{"id":15769,"date":"2026-06-20T12:46:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/acdi-voca-country-representative-for-nigeria-visits-iita\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:30:20","slug":"acdi-voca-country-representative-for-nigeria-visits-iita","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/acdi-voca-country-representative-for-nigeria-visits-iita\/","title":{"rendered":"ACDI\/VOCA Country Representative for Nigeria visits IITA"},"content":{"rendered":"The Nigeria Country Representative of\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acdivoca.org\/\">ACDI\/VOCA<\/a><\/u>, Olaf Kula, visited\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/\">IITA<\/a><\/u>-Ibadan on 24 May. The visit aimed at establishing a partnership between ACDI\/VOCA and IITA.\n\nKula, who is also a Senior Agribusiness Adviser to this Agricultural Development NGO, visited the Institute to get a better understanding of IITA activities and explore the possibility of partnering with the Institute on a new\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States_Agency_for_International_Development\">Agence des \u00c9tats-Unis pour le d\u00e9veloppement international<\/a><\/u>\u00a0(USAID) project. USAID will be issuing a new procurement project called Nigeria Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services.\n<div id=\"attachment_4864\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 1028px\">\n\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-28587\" src=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/rsz_acdi-voca-p02-300x150-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1028\" height=\"514\" \/>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-4864\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Olaf Kula in a meeting with Kenton Dashiell and Robert Asiedu.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\u201cWe will be building on this project and we believe that with the right partnerships including partnering with IITA and perhaps\u00a0<u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.africarice.org\/\">AfricaRice<\/a><\/u>\u00a0or\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldfishcenter.org\/\">World Fish<\/a><\/u>, we will be able to put together a winning proposal,\u201d said Kula.\n\nHe also noted that Nigeria is one of the countries for USAID\u2019s \u201c<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.feedthefuture.gov\/\">Feed the Future<\/a><\/u>\u201d (FTF) strategy, emphasising economic growth, nutrition, and resilience. The focus crops are maize, rice, soybean, and cowpea, alongside aquaculture, all found in IITA.\n\nThe FTF strategy targets several Local Government Areas (LGAs) within states. However, taking the value chain approach will help farmers or aquaculture producers in those LGAs to become more productive. \u201cUSAID has seen lots of entrepreneurial initiatives in Nigeria and through this project plans to help initiatives with the ability to scale, to reach scale,\u201d continued Kula.\n\nIn his welcome remarks, IITA Director of Research for Development, West Africa,\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/iita-staff\/asiedu-robert\/\">Robert Asiedu,<\/a><\/u>\u00a0spoke of IITA\u2019s willingness to collaborate with both the private sector and government entities. \u201cWe have intensified our partnership with the private sector as it is a good avenue to ensure that the Institute\u2019s technologies get to farmers,\u201d he said.\n\nDeputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery (DDG-P4D),\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/iita-staff\/dashiell-kenton\/\">Kenton Dashiell<\/a><\/u>\u00a0also spoke of IITA\u2019s readiness to explore partnership opportunities. He said, \u201cWe have heard and seen some of your work and we would love to partner with you, believing that we would have a very strong partnership.\u201d\n\nKula also met and discussed with other staff in charge of some projects such as Bernadette Fregene for aquaculture;\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/iita-staff\/atser-godwin\/\">Godwin Atser<\/a><\/u>\u00a0for extension services; David Ojo for soybean;\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilri.org\/people\/tunde-adegoke-amole\">Tunde Amole<\/a><\/u>\u00a0for cassava peel;\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/cgiar-my.sharepoint.com\/personal\/u_agha_cgiar_org\/Documents\/01.%20IITA%20News\/2490\/africarice.org\/biodata\/nwilene.htm\">Francis Nwilene<\/a><\/u>\u00a0for rice; and Dashiell representing\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/iita-staff\/fatokun-christian\/\">Christian Fatokun<\/a><\/u>\u00a0et\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/iita-staff\/menkir-abebe\/\">Abebe Menkir<\/a><\/u>\/<u><a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/iita-staff\/badu-apraku-baffour\/\">Badu-Aprkau<\/a><\/u>\u00a0for cowpea and maize, respectively. Afterwards, he was taken on a tour of the IITA campus including stops at the facilities for Aflasafe, Nodumax, and Semi-Autotrophic Hydroponics (SAH) for yam.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nigeria Country Representative of ACDI\/VOCA, Olaf Kula, visited IITA-Ibadan on 24 May. The visit aimed at establishing a partnership between ACDI\/VOCA and IITA.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":15770,"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":[197],"class_list":["post-15769","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-nigeria","hub-western-africa","item-year-197"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/15769","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/15769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26710,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/15769\/revisions\/26710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=15769"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=15769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}