honored for their

achievements. Dr Charity Mutegi wonthe 2013 Norman Borlaug Award for FieldResearch and Application; Dr Georg Goergenwas honored by eminent international fruit

y taxonomists of the Royal Museum forCentral Africa, Tervuren, Belgium (MRAC)and the Natural History Museum, London,England; Dr Tahirou Abdoulaye receivedan award from the Purdue University for

protecting precious cowpea grain frompests in storage. Funding to the Institutehas doubled and the number of scientic

publications in high impact factor journalshas risen.

Central to the growth is also the upgrade inhuman and infrastructural resources. In thelast two years, a modern Science Buildinghas been built and commissioned in Dar esSalaam, Tanzania; the IITA headquartersin Ibadan has gone through a remarkableupgrade. The Institute has also begun theconstruction of the building in the SouthernAfrica Hub. Staff welfare has also receivedclose attention while attention is being givento retaining and motivating excellence.

Dr Sanginga said that the growth of theInstitute had never compromised researchquality but emphasized that researchersshould not rest on their laurels but ensurethat delivery is sustained.

There is no excuse we must deliver anddeliver, he said.

The Board of Trustees of the InternationalInstitute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)has commended the Management team ofIITA under the leadership of Dr NteranyaSanginga for the excellent management ofthe Institute.

Addressing staff during a Town Hallmeeting in Ibadan, Chair of the Board,

Dr Bruce Coulman said, IITA is well-managed.

We are very impressed with the growth ofthe institute And IITA is fortunate to havedynamic leader, he added.

The verdict of the Board received a loudovation from staff.

Dr Coulman reiterated that the research

by the Institute is relevant and clearlydemonstrates that IITA is Africas agriculturalresearch leader.

The Town Hall meeting also witnessedthe recognition of scientists who havedistinguished themselves in variousdisciplines and the presentation of awards todeserving staff.

BoT Chair Coulman addresses staff during Town Hall meeting in Ibadan


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page 2IITA Bulletin 2201

Addressing the capacity gaps in AfricaDirector General (Partnerships andCapacity Development). He highlightedthe abysmally low number of scientists

per million of population in sub-SaharanAfrican countries.

While China has 1071 researchers per

million people; Ethiopia, Mozambique,and Togo have (each) less than 50 scientistsper million.

Dr Dashiell said part of the reason why thePCD Directorate was created was to helpaddress this gap through training.

The Directorate comprises thefollowing Ofces: Communication,Project Administration, PartnershipsCoordination, Proposal Development, andCapacity Development.

The Deputy Director General highlightedthe achievements of the Directorate andalso introduced the Business IncubationPlatform (BIP)a new initiative under theDirectorate that will provide opportunitiesfor scaling up technology with a privatesector perspective in view.

The need for partnerships and capacitydevelopment was brought to the foreduring a thought-provoking presentation

by Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy

More than 200 researchers in Ibadan for R4D

About 200 scientists and staffconverged on Ibadan between 25 and29 November for the 2013 annual planningweek, otherwise known as Research-for-Development Week (R4D Week).

Researchers and staff were welcomed bythe Deputy Director General (Research),Dr Ylva Hillbur, who also gave a summaryof activities for the week.

She explained that the event was aimedat promoting interactions and knowledge

sharing among staff, and collectivelyplanning ahead.

This years theme for the week-long

event was It is IITAs time. The themewas adopted from pronouncements earliermade by the Vice Chair of IITA Boardof Trustees, John Grifth, during theceremony of laying the foundation stonefor the IITA building for the SouthernAfrica Hub in Zambia.

The week provided opportunity forresearchers to make presentations oncurrent programs and projects, discussnew initiatives, hold workshops on specic

research themes and CGIAR ResearchPrograms, present posters, hold meetings,and socialize.

Hillbur welcomes staff

Dashiell

Comments

Melba Mussagy,AgroenterpriseDeve lopmen tSpecialist This yearsR4D Week was,in my opinion,

better than last years in terms of thescientic content. However, I think the

poster presentations could have been betterorganized. Probably next year, make the

poster sessions a mandatory activity thatpeople must attend and appreciate.

G e z a h e g nT e s s e m a ,A s s o c i a t eP r o f e s s i o n a lOfce R4DWeek is a goodopportunity forus to know whatother scientistsin the differentstations and Hubsare doing. This

bringing togetherof professionals is very educational,especially for the new staff.

Y u k i k oK a s h i h a r a ,

P o s t d o c t o r a lFellow - YamBreeder Apart from thechance to meetdifferent IITAscientists from

the various stations of IITA and knowwhat they are doing, R4D Week givesus a great opportunity to see where wecould collaborate with other researchers,especially in the same eld. I liked the

poster session, I think it is better organized

than last years session.

Debo AkandeThe meetinghas been veryinteresting and aneye opener for meas a new scientist.The R4D Week

provides theopportunity forme to understandthe mode of

operations ofIITA and also gives a deep insight in my

program and other projects as well.


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IITA must deliver to remain on top says theDirector of Finance

The Director of Finance, Mr OmoshalewaSholola, has said that IITA had a strongnancial base with positive growth rate

but added a caveat that researchers mustfully implement projects for the Instituteto sustain its growth.

While giving nancial updates on thepast, present, and future, Mr Shololadescribed 2013 as a successful year forIITA, emphasizing that projections were

in line with targets.We are doing pretty well, he said.

What is ready, what is cooking?

The Corporate Services Directorategave progress report to scientists andother staff at the 2013 R4D week in Ibadan.

Mr Kwame Akuffo-Akoto, DeputyDirector General (Corporate Services) gavea presentation, Providing cost-effectivesupport services to impact-driven research:What is ready and what is cooking, to

highlight the achievements made by eachof the Units under the Directorate.

Some of the achievements include theupgrade of staff, review of per-diemand travel policy, refurbishment ofinfrastructure and labs, and improvementin internet services, among others.

Mr Akuffo-Akoto reafrmed thecommitment of the Directorate to givegreater attention to staff welfare andmorale, and to keep up the refurbishment

of the Institutes infrastructure andlaboratory facilities. The Directoratecomprises the following components:Hubs Administration, FacilitiesManagement Services, Human ResourcesServices, Supply Chain, Information andCommunication Technology, Hotel andCatering, and Security and Plant Protection.

Akuffo-Akoto

Kenneth Oraegbunam unfolds IITA E-Research Roadmap

To harness the power of advancedInformation and CommunicationTechnologies, IITA is developing aroadmap on E-Research.

Kenneth Oraegbunam, Senior TechnicalAnalyst, explained that the vision is todevelop an infrastructure for managing thedata from agricultural research to improveR4D and service delivery by supporting

the entire chain from the laboratories tosmallholder farms, leading to rural povertyreduction, food security, and economicgrowth.

Addressing researchers and staff at thisyears R4D Week, Mr Oraegbunam sharedsome of the expected outcomes of theE-Research platform, as follows: Improved management, collaboration,

sharing, joint working, and monitoringresearch programs and outputs

Availability of a virtual researchenvironment with on-line tools, high-end and distributed computing, systems

and processes, data, modeling, andvisualization resources

Increased collaboration with partners,including the private sector and farmersorganizations

Improved data and informationmanagement to support research

programs, including access to researchoutputs

Improved management of resources(human, material, and nancial) and

Improved R4D data management in sub-Saharan Africa through the leadership ofIITA.

The E-Research platform will integrateinto a common platform the various

database systems across the Institute, suchPromisCRM system, Training DB system,Bibliography database, Staff Prole,HR4U, as well as a website facelift andwill become a one-stop shop.

M i c h a e lA b b e r t o n The meetinghas been verygood. The focuson science isa good idea,and the generalatmosphere for

discussion hasbeen positive and constructive it hasbeen a good opportunity to meet peoplefrom the other side from both a socialand a professional context.

Tamo Manuele

I am very

positively

impressed. Last

year was ok

but this year is

better, maybe

because of the

logistics in

presenting the

papers. This

year has more

concentration on good science so far.

This is also a good opportunity to see old

and new colleagues. I am very pleased to

be here, without reservations.

Manson Nwafor It has been

a great effort,

providing cross-

fertilization of

ideas, learning

from one another,

seeing how we

can support each

other. There

isnt an easy

opportunity to do that when we get working

in your different stations. So far, so good.

Penina

Mouki The

program is

very intense.

I am happy

to see science

coming back

to the R4D

program and

in particularto see young

scientists

Sholola

Oraegbunam


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Increasing social science research for greater impact

For IITA to achieve the four CGIARstrategic System Level Outcomes(SLOs) of increased food security,

reduced rural poverty, under-nutrition,and sustainable land use management,it is critically important to understandthe social context in which it operates toensure that its research and technologiesare relevant.

Victor Manyong is the Director forEastern Africa and leader for social scienceresearch at IITA. He said, Social sciencestherefore have an important role to playin guiding the Research for Developmentefforts of the Institute for better impact.

IITA social scientists had developed a

refreshed social science and agribusinessstrategy and their vision was to becomea reliable source of knowledge for socialscience and to provide the prototypes and

blueprints for agribusiness.

Our strategic objective is to conductstrategic and applied research in

social science to improve productivity,competitiveness, and the nutrition ofsmallholders through IITA CRPs. Inthe process, International Public Goods

Support for IITAs strategy

This year, IITA refreshed its strategy for the next 10 years during which it aims atgetting 11 million people out of poverty and rehabilitating 7.5 million ha of land intoproductive agricultural use. Several programs at the institute have in turn developed theirown strategies spelling out how they will contribute and support the institute to reachits goal. These include Biotechnology, Natural Resources Management (NRM), SocialScience and Agribusiness, and Agronomy and Plant Health Management. These wereshared by the various team leaders on the rst day of this years R4D week.

Investing in soil fertility to feed and reducepoverty in Africa

To achieve its vision of getting 11million people out of poverty andrehabilitating 7.5 million ha of land, IITAmust address the problem of Africas poorsoils where smallholder farmers havedepleted the nutrients without replenishingthem for many years.

The population is growing faster thanthe expansion of agricultural land in allAfrican regions and the smallholderfarmers are struggling to grow their crops

on farms that are becoming smaller in size.Therefore, to ensure that there is food forall without forests being cleared to increasethe area for agriculture, there is a need tointensify the farming systems to enablethese farmers to produce more from landof the same size.

Bernard Vanlauwe, IITAs Central AfricaDirector and leader of IITAs NaturalResource Management efforts, says thatalthough intensication is necessary itcannot take place without addressing the

problem of poor soils. Furthermore, the efforts must be targeteddown to the farm level to address thevariability of soil fertility within farms.

He said the institute had refreshed its NRMstrategy to guide its efforts to improve soilhealth to raise production through IntegratedSoil Fertility Management (ISFM),Sustainable Land Use Management, andclimate change. These will be undertakenthrough the Humidtropics, Climate ChangeAgriculture, and Food Security (CCAFs),and the Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE)CGIAR Research Programs. He said the institute would further focuson creating enabling environments for thesmallholder farmers, such as by improvingaccess to knowledge and inputs in smallaffordable packaging, use of Informationand Communication Technologies (ICTS),and in working with agro-dealers.

He added that the institute would workthrough partnership platforms bringingtogether all the diverse relevant actors.

(IPG) will be generated that guide thedevelopment of technological, institutional,and policy innovations at the institute for

impact.In the strategy, social science research

at IITA will have six strategic andinterlinked objectives based on strategicstudies, impact evaluation, and outcomeevaluation. These include making ex-ante impact assessments to assist theInstitute to prioritize interventions despitelimited resources; conducting research athousehold levels to understand povertydynamics; looking at the gender issues in theadoption of technologies and innovations;assessing input and output market systems,

farmers organizations, and agribusinessmanagement; scaling up technologies, andconducting ex-post impact assessments tolearn lessons in accountability.

presenting their work. That is capacity

building, a key pillar for IITA, starting

from home even before we go to the

wider audience. The amount of time

given to gender issues is commendable:

this cuts across CRPs.

Y e m e f a c k

Martin It

has been a very

good interaction

to know what

people are doing,

from the very

beginning of the

conference till

today. What is

going on is quite

all right and

commendable; everything is well timed.I am pleased to say that I presented a

poster on the soil atlas of Africa which was

published this year.

Leena Tripathi

On the

science day, it

was very good

to see many

presen ta t ions

and posters.This is a new

thing this year

which I found

interesting.

Vanlauwe

Manyong


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Strategies to reduce the yield gaps insmallholder farmers fields

Yields of smallholder farmers in Africaare way below their potential. Oneaspect of the IITA strategy to get 11.5 million

people out of poverty and rehabilitate 7.5million ha of land is by reducing this yield

gap though better agronomic practices andplant health management.

The factors that prevent the farmers fromattaining the optimum yield possible fromtheir crops include pests and diseases,weeds, and the lack of water and adequatenutrients.

For example, Dr David Chikoye, IITADirector for SouthernAfrica and team leaderfor the agronomy and plant health research,said Smallholder farmers in Africa harvest1-t/ha of maize but researchers get 512 t/ha in their research elds following good

management practices.Its therefore important to understand allthe various factors that contribute to suchlow yields and to identify the best crop

and pest management practices to increaseyield.

The vision of the agronomy and planthealth management scientists at IITAis to: Increase the productivity andsustainability of smallholder agriculture byinnovative agronomic and plant protectionoptions. The mission of the group is todevelop and deploy tools, products, andtechnologies to improve crop and pestmanagement practices. The planned priority areas of researchinclude assessing the various causes ofthe yield gap, nding how crops adapt tostressful conditions, discovering water andnutrient management options, knowledge-

based weed management practices andcrop models, and decision support systems. The Institute will build on to some of its

past successes in this eld. These includethe Biodiversity Center in Bnin that has acollection of 350,000 insect specimens andits bio-pesticide and bio-control solutionsas part of sustainable Integrated PestManagement (IPM) options.

The group further identied four strategicareas on which to focus: researchinginnovative crop management options;environmentally friendly pest managementoptions such as bio-pesticides; technology,knowledge, and information sharingincluding the development of ICT tools forthe diagnosis and surveillance of emerging

pests and diseases; and establishing

innovative partnerships and capacitybuilding.

Dr Asiedu presents the Biotech strategy

Dr Robert Asiedu, IITA Directorfor Western Africa, presented theInstitutes work- in-progress biotechnologystrategy and called for contributions fromscientists and staff. The premise of the draft strategy isto enhance the efciency of crop

improvement, conservation, andcharacterization of biological diversityand plant health management. The vision of the strategy is to transformthe Institute to a leading partner insub-Saharan Africa for innovation anddiscovery and to function as a knowledge

base for the effective application ofbiotechnology for increased agriculturalproductivity and the sustainablemanagement of natural resources.

Dr Asiedu said the focus was on threestrategic objectives:

1. Enhancing the management,characterization, and use of plantgenetic resources

2. Enhancing the efciency andeffectiveness of plant breeding

3. Ensuring the efcient diagnosis andmonitoring of biological systems

Crosscutting themes include:

1. Partnerships and capacitystrengthening for enhancedapplication of biotechnologies

2. Deployment of products andknowledge

Chikoye

Awardees

Aasafe Team Leader, Dr Ranajit

Bandyopadhyay (R) receives Best Team

award from Amos Namanga Ngongi

Piet VanAsten (R) receives Best Scientist

award from Trine Hvoslef-Eide

Ismail Rabbi (R) receives Best Scientic Paperaward from Roel Merckx

Kayode Awobajo (R) receives Best Support

Staff award from Xikombiso Mbhenyane

Asiedu


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IITA Board and Management visit BIP

Members of the Board of Trusteespaid a visit to the IITA BusinessIncubation Platform (BIP) and made atour of the facilities. The BIP, which is stillundergoing construction, comprises theAasafe , Nodumax, and Goseed factories.Drs Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, Abebe Menkir,and Mahamadi Dianda with Mr Lawrence

Kaptoge took time to explain the proposedand ongoing activities at the various sections. Board members witnessed the productionof Aasafe that would be deployed to farmersto help ght the menace of aatoxin that isdamaging both health and trade, especiallyin sub-Saharan Africa.Bruce Coulman, BoT Chair, on the sidelinessaid he was impressed with the initiative andwork at the BIP. On completion, the BIP will serve as amodel for attracting the private sector inagriculture. It will also provide training and

job opportunities and help to amplify thebenets of IITA research to smallholderfarmers.

Cassava breeders meet ahead of R4D Week

Researchers working in the cassavabreeding program in IITA held aspecial session ahead of this years annual

planning week to review activities during

the year and also to chart a way forward.

The theme of the meeting was:Developing IITA cassava varietypipelines for major outcomes: deployingnew strategies and tools for breeding. Dr Peter Kulakow, IITA Cassava Breeder,gave an update of breeding efforts, citingthe dissemination of vitamin A cassavavarieties in Nigeria as part of major outputsin the year. Other breeders also had theopportunity to give updates on their work,highlighting opportunities and challenges. Dr Elizabeth Parkes said the event

provided an opportunity for stronger teamcohesion and an avenue for colleagues toknow what others are doing. The event, the meeting of IITA cassavascientists ahead of a strategic meeting suchas R4D Week, is the rst in history. Cassava breeders

BoT Members and IITA Management at BIP

Parkes makes a point at the meeting

Photos

BoT Members and IITA Management at

Town Hall meeting in Ibadan

BoT Members comparing notes during

coffee breakBoT Member Trine Hvoslef-Eide in a chat

with James Legg

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