IITA Bulletin 2206

8/13/2019 IITA Bulletin 2206

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THE

Issue No. 2206 13-17 January 2014

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Governor of South Kivu, DRC, thanks IITA for its development

efforts in the country

THE

BULLETINTHE

His Excellency, Governor MarcelinChishambo Ruhoya of South Kivuin DR Congo, has praised IITAs effortsto support development in his region andcountry and assured the Institute of hisgovernments support of its activities.He said he was especially happy with thedecision to set up a new science buildingin the province which is scheduled to belaunched in June 2014.

IITA is a friend, he said, and the repairingof the road to the Station was a cleardemonstration of his governments desire to

collaborate with the Institute.The Governor was speaking at a dinner he

hosted at his residence on 10 January 2014for the IITA DG who was in the countryon an ofcial visit. It was attended by theProvincial Ministers of Agriculture, Health,and Budget, other aides to the Governor, andothers.

On his part, the IITA DG thanked theGovernor for granting him an audienceearlier in the day and for his continuedassistance and generous support to the IITAStation. He recalled how the two of them hadnurtured the idea of establishing a science

laboratory in Kalambo (to be known asScience for Peace building) in 2004 whilethe DG was the Director of InternationalCenter for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) andthe Governor was a State Advisor.

The DG further commended the Governorfor facilitating the execution of the projectand for supporting the expansion of thestation and construction of a ScienceBuilding. The DG also seized the opportunityto inform the aides of the governor of the

plans to commission the IITA KalamboScience Building on 5 June 2014.

He said that the launch would attract Headsof States and top government functionariesand representatives of donor agencies andinternational organizations in the region andthat the IITA Ambassador for Africa, ChiefOlusegun Obasanjo would attend.

He added that the Station will have cassavaprocessing facilities so that farmers willhave the opportunity to learn how to derivemore benets from cassava production.

Apart from ugali, a popular cassava foodin the region, there are more than 27 food

products from cassava, well known for theirnutritional value and marketability, he said.

DG Sanginga was accompanied to thedinner by Chris Okafor the Ofcer inCharge of IITA Kalambo and MusendeeqOyedeji, one of the IITA engineers workingat the site.

Tanzania takes first steps towards initiating a Youth Agriprenuers program

IITA Tanzania will soon start own itsyouth agribusiness program that aims atequipping young, unemployed men andwomen with agriculture and business skillsto encourage them to set us up their ownagribusiness or increase their employment

opportunities in agriculture and research.This is part of the Institutes effort to tacklethe high unemployment rate, one of themain development challenges in Africa, anda general lack of interest in agriculture byyoung people.

Currently, several students from theUniversity of Sokoine in Tanzania whonished their internship at the Institute butasked to stay on as volunteers have expressedtheir interest in such a program. The youthalso met the IITA DG in December, whilehe was on an ofcial visit in the country,and he briefed them on the Agriprenuers

program in Nigeria. He also assured themthat IITA was very keen on establishingsuch programs across all its hubs in Africa

to create employment opportunities forAfricas youth.Its a good start. We are exploring how to

establish a youth agriprenuers program inTanzania under the SARD-SC project andaround the cassava value chain modeledalong the one in Ibadan, said AbassAdebayo, IITA value chain specialist underwhom the students interned and are nowvolunteering. They were involved in effortsto develop the cassava value chain in thecountry.

Adebayo said the Institute was alsocurrently working with a group of youth inKigoma region, named Big Power Group,who have 30 ha of land and were engaged ingrowing and processing cassava.

The Governor of South Kivu during the dinner

he hosted in honor of IITA DG at his residence

DG Sanginga (centre) poses for a group photo with the staff and youth volunteers at IITA

Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. Continued on page 3...


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page 2IITA Bulletin 2206

DG meets staff of IITA Kalambo, Bukavu, DR Congo

During his ofcial tour in DR Congo,the IITA Director General, NteranyaSanginga, met with all the staff and studentsof the Kalambo Station on 9 January 2014.

He was accompanied by Bernard Vanlauwe,the Director for the Central African Hub;Jacqueline Musiimenta, the Finance Ofcer;

IITA DG and the Director for Central Africa addressing the staff at IITA Kalambo station

IITA-Kalambo Station Celebrates Christmas and Year-End 2013

and Linda Wangila, the Hub AdministrationAssistant based in Nairobi, and QuadrerWaheed and Oyedeji Musendeeq fromIbadan.

Giving a brief history of the station, the DGsaid the idea for the station was conceived10 years ago while he was a Director at the

International Center for Tropical Agriculture(CIAT). He was happy and excited thatthe Station would be now ofciallycommissioned under his leadership in 2014.

He said the event would attract Headsof State in the region including the IITAGoodwill Ambassador for Africa, ChiefOlusegun Obasanjo, top governmentfunctionaries, and the donor community. He

therefore urged all staff to give their best andensure the success of the event.

He further encouraged both staff andstudents to take advantage of opportunitiesavailable at the IITA Capacity DevelopmentUnit to advance their professional careersand academic interests.

Also addressing the staff and students,Vanlauwe added that the event would be agolden opportunity to explain to the hostcountry, DR Congo and Africa in general onhow IITA could contribute to efforts towardsreducing poverty and food and nutritionalinsecurity in the region. He said during the

event, both scientists and students would begiven the opportunity to present their workand future plans.

On 23 December 2013, IITA-Kalamboheld a Christmas and year-end partyto celebrate Christmas and reect on itsachievements over the year. The eventwhich was held in collaboration with CIATand Biodiversity International was attended

by staff and their families.The event was geared towards improving

relationships among the staff for effectiveteam work and collaboration and for theirfamilies to get to know each other andexchange Christmas and new-year wishes.

The CIAT Coordinator and CountryManager of HarvestPlus, Antoine Lubobo,gave the opening remarks and welcomedall the families to the event while theOfcer-in-Charge of IITA-Kalambo,Chris Okafor, made the closing remarks.Okafor, accompanied by his wife, thankedall staff for their diligence, dedication,and contributions to the success of theStation.

This is the rst time that CIAT, Bioversity,and IITA staff are celebrating together. Thisgoes to strengthen the fact that we are afamily and I am convinced that the next yearwill be more even more successful, Okafornoted.

Also during the event, the Most ValuableColleague (MVC) of the Year amongthe nationally recruited staff at IITA andCIAT, as voted by their colleagues, wererecognized and given appreciation plaquesand gifts. The winners were GhislainKakule, IITA Station Accountant, and EliseMundwanga, CIAT Research Assistant.

Two children of staff membersKaambiraHense and Mugaruka Regiewho weresuccessful in the IITA Womens Group2013 Scholarship scheme also received theiraward certicates at the event.

Okafor (in a hat) poses for a group photo with the winners of IITA Women Group scholarships

for 2013 and their families

Okafor (in a hat) poses for a photo with the winners of the Most Valuable Colleague (MVC) of

the Year (to his immediate right) IITAs Ghislain Kakule and CIATs Elise Mundwanga.


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IITA hosts party for staff and their families in Tanzania

IITA ended its rather eventful year inTanzania on a high note with an end-of-year party for all its staff and their familiesin Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The annualevent was held at the Kunduchi Beach Hoteland was packed with lots of fun activitiesand games allowing the staff and familymembers to interact and get to know eachother better in an informal setting.

While addressing the staff and their familymembers, Victor Manyong, the Directorfor Eastern Africa thanked them for alltheir support and hard work that saw a verysuccessful year for the hub.

He highlighted one of the key events inthe year as the very successful launch of theScience Building in May that was attended

by high-level policy makers in the region

including presidents and ministers, donors,and the private sector. He said the successof the event had led to the selection of IITATanzania as the venue for the CGIAR Boardmeeting in March 2014. He also noted thehub had increased in staff and in the numberof new projects.

He called upon everyone to work together

Manyong (second left) presents a gift toSophia Swai (extreme right) in recognitionof her 12 years of service to IITA

Children of staff prepare to compete in a sack race

towards supporting the Institute to achieveits goal of helping smallholder farmers inAfrica.

Manyong also presented a long-termservice award to Sophia Swai who had beenwith the Institute for 12 years. Presentswere also given to the winning teams in thedifferent games and activities for the day.

He also noted several leaders inthe country had requested for IITAssupport in engaging the youth inagriculture including the Regionalcommissioners for Coast and Kigomaregions.

We will work with these leaders indeveloping programs to involve youthin agriculture where we will train andsupport them to carry out modernagriculture.

One of the volunteers is GaspaAudifas, 25, who graduated fromthe University of Sokoine in FoodScience. He says he is very interestedin such a program following the

brieng of IITAs DG on the progressmade by the youth in Nigeria.

There are many opportunities forthe youth in agriculture. We just

sometimes lack the knowledge andeven faith in ourselves. Thereforesuch a program that will give us theskills to help us to put into gooduse the knowledge we gained inschool, and not necessarily wait to beemployed, will be very important forTanzania where unemployment is veryhigh he said. There are very manyunemployed graduates roaming thestreets. There is no difference betweenthem and those who are not educated!

Tanzania takes frst steps towards

initiating a Youth Agriprenuers program...continued from page 1...

Giant strides in IITA plantain breeding for West Africa

IITA has made signicant progress in itsplantain research in West Africa with thegeneration of seedlings from crosses with invitro induced tetraploids from diploidsarst for the Institute.

The IITA Regional Banana BreedingManager, Delphine Amah, who supervisedexecution of the crosses in IITA-Ibadan,said the crosses were vital for plantainimprovement in West Africa in the yearsahead.

Delivering her contract review seminartitled: Support to Banana and PlantainBreedingUpdates on West Africa, Amahsaid the Banana Unit had recorded giantstrides in the recent years.

For instance, as part of a revised pre-breeding strategy to produce improvedparents while shortening the breedingcycle for plantain, the unit was now

producing tetraploids which have four setsof chromosomes from diploids (which havetwo) using optimized in vitro doublingtechniques.

In addition, tissue culture techniques havebeen employed to generate seedlings fromcrosses through embryo culture and mass

propagation of plants for clonal evaluation.The unit is also promoting the use of

macropropagation and eld propagation

techniques for the production of cleanplanting material and good agronomypractices.

So far, Amah and her team have producedand distributed thousands of Agbagba

plantain plantlets to the IITA farm unit andYouth Agripreneur project for propagationand distribution.

Furthermore, they have establishedpollination blocks with female fertileplantain landraces and Black Sigatokaresistant tetraploid plantain hybrids foraccelerated breeding.

The team has established recently imported

Musa acuminatassp. banksiiaccessions forevaluation and use as parents in crosses tobreed for plantains with high provitamin Acontent.

They have also established a propagationscheme for the production of plantlets for

pollination blocks and planned trials toenable registration of new IITA hybrids.

All these activities are aimed atrejuvenating plantain breeding in IITA forefcient delivery of improved varieties tofarmers, she said.

Amah during her contract review seminar


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IITA steps up capacity building efforts in Tanzania

Two one-week trainings took place atIITA-Tanzania as part of efforts to buildthe capacity of its staff and those of partnersto improve the quality of its research for

better impact. One of the trainings focusedon use of Statistical Analysis System (SAS)to manage and analyze different types of dataincluding experimental and socioeconomicdata while the second was on Real-TimePCR.

The SAS training, conducted by Sam

Ofodile and Yemi Oluwasoga, from

Ibadan Nigeria, brought together 32participants. They were drawn from bothnational and international IITA staff andfrom partner institutionsthe SugarcaneResearch Institute (SRI) Kibaha as wellas MSc and PhD students from SokoineUniversity of Agriculture and MandelaUniversity. Two PhD students also camefrom Nairobi.

The training covered the different analysismodels for different study designs. The SAS

software was installed on each participantslaptop with a one-year license provided

Shirima shows the trainees how to detect cassava brown streak viruses (CBSVs) using real time PCR

by the IITA Biometric Unit to enableparticipants to access it.

The training was ofcially opened byEdward Kanju on behalf of the Directorfor the Eastern Africa Hub who welcomedall the participants and noted that thetraining was long overdue. The training wasofcially closed by Abass Adebayo, also on

behalf of the Director for Eastern Africa.He thanked the training facilitators for a jobwell done and urged participants to use the

gained skills to improve their data analysisand paper publications.

Real-Time PCR training

The second training was conducted forthe staff of the Molecular BiologyLaboratory at the hub and was conducted byRudolph Shirima, a research associate underthe Virology and Vector Ecology departmentof IITA Eastern Africa Hub.

The training was organized by IITA underthe auspices of the Cassava Varieties and

A group photo of the participants of the SAS training

Clean Seed to combat CBSD and CMD(5CP) project. Its objective was to equip thetrainees with the knowledge and skills tooperate and use real-time PCR to diagnoseviruses in cassava. The training also coveredsample collection and management fordiagnostics.

Central Africa HubRecovering banana production in BananaBunchy Top Disease (BBTD) affectedareascommunity and farm householdapproaches, 2025 January 2014,Bujumbura, Burundi

Eastern Africa HubSecond meeting of the project onControlling diseases in sweet potatoand enset in South Sudan and Ethiopiato improve productivity and livelihoodsunder changing climatic conditions,2024 January 2014, Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

RTB Postharvest project meetingon Driving livelihoods improvementthrough demand-driven interventions forcompetitive production and processing ofRTBs, 2122 January, Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

West Africa HubThe Sixth Reunion of IITA Alumni will

be held from 12 March to 15 March,2014, Ibadan, Nigeria

Upcoming events

IITA Bulletin 2206

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