IITA, AfDB Collaborate to Boost Agricultural Research in Africa

The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are hosting a pre-appraisal meeting for the Bank’s new initiative, Feeding Africa. Also known as Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme, and is billed to end on the July 30 at IITA headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria, the TAAT programme is a critical strategy for transforming agriculture on the continent that would ensure that Africa is able to feed itself through agriculture.

According to the organisations, the pre-appraisal meeting is taking place almost three months after the successful preparation workshop of the TAAT programme initiative in April 2016, which was attended by various stakeholders and potential partners from national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES), CGIAR centres, international organisations including developmental partners, and the private sector.

The appraisal mission will bring together all TAAT participating CGIAR centres and non-CGIAR institutions and NARES partners that have submitted technologies that are ready to be scaled up/out for consideration under the program. They will jointly review and finalise activity plans and budgets to undertake the scaling out of the proven technologies.

The appraisal meeting will take place over two weeks to allow for closer interaction.
The goal of the TAAT Programme includes eliminating extreme poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition, achieving food sufficiency, and turning Africa into a net food exporter as well as setting Africa in step with global commodity and agricultural value chains.

Adopting modernised, commercial agriculture is the key to transforming Africa and the livelihoods of its people, particularly the rural poor.

To carry out these objectives, the AfDB, working with IITA and other partners, has identified eight priority agricultural value chains relating to rice sufficiency, cassava intensification, Sahelian food security, savannahs as breadbaskets, restoring tree plantations, expanding horticulture, increasing wheat production, and expanded fish farming.

This initiative will be led by IITA, and implemented in collaboration with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), other CGIAR centres, some private partners, and national agricultural research systems. This will involve close partnerships with the AfDB, the World Bank, and other major development partners to ensure increased funding for agricultural research and development along the value chains in Africa.