International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has signed a partnership agreement to help Guinea in the production and promotion of cassava, maize, cowpea and soybean
The agreement also involves improvement of the livestock value chain, for which IITA will help the country link up with livestock value chain organisations including the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).
The signing of the agreement follows the recent interactions between IITA ambassador Olusegun Obasanjo and the Guinea government in which the leadership of the West African country sought solutions on how to move the country’s agriculture forward. The agreement between IITA and Guinea will allow IITA to deploy its agricultural expertise to that country and help increase agricultural productivity with the ultimate goal of improving livelihoods and wealth creation.
IITA will also mobilise other development partners, both local and international to help accelerate Guinea’s agricultural growth, cutting across the value chains of key staples including livestock. With a population of about 10mn, Guinea shares its northern border with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Mali, and its southern border with Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote d’Ivoire.
IITA intends to apply a similar agricultural research-for-development model which has helped Nigeria be one of the top cassava-producing countries in the world.
