The challenge facing IITA scientists, their collaborators and partners is to reposition sub-Saharan African agriculture for improved productivity.
For almost 40 years, IITA has made substantial breakthroughs in efforts to improve the food situation in sub-Saharan Africa. Through research to nourish Africa, scientists at IITA have developed early maturing, high yielding, disease and insect pest-resistant cassava, cowpea, maize, plantain and bananas, soybeans, and yams. In addition, they have developed improved techniques of l and clearing, soil conservation, and better farming systems.
Using biological control methods, they have successfully reduced the effect of mealybugs and spider mites on cassava; controlled the menace of water hyacinth on rivers and lakes across Africa; developed host plant resistant maize varieties against streak virus and downy mildew diseases; controlled black sigatoka fungal disease on plantains; and developed improved agronomic practices to increase yields of cowpea and soybean, as well as developed rapid multiplication techniques for yams, plantains, and bananas. On soil management and l and development, the Institute has also recommended more environment-friendly farming systems to optimize productivity and developed cost-effective postharvest processing and food crop utilization techniques.
In spite of these monumental achievements, the following questions still bug the mind: Why do people still go to bed hungry in Africa? How can the Institute justify the huge donor investments? Why are research findings not getting to the end-users? Simply put, why is it that Africa still depends on food importation and food aids to meet local dem ands? These are the questions the scientists were gathered to proffer solutions to at the strategic planning week from 19 to 23 November 2006.
Welcoming the scientists from all over, DG Hartmann charged them to articulate the research- for-development (R4D) concept in their research design as against research and development (R&D) which hitherto had been practiced for many years without appreciable impact on the food needs of the people. He urged the scientists to make their work more visible through institutional public and private partnerships with collaboration of peer NARS scientists where farmers are placed at the center of their research planning and design. “IITA does not exist in perpetuity… hence, once a major impact is made, we must allow our NARS collaborators to take over and run with it,” says Hartmann.
The weeklong activity enabled IITA scientists and research administrators to brainstorm on the justification for the Institute’s involvement in R4D, to determine the benefits and deliverable international public goods (IPGs), comparative advantage of IITA’s involvement in development issues and partnerships with both public and private sectors of the economy, scaling-out and exit strategies. Considerable attention was also devoted to enterprise creation and market development, technology dissemination, communication and capacity building as well as biotechnology development and deployment. At the end of the meeting, it is expected that the implementation of the strategic plan will give the Institute more visibility and its impact more appreciable.
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