Member countries of ECOWAS will need to significantly increase their investment in agricultural research and development to achieve the MDG aim of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty by 2015.

Outcome mapping is increasingly being used by R4D projects at IITA in their monitoring and evaluation framework for planning and assessing the effects and performance of projects and programs.

A multipartner team of scientists have developed an early warning system that uses cell phones to monitor and track cassava disease outbreaks in Tanzania, and now in Rwanda.

With the use of GIS tools, researchers were able to get an overview of the actual distribution, agroclimatic preferences, and potential distribution of cowpea. More importantly, they identified gaps or areas that are underrepresented in IITA’s cowpea collection, and that need to be given priority for biodiversity conservation.

If Nigeria wants to increase cowpea production, it needs to mechanize existing tools and promote efficient farm management techniques, argues Postharvest Engineer Thierno Diallo. Mechanization may not be the only solution but it can certainly help the millions of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa become more productive.

An IITA researcher, with partners, has constructed a linkage map for cowpea and identified portions on the cowpea genome that have effects on drought tolerance and resistance to bacterial blight. Such molecular tools would considerably shorten the plant improvement process from 10 to 3 years.

The average crop yield in sub-Saharan Africa is very low compared with other parts of the world. This article details a dynamic natural resource management approach being used to increase the yield of banana and coffee.

A partnership of scientists lead by IITA, CIRAD, and Africa Rice are studying how weaver ants, the most ancient biocontrol agent on record, can protect economically important crops, such as mango, from the invasive fruit fly.

Witchweed or Striga has cast a “spell” on millions of hectares of cereal crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Discover how IITA and partners concocted a “potion” to ward off its effects on cereals using a natural enemy—a fungus!

IITA Biotechnology Lab Head Ivan Ingelbrecht describes the state of genetic transformation on cassava, and presents some of the enabling tools for biotechnology-mediated improvement, and other complementary approaches, such as conventional breeding and use of artificial mini-chromosomes.