IITA improved cassava cuttings gets AfDB, AGRA, PIND support

The Building an Economically Sustainable and Integrated Cassava Seeds System phase 2 project (BASICS-2) of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) meant to enhance transferring of improved cassava cuttings to farmers in Nigeria and Tanzania has received a support from African Development Bank (AfDB), Alliance Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND Foundation) that will enhance its sustainability.


 This was contained in a press release signed by Mr. Godwin Atser, and made available to journalists last Friday after the virtual zoom conference, where BASIC-2 was launched at IITA, Ibadan last week Thursday.

The statement quoted the Director, Department of Agriculture and Agro-Industry of the AfDB, Mr. Martins Fregene saying that the Apex African Bank would use  Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) flagship to ensure the availability of best varieties of cassava stems to farmers in Nigeria and Tanzania, added ‘’ BASICS-II will not only raise the productivity of African ,Nigerian and Tanzanian farmers, but it will improve productivity along the value chain and make cassava to be a good business for anyone to invest in”

In the statement, it was also pointed that Alliance for Green Revolution (AGRA) would help BASIC-2 project to be replicated in other states in Nigeria and other African countries, just as  the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) has pledged to give the same project sustainable platform.

 In his remarks  according to press release, the Executive Director of PIND, Dr. Dara Akala, assured that his foundation would help BASICS-II outlive its duration in the Niger Delta region saying  “Everything we do in PIND is centered around partnerships and partnerships are at the core of what we have achieved in the Niger Delta. Our collaboration with NRCRI Umudike towards the end of BASICS-I led to the pool of Village Seed Entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta’’

 He continued ‘’ so we are committed to partnering with BASICS-II to consolidate and scale up the results of those initial effort made in BASIC-1’’

He maintained that PIND’s partnership with BASICS-II would broker an economically sustainable and commercially viable seed system in the Niger Delta.

Implementing partners in the statement include Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA); Catholic Relief Services; IITA GoSeed; Umudike Seed; Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI); SAHEL Consulting; Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), and the National Root Crops Research Institute in Umudike, Abia state, Nigeria’’

The first phase of the project, BASICS-1, which lasted between 2015 and 2020, facilitated the development of more than 160 commercial seed entrepreneurs in Nigeria. These seed entrepreneurs are now growing cassava with the primary aim of producing and selling stems—an activity that is generating income and creating wealth in cassava growing communities.