{"id":15819,"date":"2026-06-20T12:47:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/basics-arpm-2019-communicating-and-outscaling-successes-beyond-project-life\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:29:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:29:37","slug":"basics-arpm-2019-communicating-and-outscaling-successes-beyond-project-life","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/basics-arpm-2019-communicating-and-outscaling-successes-beyond-project-life\/","title":{"rendered":"BASICS ARPM 2019: Communicating and outscaling successes beyond project life"},"content":{"rendered":"Le\u00a0Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Seed System for Cassava<\/a><\/u>\u00a0(BASICS) project hosted its stakeholders for the 2019 Annual Review and Planning Meeting (ARPM) on 11\u201313 March at\u00a0IITA<\/a><\/u>-Ibadan, Nigeria. Director of Pipal Limited, Kenya, Sue Davison, facilitated the meeting with the theme \u201cCommunicate,\u201d which reflected on the activities of the project in the past three years and discussed ways to extend the successes in an economically sustainable way beyond the project support.\n
\n\n\"\"\n

Dr Nikkutar Hemant, BASICS Project Director, addressing participants.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nGraham Thiele, CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB<\/a><\/u>) Program Director and the PI for BASICS project said that the project falls under the\u00a0RTB\nFlagship Project 2 \u201cProductive varieties & quality seed.\u201d<\/a><\/u>\u00a0RTB benefits the project by bringing in its global outlook to foster a new breeding mindset\u2014gender responsive, targeting product profiles with a stronger focus on varietal replacement, and bringing in learning from seed systems work in vegetatively propagated crops from across the world.\n\nIn his address, BASICS Project Director Hemant Nitturkar gave a run-down of the achievements and challenges of the four-year project. \u201cWe had set out to develop an economically sustainable system to produce and sell cassava breeder seed, foundation seed, and commercial seed of improved varieties so farmers can access and use quality seed of improved varieties that increase their net productivity and income,\u201d he said.\n\nAs a part of the project, IITA established\u00a0IITA GoSeed<\/a><\/u>\u00a0et le\u00a0National Root Crops Research Institute<\/a><\/u>\u00a0(NRCRI) established Umudike Seeds as dedicated private businesses to produce and market breeder and foundation seed. This is a globally unique instance of a public\u2012private sector partnership initiative to strengthen the early generation seed (EGS) system for vegetatively propagated crops like cassava.\n\nThe innovative rapid multiplication technology, SAH\u2122, has been successfully adapted, tested, and deployed and over 125 village seed entrepreneurs are producing and selling certified, commercial seed to the farmers. The\u00a0National Agricultural Seed Council<\/a><\/u>\u00a0(NASC) has increased its capacity to offer market responsive seed quality regulatory services through the establishment of a seed diagnostic lab and adoption of an award winning online tool,\u00a0Suivi des semences de manioc<\/a><\/u>\u00a0that connects all the seed value chain players.\n\nNitturkar recounted the project\u2019s achievement: \u201cIn the ECOWAS report of 2015, there was no certified breeder seed, no foundation seed, and limited numbers of certified, commercial cassava seed. In 2018, BASICS facilitated production and sale of 4,556 bundles of breeder seed, 13,325 bundles of foundation seed, and 25,375 bundles of certified commercial seed.\u201d\n\nOlusegun Ojo, Director General of NASC enumerated the importance of BASICS on NASC operations: \u201cThe BASICS project has enhanced all external projects of the council in terms of innovation, impact, and sustainability.\u201d He further explained, \u201cThe impact of the BASICS project has been overwhelming. The reports we receive daily from the field have been so encouraging. The production of certified cassava seed has increased tremendously and the need to use the certified seed is gradually becoming institutionalized.\u201d\n\nIn addition, Ojo commented, \u201cThe Cassava Seed Tracker has revolutionized Nigerian seed certification systems. Presently, we are dovetailing it to become the Nigerian Seed Tracker, which will encompass all crops.\u201d\n

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Group photograph of annual meeting participants<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nOkechukwu Eke-Okoro, NRCRI Director of External Projects, representing Executive Director Joseph Ukpabi, in his remarks, said, \u201cNRCRI has collaborated with IITA in many projects, and this collaboration has enhanced the accomplishments of NRCRI as a federal institution with the mandate of genetic improvement, production, storage, processing, and socioeconomics of root and tuber crops. The BASICS project is changing the future of rural farmers from growing food for consumption to earning higher commercial returns with its technology of providing multiple pest and disease-free planting materials of cassava through Semi-Autotrophic Hydroponics (SAH\u2122).\u201d\n\nMay-Guri Saethre<\/a><\/u>, IITA Deputy Director General, Research for Development, reaffirmed IITA\u2019s commitment to improving cassava production and livelihoods in Africa while highlighting the efforts of BASICS in transforming the cassava value chain in Nigeria. \u201cThe BASICS project is critical for creating a sustainable, commercial seed system that will equitably deliver improved varieties to men and women farmers through commercial markets.\u201d Saethre further praised the SAH\u2122 technology: \u201cBecause of the success of the deployment of the SAH\u2122 propagation system for cassava, SAH\u2122 has become the most sought-after technology for cassava rapid multiplication.\u201d\n\nThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a><\/u>\u00a0Program Officer for BASICS, Lawrence Kent, reiterated that \u201cwe want to build reusable bridges that deliver breeder seed to foundation seed to commercial seed to the farmers\u2019 fields in a profitable manner. This is exciting because many people thought it wasn\u2019t possible. Farmers were used to getting free seed. Through BASICS, we have been able to show what is possible. We need more time to consolidate this.\u201d\n\nThe meeting was attended by national and international partners, policymakers, and development experts from\u00a0Catholic Relief Services<\/a><\/u>\u00a0(CRS), NRCRI, NASC, Fera Science Ltd (FERA), Context Global Development, SAHEL Consulting, RTB, the\u00a0Centre international de la pomme de terre<\/a><\/u>\u00a0(CIP), and IITA.\n\nAll the partners in the BASICS project identified IITA GoSeed Cassava, Umudike Seeds, SAH, Mid-Size seed entrepreneurs, the Processor-led Model (PLM), Quality Seed, market responsive certification, and the Cassava Seed Tracker as key innovation packages to be scaled up to be able to establish an economically sustainable cassava seed system. Building on the good work done so far, the project team agreed to develop a concept note to seek funding for a second phase of the project.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Seed System for Cassava (BASICS) project hosted its stakeholders for the 2019 Annual Review and Planning Meeting (ARPM) on 11\u201313 March at IITA-Ibadan, Nigeria.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":15820,"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 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