On 21 August, the IITA–CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) team hosted a partner’s interactive meeting on EiA tools. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce new partners to EiA tools, ensuring understanding and engagement while establishing data collection arrangements for insights and progress tracking through collaborative efforts.
Excellence in Agronomy, one of the CGIAR initiatives is designed to meet the needs of millions of farmers’ if the Good Agronomic Practices (GAP) are implemented. Twenty participants attended the meeting, including existing partners from various sectors (KADA, OCP, GIZ, Smart Agribus, Babangona, INDORAMA, Notore, Kano ADP, Kano Innovation platform, and others).
In his welcome remarks, Savannah Systems Agronomist and IITA Kano Station Head Alpha Y. Kamara emphasized the need and importance of partnership, as research alone cannot solve the problems of many farmers in Nigeria facing food insecurity. He mentioned that partnership is crucial as it will help pull resources and expertise and expand the reach of programs. Kamara also noted that working with partners, state extension agents (EAs), input dealers, and agro-dealers will help to deliver agronomic solutions at scale.
Participants’ expectations for the meeting included understanding how EIA tools work to improve farmers’ productivity, increasing familiarity with the digitalized tools for EiA, increasing their knowledge of the EiA project, and improving their understanding of E-extension tools for EAs in delivering new technologies.
EiA aims to enhance partners’ engagement and establishment of pilots using the tools to get contributions from partners, extension agents, and end users (farmers). Additionally, it is important to design a follow-up strategy.
In his presentation, Scaling Specialist Thompson Ogunsanmi explained the meeting’s major objectives, including integrating into partners’ networks, such as existing farmer networks and different scaling channels. They also aim to develop a dissemination strategy, action plan, and actionable follow-up program. Ogunsanmi said he wants the strategy to be partnership-driven and not IITA-driven. The AKILIMO innovation is an example that was developed, which has now been translated into the National Association, and over 100 partners in Nigeria have come together to keep AKILIMO working.
NOTORE Head of Agronomy Dr Mohammed Murtala stated that the meeting was fruitful, resulting in all the objectives being met ahead of schedule. The EiA is a great opportunity to improve the livelihood and productivity of smallholder farmers. Murtala mentioned they will take back all the valuable insights he gathered at the training to train their extension agents (EAs). The EAs will also disseminate the knowledge to the farmers on EiA, especially for rice and maize.
Head of Sales and Marketing Department of INDORAMA Fertilizer, Dr S.K. Srivastava, said the ideas generated have taught him a lot, and he is happy that the EiA team is working fervently for the benefit of the farmers. He also mentioned that the application developed for maize and rice will help farmers be aware, as smallholder farmers have a crucial role in food production.
Additionally, INDORAMA is also increasing efforts to train farmers as it will provide the farmers with the right kind of knowledge that they need to increase their productivity and increase their income. Srivastava commended IITA for its excellent work, concluding that he enjoyed the presentations and would be delighted to attend future meetings.
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