…To partner African countries on agricultural development
The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has said that as part of its march to its centenary celebration come next fifty years, it has elected to establish a solid pest and Disease Control Centre in Benin republic to cater for the entire West African sub-region.
The Director, System and Site Integration of IITA, Mr. Kwesi Attah-Krah who disclosed this in Lagos on Friday in a press briefing to mark the 50th anniversary of the institute said that the center will be a key element as the institute move in the next few years starting from 2017 adding that they were already working towards actualizing the project.
Attah-Krah who informed that the choice of Benin Republic had technical as well as societal and political dimensions however explained that in terms of the technical dimension, Benin had always been a very strong point for their work in pest control saying that the big success the institute achieved in Mill bug was based in Benin even as he added that the success of that work was not only for the country but for the entire continent of Africa.
“And really, when we look at IITA, we also see that all the centres and all the stations that we have established are in the Anglophone countries, we don’t have anything in the Francophone countries and we are not only for Anglophones, we are for Anglophones, we are for Francophone, we are for Lusophones. So, we have to begin to spread out, we can’t have everything in Nigeria and that was why we have chosen that Benin will be a good spot for us when it comes to this Bio risk Centre that we are looking at”, he explained.
He noted that they want to make sure that the research that they do is really aimed at transforming the societies, transforming environment, transforming the lives of the ordinary person and especially the lives of the farmers even as he said that the era when they did research that that made sure that small holder farmers could sustain themselves was over.
Right now, we have to make sure that small holder farmers see agriculture as a business that they are making money from it and they will be able to support their families and be able to support the country because agriculture is a key part. The Nigerian government has recognized the importance of agriculture and that is why in their current policy, they call it green alternative as opposed to the brown alternative, they are basically saying enough of sole focus on oil, start thinking of what agriculture can do and IITA wants to make sure that we are partners with the Nigerian government in achieving that not only for Nigeria but for Africa as a whole”, he stated.
Attah-Krah who is also the Chairman, IITA50 Committee also described the youth as a critical ingredient of the institute’s transformation drive adding that the institute aimed at increasing its focus it had with the youth.
According to him,” In partnership with the Africa Development Bank, there is this programme called Enable Youth which presently has been signed on by 31 African countries and Nigeria alone, 36 states of the Federation and each state is aiming to have at the first go, a thousand trained youth who are establishing businesses in agriculture. Programmes like that are going to take a lot of emphasis for us as we move forward”.
On the celebration of IITA at 50, he noted that they were celebrating the success that the institution had been able to achieve with various partners and to appreciate the partners that worked with them as well as the staff who worked for them and are now alumni of the organization and those who are still working for them.
He continued,” We want to appreciate our donors and key investors in the work that we have done and we want to say that the success that we have achieved is not only just because of IITA staff, it is IITA and all its range of partners and supporters but it is the first thing we are celebrating . so, for this 50th anniversary celebration, we have made sure that there are several components which recognizes and appreciate the work that has been done by these different groups.
“But that is not all, we are also looking forward, between 50 and 100 years, we are asking ourselves, what will the food security challenges be, as we move forward, what do we need to change or what do we need to work on? We need to be more forward thinking in terms of doing foresight analysis by looking at the critical issues that face us today and one of the most crucial is the element of this climate change. We have to ask ourselves, how is it influencing the way we deliver, on the way we produce the food that we need?”
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