East and Southern Africa hub
IITA launched its new East and Southern Africa (ESA) hub this year to give priority attention to research in banana, plantain, and cassava, and to provide better services to scientists in those two regions. Based in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, it will also carry out research on other IITA mandate crops, such as yam, maize, and soybean.
The hub, according to IITA Director Steffen Abele, will look at the diversification of banana breeding programs from the more highland-oriented sites to coastal regions, where there is a huge diversity of banana that can be exploited. Attention on banana and cassava is expected to go a long way in improving the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers and in alleviating poverty.
The ESA hub focuses on Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, The Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola, and Botswana.
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