Hunger is ransacking every nook and cranny of millions of households in Nigeria. The report of the National Bureau of Statistics released in April 2022 indicated an astronomical increase in food prices by an average of 42% in the last year (BBC News). This figure is a conservative estimate as food prices skyrocketed to over ...

By Chiedozie Egesi The hardy root crop could be part of the solution to the grain supply challenges aggravated by the Ukraine war Cassava is a shrubby root that can produce a good harvest even in hot, dry conditions that kill off other crops. Growing up in Nigeria, a staple of our family dinner table ...

The NextGen Cassava Project, being implemented by Cornell University, New York, in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), has launched three new and improved cassava varieties. The three newly released varieties which include Game Changer, Baba 70 and Poundable, were inaugurated on Friday, at Crest ...

The project Building Economically Sustainable Seed Systems for Cassava, Phase 2 (BASICS-II) organized a day-long National Cassava Business Summit to develop a cassava seed system in Tanzania. The summit was held recently in Dodoma, Tanzania. The meeting aimed to catalyze Public-Private Partnership sector-led investment in the cassava seed value chain, bringing together about 100 participants ...

The Tanzanian Minister of Agriculture, Hussein Bashe has called on the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to support the East African region towards cassava, soybean and banana transformation for economic prosperity. He made the call during a meeting with researchers from IITA’s Building and Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System, phase 2, (BASICS-II). Bashe ...

A new seed system model developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) under the Project—Building an Economically Sustainable Cassava Seed Systems, Phase 2 (BASICS II) is helping African countries such as Nigeria and Tanzania to ramp up yields to more than 25 tons per hectare, experts and farmers revealed at the recently held ...

Releaf, an agtech startup that develops proprietary hardware and software solutions that makes African farmers and food factories more efficient and profitable, has partnered with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture to improve growth and sustainability in oil palm production in Nigeria and across Africa. A statement by Releaf on Wednesday, the partnership will enable ...

The Association of Deans of Agriculture in Nigeria Universities (ADAN) has honoured the Director-General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga, with an Award of Excellence for successfully pioneering the IITA Youth-in- Agribusiness programme. The IITA Advocacy, Promotion and Outreach Lead Officer, Godwin Atser, announced this in a statement on Thursday ...

Bayer has developed and launched a new crop protection product known as Lagon to help farmers tackle the problem of weeds in cassava and raise yield. Tested on more than 200 trials and demos across Nigeria and Tanzania, Lagon was rated among the top best pre-emergence herbicides for control of both grasses and broad-leaf weeds ...

In all spheres of socio-economic development of Nigeria, there have been traces of failure which have given rise for calls for drastic measures to be taken in order to improve on the country’s present status of a failing economy. Nigeria is today at the bottom of other African countries in terms of socio-economic development. Among ...