To showcase CGIAR’s research impact in addressing food and nutrition insecurity, climate change, and poverty in Africa, an innovative exhibition was organized in June in Lagos, Nigeria.
The exhibition was organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) for Bill Gates to spotlight some of the institute’s research and delivery activities and results.
Bill Gates was in Lagos and Abuja recently to “look at the progress of development and innovation projects and primary healthcare provision, nutrition, and financial inclusion in Nigeria.”
Incoming IITA Director General Simeon Ehui, also the CGIAR Continental Director for Africa, commended Bill Gates and the Foundation for the continuous support to IITA and CGIAR in ensuring food security in the region. Ehui highlighted a previous visit by Gates to Kano, Nigeria, in 2011, which resulted in the scaling up of AflasafeTM, one of IITA’s biggest and most impactful innovations.
Ehui also mentioned how the multi-partner program called Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) led by IITA with support from the Gates Foundation and African Development Bank (AfDB) is helping to scale many agricultural technologies and innovations in Africa.
“The Dakar 2 Feed Africa Summit in January this year brought TAAT and the Clearinghouse directly into the planning process of every country that will be requesting loans from AfDB and this ensures that the best CGIAR innovations are strategically situated within their national plans”, he added.
Interim IITA Director General and Deputy Director General for Research Bernard Vanlauwe introduced the technologies developed by IITA and partners and gave a background on selected innovations—bridging the gap in areas like nutrition, breeding, seed systems, value chain development, and technology scaling.
At the fair, IITA Food and Nutrition Scientist Bussie Maziya-Dixon and Biomarker and Anthropometry Lead Mercy Lungaho talked about a survey conducted in 2021 in Nigeria and the unique nature of a new app called INDDEX24 Mobile App. This is an efficient, effective, and flexible solution developed for conducting accurate quantitative 24-hour dietary recall surveys in low- and middle-income countries that lead to timely, actionable results that were used to develop nutrition interventions for vulnerable populations in Nigeria.
They emphasized that closing the data gap is critical to guiding investments to reduce malnutrition and poverty, and requires a well-functioning food consumption and micronutrient data value chain that supports the collection, curation, exchange, analysis, and usage of these data.
According to the nutrition team, adapting the INDDEX24 application and survey design allows the scaling up of this innovation in Africa. It is expected that using this app will enhance the quality, volume, and diversity of data collected in the food consumption and micronutrient surveys across the African continent, sparking a global conversation about how to invest in agriculture, nutrition, and food systems to ensure a future in which all vulnerable individuals consume safe, affordable, sustainable, and nutritious diets to thrive, not just to survive.
Speaking on the Aflasafe technology, IITA Plant Pathologist Alejandro Ortega-Beltran talked about the success of this biocontrol product that controls aflatoxin infestation since Gates’ visit in 2011. He said that Aflasafe has already been adopted and commercialized in more than 11 African countries, adding that IITA-CGIAR is positioned to scale it up.
Vanlauwe and IITA Business Incubation Platform (BIP) CEO Debo Akande highlighted how Nodumax, a bioinoculant that increases yields of soybean, another important nutritional and economic crop in Nigeria, has been a game changer for soybean production, and how scaling it up can subsrantially increase farmers’ yields .
IITA Molecular Geneticist Ismail Rabbi briefly presented on the high demand for cassava a few years ago attributed to the agricultural transformation plan implemented by Akin Adesina, former Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria and current AfDB President. He talked about the importance of genomic sequencing and how it is reducing the breeding lifecycle of cassava by half.
Mercy Diebiru-Ojo, IITA Cassava Seed Systems Specialist, explained the benefits of using the innovative semi-autotrophic hydroponics technology or SAH in producing cassava planting materials. SAH is rapidly helping mass produce and distribute improved varieties to farmers in Africa with support from the Gates Foundation.
At the Akilimo stand, IITA Senior Agronomist Pieter Pypers talked about the site-specific nature of the recommendations the Akilimo app provides which is being used by over 200 partner organizations. He added that the advisory tools provide smallholders with customized decision support on agronomy.
The AATF team introduced some technologies that address low agricultural productivity and support improved livelihoods for smallholder farmers in Africa.
IITA DDG Partnerships for Delivery Kenton Dashiell emphasized the great collaboration between the Gates Foundation, IITA-CGIAR, and numerous partners which has led to major breakthroughs and impacted millions of lives across Africa. He added that the collaboration and support from the Gates Foundation to IITA-CGIAR research provides the needed push towards transforming not only agriculture in Africa but livelihoods and the lives of millions on the continent.
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