Plant health is an important concern for all. IITA believes that ensuring plant health is pivotal to improve agricultural productivity and food security, and reduce poverty. It is also a key element in IITA’s strategy of intensifying sustainable agriculture. Containing biological threats, among other things, to food security is the real national defense, says IITA DG Hartmann.

Malawi and Nigeria have released three improved soybean varieties that can enhance the productivity of the crop and offer farmers better opportunities.

Agricultural Economist Jim Gockowski of IITA-STCP based in Ghana shares his experiences in working in Africa for Africa.

IITA scientist Thomas Dubois did a SWOT analysis to determine what ingredients are needed for the banana tissue culture industry to succeed.

Kanti Rawal, former plant geneticist, traveled 38,000 km around Nigeria and Niger in the 1970s to collect wild and domesticated accessions of cowpea. The authors tell how they did the same almost 40 years later.

Virologist and GHU Head Lava Kumar walks us through the important work being undertaken to ensure the safe exchange of international public goods among a global network of institutions and entities.

Olufunke Awosusi, Senior Plant Quarantine Officer with the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) discusses how NAQS tries to keep out “foreign” pests from Nigeria to protect and enhance the agricultural economy.

Martha Byanyima, the Regional Process and Partnerships Facilitator of CAADP at the COMESA Secretariat, explains how the Green Pass system works in harmonizing sanitary and phytosanitary measures in the region.

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.

IITA scientists have devised an easy method of killing nematodes, which cause annual losses of millions of dollars, in banana suckers—immersing them in boiling water for 20-30 seconds!