IITA supports Africa’s first ever postharvest loss congress
May 26, 2017
IITA was among the major sponsors and partners of first All Africa Postharvest Congress & Exhibition. The Congress resonated well with one of IITA’s key areas of focus–reducing postharvest losses.
“IITA’s vision is to reduce hunger, poverty, and malnutrition by, among others, increasing yields of major staple food crops such as cassava, yam, maize, banana and plantain, soybean, and cowpea by 60% and increasing the average farm income by half. However, we cannot achieve this if we do not tackle postharvest loss“Postharvest losses render all our attempts to increase production a waste of effort and resources,” said Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, speaking at the official opening of the Congress on behalf of IITA’s Director General, Nteranya Sanginga.
- Ranajit Bandyopadhyay during opening session
- CS kenya agric ministry during opening session
Congress declared a major success!
The participants of this inaugural conference declared it a success but asked organizers to ensure it was not another talk-show and to follow up on recommendations made. The other suggestion was that it should not be a one-off event but should take place every two to three years and the venue rotated around different African countries. IITA’s participation in the event was ably led by Charity Mutegi, IITA’s Aflasafe Coordinator in East Africa and a member of the Congress’ Local Organizing Committee. She was assisted by Jane Kamau and Njeri Okono, both from IITA’s Aflasafe Technology Transfer and Commercialization (ATTC) Project, as well as by Catherine Njuguna from IITA Communication and the IITA Aflasafe team based at KALRO Katumani.Contributed by
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