{"id":14306,"date":"2026-06-20T12:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/iita-modernizing-farm-operations-in-partnership-with-bayer\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:28:47","slug":"iita-modernizing-farm-operations-in-partnership-with-bayer","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/iita-modernizing-farm-operations-in-partnership-with-bayer\/","title":{"rendered":"IITA modernizing farm operations in partnership with Bayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

With an overall mission to assure food security in Africa,\u00a0IITA<\/a><\/span>\u00a0constantly seeks agricultural solutions to overcome hunger and poverty in the region. Achieving this requires a constant drive to develop and transform technologies and practices to maximize crop yields. To ensure this, the Institute is partnering with Bayer to modernize its farm management and breeding operations across all projects and programs it is engaged in.<\/p>\n

The collaboration covers plot execution, including crop breeding, operational safety, and planting. It kicked off with Bayer donating equipment, including planters, to the cowpea and soybean programs in northern Nigerian Kano State and Zambia. A technical group from Kenya then came to IITA-Kano to train the technicians to operate the equipment and exposed them to general good agronomy practices (GAP).<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Group
Group photograph at Bayer Petit Research Farm in South Africa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nAccording to the Head of Farm Management and Breeding Operations at IITA,\u00a0Alick Mulenga<\/a><\/span>, they decided to extend the training to 15 breeding program staff in Ibadan. During the training, the technicians learned how to properly set up and manage trials to generate high-quality and reliable data for breeding programs from the plots. The training also focused on weed and pest management, fertility management, and equipment calibration and maintenance. The exercise culminated in fieldwork to understand the current field operations in research plots.\n\nFollowing this, Mulenga visited the Bayer research facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, with Soybean Breeder\u00a0Godfree Chigeza<\/a><\/span>, IITA-Zambia Farm Manager Gift Mutale, and IITA-Malawi Research Associate,\u00a0\u00a0Nundwe McDonald\u00a0<\/b>to explore further areas of collaboration. During the visit, they examined seed processing, plot setup, and irrigation systems. They also spent time with Bayer\u2019s Health and Safety team to understand how Bayer safeguards employee safety and well-being within the farm.\n\n\u201cIt was sort of an eye opener for us,\u201d gushed Mulenga, who has the mandate to transform the Institute\u2019s breeding operations along with IITA Head of Breeding\u00a0John Derera<\/a><\/span>. \u201cIt showed us how far we have to go to modernize breeding operations in IITA. We still have a lot to do,\u201d he continued.\n\nAccording to Mulenga, modernizing IITA\u2019s farm operations will increase efficiency and make the Institute more environmentally friendly. Accomplishing this would require increased mechanization, reducing operational costs and improving precision associated with manual labor.\n\n
\"Bayer
Bayer team visiting IITA farm in Lusaka, Zambia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\u201cWe currently do much of our work by hand, and that introduces a lot of variability in the breeding plots, because four people planting on a plot might plant at different depths and spacing. But using a properly calibrated planter\u2014which we were working on with Bayer in Kano\u2014is more precise, making things like depth and spacing uniform across the board,\u201d said Mulenga.\n
\n

He also highlighted employee health and safety as critical components in achieving excellent results. Different programs and projects currently implement health and safety policies independently\u2014some do it better than others\u2014but the Institute wants to standardize everything to safeguard all the employees.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

Health and safety concerns impact breeding efficiency, as do the other factors. IITA is resolute in the decision to tackle all these to modernize its farm operations and achieve the Institute\u2019s vision of Africa becoming a global leader in agriculture and sustainability.<\/p>\nContributed by Uzoma Agha<\/em>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With an overall mission to assure food security in Africa, IITA constantly seeks agricultural solutions to overcome hunger and poverty in the region.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":14315,"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":[61],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[200],"class_list":["post-14306","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-nigeria","hub-western-africa","item-year-200"],"yoast_head":"\nIITA modernizing farm operations in partnership with Bayer - 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