{"id":15352,"date":"2026-06-20T12:42:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/taat-agrf2020-to-feed-the-cities-africa-must-close-the-yield-gap-experts-say\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:38:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:38:54","slug":"taat-agrf2020-to-feed-the-cities-africa-must-close-the-yield-gap-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/taat-agrf2020-to-feed-the-cities-africa-must-close-the-yield-gap-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"TAAT @ AGRF2020: To feed the cities, Africa must close the yield gap, experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr
Dr Kenton Dashiell highlighting TAAT\u2019s role in transforming Africa\u2019s agriculture.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the rains growing heavier, oceans rising and rural inhabitants migrating to cities on an unprecedented scale, leaving African cities under dual pressure from uncontrolled urbanization and hunger worsened by climate change, experts have identified closing the yield gap as a way out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This came out strongly at the just concluded African Green Revolution Forum\u2019s (AGRF) pre-session on \u201cAgricultural technologies to feed the cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TAAT
TAAT panelists for the 2020 AGRF pre-session<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organized by Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), the pre-session was held under the overarching theme of \u201cFeed the Cities, Grow the Continent: Leveraging Urban Food Markets to Achieve Sustainable Food Systems in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his keynote presentation, Dr Martin Fregene, African Development Bank (AfDB) Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industries, underlined that Africa must close the yield gap and build a robust agribusiness sub-sector to sustainably feed its growing population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing maize yield in the United States as an example, Fregene revealed that the USA and Africa have the same amount of land under maize (approximately 350 million ha). However, the USA produces 400 m tons while Africa subsists around 60 m tons. \u201cWith this productivity deficiency mirrored across commodities, the consequence is a food import bill of $50 billion per year for Africa,\u201d Fregene said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is therefore fundamental to close the yield gap through significant investments and deployment of appropriate technologies to transform Africa\u2019s agriculture and meet the Feed Africa objectives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery, highlighted TAAT\u2019s role in leveraging research partners\u2019 technologies to transform Africa\u2019s agriculture through strategic partnerships. He lauded the package of practices and innovative solutions that supersede \u201ctraditional technologies\u201d currently being deployed efficiently across the continent by CGIAR and other institutions in the TAAT program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Innocent Musabyimana, Head of the TAAT Clearinghouse, productivity increase stimulates agriculture food systems to bring real change in the agriculture sector. \u201cRobust country coordination and engagement for alignment with national priorities are crucial to feeding African cities,\u201d Musabyimana added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other experts at the well-attended AGRF pre-session included Dr Irene Annor-Frempong, Director of Research and Innovations at Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Dr Zewdie Bishaw, TAAT Wheat Compact Coordinator at International Centre for Agriculture in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and Dr Abass Adebayo, TAAT Cassava Compact Coordinator at IITA. They all linked TAAT\u2019s success stories revolutionizing wheat in Africa, intensifying cassava production and commercialization, and building the capacity of African Farmers through Technology Outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020 AGRF virtual summit, which ended on 11 September, was co-hosted by the Government of Rwanda under the leadership of H.E. President Kagame and the AGRF Partners Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  With the rains growing heavier, oceans rising and rural inhabitants migrating to cities on an unprecedented scale, leaving African […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15353,"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":[198],"class_list":["post-15352","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-nigeria","hub-western-africa","item-year-198"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/15352","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/15352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27331,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/15352\/revisions\/27331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=15352"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=15352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}