The Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency, Helg Pierre, paid a working visit to IITA on Tuesday, 23 October. He was accompanied by Mr Stephen Winkler, First Secretary (African Affairs), and Ms Regina Derrer, Assistant Secretary (Information).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were received, on behalf of DG Hartmann, by Dr Lakshmi Menon, the DDG (R4D Support) and a team of IITA scientists. Dr Menon took time to explain the mission and vision of IITA in sub-Saharan Africa to the visitors. Her discussions were reinforced by separate presentations on IITA’s Research for Development activities in sub-Saharan Africa by Dr Robert Asiedu, Deputy Director (R4D) and Dr Rachid Hanna of the IITA Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Center, Cotonou, Benin Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Dr Asiedu discussed in detail the research achievements of IITA in crop breeding, agronomic practices, and crop utilization, Dr Hanna highlighted the Institute’s IPM success stories in Africa. He focused on the role of IPM in environmental protection, and mentioned the involvement of the private sector in the commercialization of some of IITA’s technologies such as the Green Muscle, a fungal product developed for the control of migratory locusts and grasshoppers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The visitors were later led on a tour of some laboratories where they were received by Unit heads of Agrobiodiversity (Genebank), Geographic Information System (GIS), Biotechnology, and the Cassava Utilization Center. Ambassador Pierre also visited some research fields and the main lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ambassador who asked series of questions on the impact of IITA was highly impressed with the contributions of the Institute towards ensuring food security and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. He remarked that his tour of IITA was an eye opener, adding that he would visit the Institute again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Switzerl and is a major donor that supports IITA in its research to nourish Africa.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency, Helg Pierre, paid a working visit to IITA on Tuesday, 23 October. He was accompanied by Mr Stephen Winkler, First Secretary (African Affairs), and Ms Regina Derrer, Assistant Secretary (Information).<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":12870,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[32],"news-type":[],"hub":[],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[185],"class_list":["post-12869","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-nigeria","item-year-185"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=12869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}