The IITA Southern African Hub was established barely three years ago. In this short period of time, the hub has rapidly grown from eight scientists to 15 and more than 60 support staff.
Our goal is to achieve greater food security and availability by intensifying and diversifying the maize-dominated cropping systems without compromising the natural resource base and to increase farmers’ incomes by providing more marketing opportunities through value addition and enterprise development.
We are implementing more than 10 research projects, which represent a continuum from fundamental discoveries to adaptive research that applies findings to actual production, processing, marketing, and natural resource management. Our main research foci are in the areas of soybean and cassava breeding, agronomy, food safety, human nutrition, and socio-economics. We share our results through popular media, field days, workshops, seminars, and peer-reviewed publications.
We serve our main clientele―the small-scale producers and processors―by developing sustainable farming and food systems. Although faced with limited research facilities, we have been able to provide a favorable training environment for students, technicians, and scientists from local partners and national programs. We have also produced and distributed large quantities of breeder and foundation seeds, and developed crop management and processing technologies with the aim of benefitting millions of farmers in the region.
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