IITA-CGIAR recently hosted a high-level delegation from the United States Soybean Export Council (USSEC) Soy Excellence Center (SEC) Global Advisory Panel, reaffirming a shared commitment to strengthening soybean value chains and building capacity across Africa.
The delegation was led by Brent Babb, Executive Director of the Soy Excellence Center, and included Christopher Bielecki, Agricultural Counselor at the United States Consulate. Their visit to IITA headquarters provided an opportunity for strategic discussions with the institute’s management on ongoing and future areas of collaboration under the Soy Excellence Center Sub-Saharan Africa (SEC-SSA) initiative. The engagement builds on an existing partnership between IITA and USSEC aimed at promoting soybean sector development, capacity strengthening, and food security across the continent.
Welcoming the delegation, IITA Director General and CGIAR Regional Director for Africa, Dr Simeon Ehui, highlighted the importance of partnerships that bring together research institutions, development organizations, and the private sector to deliver sustainable solutions for Africa’s agricultural challenges.
The visit comes at a time when soybean is gaining prominence as a strategic crop for improving nutrition, supporting livestock feed industries, creating economic opportunities, and strengthening food systems across Africa. Through research, technology dissemination, farmer training, and value-chain development, IITA and its partners are working to unlock the crop’s potential to contribute to agricultural transformation.
Discussions focused on the progress of the Soy Excellence Center Sub-Saharan Africa initiative, which seeks to develop technical expertise and strengthen the capabilities of stakeholders operating across the soybean value chain. The initiative supports a wide range of capacity-building activities designed to equip producers, processors, agribusinesses, extension professionals, and industry actors with the knowledge and skills needed to improve productivity and competitiveness.
The meeting also provided an opportunity to explore new avenues for collaboration and to assess how the partnership can further contribute to building resilient and market-oriented soybean systems across the region. Both organizations recognized the growing demand for soybean-derived products and the need for strengthened technical capacity, innovation, and investment to meet future opportunities.
The relationship between IITA and USSEC has continued to evolve in recent years. Previous engagements have emphasized collaborative research, agronomic training, technology transfer, and capacity development as essential pillars for advancing soybean production and value addition in Africa. Furthermore, IITA’s growing role in soybean training and knowledge dissemination was reinforced when the institute assumed leadership of the Soy Agronomy Center of Excellence, strengthening its position as a hub for soybean capacity development in the region.
For the USSEC delegation, the visit underscored the importance of continued partnerships in creating sustainable growth opportunities throughout the soybean value chain. It also highlighted the role of capacity development in ensuring that farmers, processors, and agribusinesses can benefit from innovations and emerging market opportunities.
The visit reflects a shared vision between IITA and USSEC. Transforming Africa’s agricultural systems requires strong partnerships, scientific innovation, skilled human capital, and effective knowledge-sharing platforms. By combining global expertise with local experience and research excellence, both institutions are helping to create pathways for a more productive and resilient soybean sector.
As discussions concluded, both parties reaffirmed their commitment to working together to advance the goals of the Soy Excellence Center sub-Saharan Africa initiative and strengthen the contribution of soybean to food security, economic growth, and sustainable agricultural development across the continent.
“With our partners, we are advancing a more resilient soybean sector in Africa,” Dr Ehui noted following the visit.
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Contributed by ‘Timilehin Osunde
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