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AfricaRice and IITA: A Strategic Alliance Transforming Africa’s Food Systems Through Science
April 30, 2026
Dr Baboucarr Manneh, AfricaRice DG (on the left) and Dr Simeon Ehui, IITA Director General (on the right). (Credit: A. A. Diomandé)
Dr Baboucarr Manneh, AfricaRice DG (on the left) and Dr Simeon Ehui, IITA Director General (on the right). (Credit: A. A. Diomandé)
April 15, 2026, Mbé, Bouaké (Côte d’Ivoire) – In a powerful demonstration of scientific collaboration, the Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) led a high-level delegation to the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) main research station in Mbé, reinforcing the partnership between these sister CGIAR centers. As food sovereignty emerges as Africa’s defining challenge, AfricaRice and IITA are taking their collaboration to new heights—placing science at the heart of their strategy to transform agricultural challenges into engines of sustainable economic growth.  The partnership is anchored in a stark economic reality: Africa spends more than $40 billion annually on food imports. To reverse this trend, the AfricaRice-IITA alliance is focused on dramatically closing yield gaps through innovation and science-based solutions. 
r Simeon Ehui (on the left) visiting AfricaRice Soil Laboratory. (Credit: A. A. Diomandé)
“Through seed innovation and optimized farming practices, we can increase yields by 30 to 50% while doubling farmers’ incomes and this is why it is important to have solid partnerships in agri-science community,” emphasized Dr Baboucarr Manneh, Director General of AfricaRice.  Flagship Collaborations Delivering Continental Impact  The partnership between AfricaRice and IITA has already generated measurable results across multiple flagship initiatives: 
  1. TAAT: Scaling Agricultural Transformation
The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), exemplifies the complementarity of both centers. Since its launch in 2018, TAAT has: 
  • Reached nearly 25 million farmers 
  • Expanded climate-smart agricultural practices across over 35 million hectares 
  • Deployed high-yielding hybrid rice varieties adapted to African conditions through the Rice Compact, led by AfricaRice 
In this architecture, IITA provides overall program coordination while AfricaRice pilots the Rice Compact—a model of strategic division of labor that maximizes impact.  In February 2026, the AfDB awarded IITA a $16.6 million grant to launch TAAT Phase III, which is expected to reach an additional 14 million farmers across 37 countries. 
  1. Zero Hunger Project: Empowering Smallholders
The Zero Hunger Project, funded by IFAD and co-led by AfricaRice and IITA, has targeted 35,000 smallholder farmers in Nigeria and Togo, with 45% women and 20% youth.  The project has achieved remarkable milestones: 
  • Trained over 6,000 farmers in seed production 
  1. GEM Technology: Transforming Women’s Livelihoods
The GEM (Grain quality Enhancer, Energy-efficient, durable Material) rice parboiling technology, co-deployed by both institutions through the TAAT Rice Compact, has transformed the daily lives of women rice processors in Nigeria, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire. This innovation has improved both the market quality of locally produced rice and rural household incomes, which demonstrated how gender-responsive technologies drive inclusive development. 
  1. Seeds4Liberia: Strengthening National Food Security
The Seeds4Liberia project, funded by the European Union with $6.5 million, brings together AfricaRice and IITA to strengthen seed systems in Liberia for rice, cassava, and soybean value chains. This project stands as a compelling example of collaborative impact in service of African nations. 

A Roadmap for the Future 

The joint roadmap for the coming years is built on three strategic pillars: 
  1. From Innovation to Systemic Dissemination: Ensuring that every innovation reaches end beneficiaries at scale, moving beyond research stations to farmers’ fields. 
  1. Climate-Smart Agriculture: Securing production systems against climate variability through resilient varieties and adaptive farming practices. 
  1. Youth Agribusiness Investment: Transforming agriculture into a source of employment and entrepreneurship for Africa’s young population. 
“Our complementarity is our strength. This win-win partnership will help improve our food systems—a major challenge we must address together,” explained Dr Simeon Ehui, Director General of IITA.  By consolidating their partnership, AfricaRice and IITA are affirming a vision where research excellence becomes a public service for development. This strategic alliance demonstrates that when science is coupled with political will and community engagement, Africa has all the levers necessary to feed its population and establish itself as a major player in global agribusiness. 

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Olaosebikan, Olamide

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.

At IITA, she contributes to the implementation of the CGIAR Accelerated Breeding Initiative and Genetic Innovation Programs; participatory and gender research within the NextGen Cassava, HarvestPlus, RTBFoods, and Tricot-ClimMob 1000Farms Projects; and gender knowledge communication via the G-LENS webinar series, video documentary, policy briefs, publications, and blogs.

 

Recent publications

de Sousa, K., van Etten, J., Manners, R. Bello, A., Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., et al. 2024. The tricot approach: an agile framework for decentralized on-farm testing supported by citizen science. A retrospective. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 44, 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00937-1

Madu, T., Onwuka, S., Nwafor, S., Onyemauwa, N., Ejechi, M., Ofoeze, M., Ukeje, B., Eluagu, C., Olaosebikan, O., Okoye, B., 2024. Gender-Inclusive Consumer Studies Improve Cassava Breeding in Nigeria in: Frontiers in Sociology, volume 9, number: 1224504, doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1224504

Olaosebikan, O.; Bello, A.; Utoblo, O.; Okoye, B.; Olutegbe, N.; Garner, E.; Teeken, B.; Bryan, E.; Forsythe, L.; Cole, S.; Madu, T. 2023.  Stressors and Resilience within the Cassava Value Chain in Nigeria: Preferred Cassava Variety Traits and Response Strategies of Men and Women to Inform Breeding. Sustainability 15, 7837. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107837

Okoye, B., Ofoeze, M., Ejechi, M., Onwuka, S., Nwafor, S., Onyemauwa, N., Ukeje, B., Eluagu, C., Obidiegwu, J.*, Olaosebikan, O., Madu, T.* 2023. Prioritizing preferred traits in the yam value chain in Nigeria: a gender situation analysis in: Frontiers in Sociology, volume 8, number: 1232626, pages 1 – 9, ISSN 2297-7775, 2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1232626/full

Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A. A., de Sousa, K., Ndjouenkeu, R., Adesokan, M., Alamu, E. O., Agbona, A., van Etten, J., Kegah, F. N.*, Dufour, D., Bouniol, A., Teeken, B. 2023. Consumer acceptability of cassava gari-eba food products across cultural and environmental settings using the triadic comparison of technologies approach (tricot) in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture,

Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A. A., Madu, T.*, Cole, S. M. 2023. Qualitative assessment on the positionality and preferences of dyads in relation to cassava-related activities: working with tricot trial citizen scientists https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138326 Type: Manual

Bouniol, A., Ceballos, H., Bello, A. A., Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., Owoade, D., Agbona, A., Fotso Kuate, A., Madu, T.*, Okoye, B.*, Ofoeze, M.*, Nwafor, S.*, Onyemauwa, N.*, Adinsi, L.*, Forsythe, L., Dufour, D. 2023. Varietal impact on women’s labour, workload and related drudgery in processing root, tuber and banana crops: focus on cassava in sub-Saharan Africa in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, pages 1 – 25, ISSN 0022-5142,

Bello, A. A., Agbona, A., Olaosebikan, O., Edughaen, G., Dufour, D., Bouniol, A., Iluebbey, P., Ndjouenkeu, R.*, Rabbi, I. Y., Teeken, B. 2023. Genetic and environmental effects on processing productivity and food product yield: drudgery of women’s work in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, pages 1 – 32, ISSN 0022-5142, 5

Cavicchioli, M., Zimbiti, T., Teeken, B., Nwanze, D.O., Liani, M., Parkes, E. & Bello, A. 2023. IITA-Gender Responsive Breeding Training Report. Genetic Resources Center, IITA-HQ, Ibadan, 21-23 September, 2022. Ibadan, Nigeria: IITA, (34 p.).https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131368

Agbona, A. Peteti P., Teeken B., Olaosebikan O. Bello, A. A., Parkes, E., Rabbi, I. Y., Mueller, L., Egesi, C., Kulakow, P. 2022. Data Management in Multi-disciplinary African RTB Crop Breeding Programs. In: Williamson, H.F., Leonelli, S. (eds) Towards Responsible Plant Data Linkage: Data Challenges for Agricultural Research and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13276-6_5

Lora Forsythe, Pricilla Marimo, Sarah Mayanja, Olamide D. Olaosebikan, Esme Stuart, Bela Teeken, Benjamin Okoye, Tessy Madu, (2021). Cross-product Gender Analysis of RTBfoods Step 2 Gendered Food Mapping on RTB Products. Understanding the Drivers of Trait Preferences and the Development of Multi-user RTB Product Profiles, WP1. London, UK: RTBfoods Field Scientific Report, 30 p.

Teeken, B., Garner, E., Agbona, A., Balogun, I., Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A., Madu, T., Okoye, B., Egesi, C., Kulakow, P. and Tufan, H.A. 2021. Beyond “Women’s Traits”: Exploring How Gender, Social Difference, and Household Characteristics Influence Trait Preferences. Frontiers Sustainable Food Systems 5:740926. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.740926

Teeken, B., Agbona, A., Bello, A., Olaosebikan, O., Alamu, E., Adesokan, M., Awoyale, W., Madu, T., Okoye, B., Chijioke, U., Owoade, D., Okoro, M., Bouniol, A., Dufour, D., Hershey, C., Rabbi, I., Maziya‐Dixon, B., Egesi, C., Tufan, H. and Kulakow, P. (020. Understanding cassava varietal preferences through pairwise ranking of gari‐eba and fufu prepared by local farmer–processors. Int J Food Sci Technol. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijfs.14862

Bela Teeken, Olamide Olaosebikan, Ireti Balogun, Benjamin Okoye, Tessy Madu, Steven Cole, Abolore Bello, Elizabeth Parkes. (2020). Piloting the G+ customer and product profile tools for gender-responsive cassava breeding in Nigeria. Nigeria: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/13000