IITA/AfDB to launch a bold plan to revolutionize African agriculture
January 20, 2018
Scientists, development specialists, agricultural experts, representatives from national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES), and entrepreneurs from the private sector mainly from Africa will assemble in IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria on 22-25 January, for the inauguration and planning workshop of the long-awaited African Development Bank (AFDB)-funded program called Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT).
TAAT aims to increase agricultural productivity and diversificaion, improve socioeconomic status of farmers, and create jobs for millions of Africans.
The multi-year, multi-partner TAAT program was conceptualized based on “Africa Feeding Africa,” a core priority of AfDB and aligned with the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy (2013- 2022) for inclusive and green growth in the continent. The program, aimed to revitalize African agriculture, was conceived in a high-level conference on African agricultural transformation attended by leading experts in agriculture, research institutions, academia, financial institutions and civil society held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2015.
TAAT was first announced during the World Food Prize events held in Des Moines, Iowa, in October, 2017, where AfDB President Akin Adesina was given the 2017 World Food Prize award. TAAT will be launched on 22 January at IITA’s headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria.
According to Dr Jonas Chianu, AfDB Agricultural Economist and TAAT program manager, “TAAT heralds a new dawn in African agricultural transformation because of its key benefits.” TAAT will lead to:
Increased agricultural productivity and diversification, leading to improved food and nutrition security,
Improved socioeconomic status of farmers including women and youth due to higher incomes,
Reduced vulnerabilities to market fluctuation due to agricultural product imports, and
Job creation, among others.
TAAT will execute an ambitious and bold plan to achieve rapid agricultural transformation across Africa by raising agricultural productivity along nine Priority Intervention Areas (PIA) and over 18 agricultural commodity value chains.
The execution of TAAT will involve a close partnership among the AfDB, World Bank, and development partners to ensure increased financing for agricultural research and development along the value chains. FARA, the CGIAR System Organization, and 11 of it’s 15 international agricultural research centers most active in Africa, have embraced the Bank’s initiative and are co-sponsoring the program to revitalize and transform agriculture within the shortest possible time while restoring degraded l and and maintaining or strengthening the ecosystems that underpin agriculture.
Olamide Deborah Nwanze is a Senior Research Associate specializing in gender mainstreaming research to inform participatory and inclusive breeding, variety development, and seed systems policies regarding root, tuber, and banana (RTB) crops in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Headquarters, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ibadan and holds an MSc and B. Agric in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. Olamide is a fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development – Gender Responsive Agricultural Systems Policy (AWARD-GRASP) and the Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT). She seeks to apply her gender-mainstreaming learnings, gender-responsive research, and policy development, and review expertise to facilitate women, youth, children, and vulnerable social group’s access to and adoption of agricultural Innovations that guarantee food, nutrition, income, and livelihood security in Africa. Her current roles include mentoring research fellows, development of guides and training manuals, implementation and adaptation of gender frameworks and tools, value chain actors’ engagement as citizen science partners, policy review and redesign, data management, and analysis. Her current research explores mixed methods and participatory and interdisciplinary approaches to capture and highlight gender dynamics, needs, preferences, and challenges stakeholders face within the agricultural livelihood value chain to prioritize gender-inclusive strategies in breeding programs, policy design, and implementation.
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