IITA unveils N2Africa Project to bridge $10bn production loss

 Ibadan-based International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has unveiled an ambitious plan to stem estimated losses of $10 billion from agricultural output in the past 20 years due to poor production techniques and practices.

The plan which is tagged N2Africa Project is an innovative programme of injecting new inputs to boost production in order to raise Nigeria’s food and export output. The project is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Edward Baars, Senior Development Officer, IITA, who is supervising the project, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting convened to review progress in technology dissemination to farmers through Public-Private Partnerships.

According to Baars, the N2Africa Project is a research innovation designed to expand output capacity of the country’s agriculture sector by increasing biological nitrogen fixation and the productivity of grain legumes among smallholder farmers.

He added that researchers are of the opinion that Nigeria lost about $10 billion in annual export opportunity because value-added per capita in agriculture only rose by less than one per cent annually in the last 20 years.

He said: “We are working towards setting up an information centre, where farmers in their comfort can get relevant information on new inputs. This will be the most efficient information distribution hub to farmers. Farmers can call or send us voice messages anytime they have any challenges. With the system available, every farmer can manage his/her supply chain because private sector inputs supplier has been sitting on the fence without direct contact with farmers.


“As a mode of implementation approach, the project (N2Africa) has developed a public-private partnership with legume value chain actors to achieve the project’s vision which includes knowledge transfer, legume technology dissemination, access to input and output.” 

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