When farmers receive fertilizer recommendations, they rarely see the scientists who spent days analyzing soil samples to produce it. When countries talk about boosting food production or building climate-resilient agriculture, the conversation hardly starts with laboratories. Yet it should.…
Knowledge is increasingly recognized as one of Africa’s most valuable agricultural resources, not only for generating innovations, but also for ensuring that proven solutions reach the last-mile users—smallholder farmers—that need those most. Against this backdrop, continental partners have…
IITA–CGIAR recently hosted the renowned ecotourism ambassadors – the Oguntoye twins, founders of Twins Tourism, and hosts of the popular Travel with the Twins radio program on Lagelu FM, just days after they exchanged wedding vows with the identical…
For more than 16 years, maize farmer Oyeniyi Julius in the Akufo farm settlement, Ido LGA, relied on experience to guide his farming decisions. Like many smallholder farmers in Oyo State, he understood the rhythm of the seasons. He…
In the heart of Nigeria’s Olokemeji Forest Reserve, where verdant greenery now rises to reclaim degraded land, lies a story as transformative as the trees themselves. Samuel Peters Taiwo, a former casual worker at the IITA Forest Center, is…
For students studying sustainability, few learning experiences are as impactful as witnessing environmental conservation in practice. This became a reality for Master’s students from the Department of Sustainability Studies, Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), University of Ibadan, who on…
The Program for Seed System Innovations for Vegetatively Propagated Crops in Africa (PROSSIVA) has trained Nigeria’s first cohort of banana and plantain seed entrepreneurs, marking an important milestone in efforts to strengthen the country’s emerging formal seed system. The…
IITA, in collaboration with CIMMYT and other CGIAR centers, brought together breeders from across Africa for a five-day intensive training on breeding pipeline optimization and market intelligence, to accelerate genetic gain in the continent’s neglected yet highly nutritious “opportunity crops.” From Bambara groundnut cultivated in the savannahs of Ghana to Okra harvested in the humid forests…