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With dwindling aid to tackle a growing list of problems in developing countries, working in isolation to tackle challenges of a similar nature is no longer an option.

For the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), which has been mandated to implement an ambitious program for the adoption of new technologies in Africa known as Technologies for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (TAAT), working in collaboration with other partners is obviously the right thing to do. When organizations pool their comparative advantages, they can maximize impact and be more effective in achieving development results.

"Our expectation is essentially to see how we can work together for collaborative rather than competitive execution", said Dr Chrysantus Akem, TAAT program manager at IITA.

IITA is the lead executing agency for TAAT funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), while CORAF is the lead executing agency for the West Africa Agricultural Transformation Program (WAATP). The latter is financed by the World Bank and will be operational by the end of 2018.

In mid-November, Dr. Chrysantus Akem took part in a meeting to develop the new West Africa Agricultural Transformation Program (WAATP) at a workshop of key partners in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. In the following interview, he gives an overview of how he sees the potential partnership with CORAF and other national, regional and international partners. Read more:

CORAF: First of all, what is TAAT?

Dr. Chrysantus Akem: TAAT stands for Technology for the Transformation of African Agriculture. It was formulated by the AfDB to take into account technologies designed by the CGIAR and national agricultural research centers to transform agriculture in Africa.

CORAF: How did IITA become one of the main executing agencies for this program?

Dr. Chrysantus Akem: Essentially, IITA was approached by the AfDB to play a leading role in the implementation of this program. It was based on the results of the Support to Agricultural Research for the Development of Strategic Crops in Africa (SARD-SC). This was a five-year program funded by the AfDB. The excellent results produced by the program convinced the AfDB that IITA could play a greater role in TAAT.

CORAF: Excellent. We understand that working on a partnership with other national and regional research institutions is essential to TAAT's realization approach. We also understand that you are looking to work with the PTAAO. Could you tell us concretely what you expect from CORAF, the main implementing body of WATAP?

Dr. Chrysantus Akem: After the end of SARD-SC, we intended to move on to phase two. Then, suddenly, we realized that phase two was essentially about extending the program to develop the technologies that had been created. When the AfDB decided that TAAT would be one of the pillars of Feed Africa, one of the AfDB's five strategic priority areas, we realized that this reflected what we intended to do in SARD-SC II. So, we obviously decided to participate and expand the program not just to focus on four products, but on as many products as the national constituents wanted. That was the original intention. Thirty-five countries that took part in the first workshop expressed their interest in being part of TAAT. Eighteen value chains were selected during the workshop as priority areas. After a series of meetings, we all limited ourselves to what they wanted. At the same time, we realized that the World Bank-funded West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) was doing the same thing. The timing couldn't be more right. We all understood that transforming African agriculture was our goal. That's how we started to think alike. So, the President of the AfDB approached the President of the World Bank and then suggested that these two programs work together collaboratively to transform agriculture in Africa. This laid the foundations for collaboration between IITA, TAAT's lead executing agency, and CORAF, which implements the World Bank's WAPP. That's where we started this collaboration. Our expectations are essentially to work together for a collaborative rather than a competitive achievement. We want to see how we can transform the silos we've been researching as different institutions and regions, and do it together and collaboratively to transform agriculture in Africa. I think this is a unique opportunity for change, and we have to do it, and I hope we can do it this time.

CORAF: Are there any areas of collaboration that you have already identified?

Dr Chrysantus Akem: Yes, we've had a few meetings where areas of collaboration have been identified.

CORAF: Can you name a few?

Dr. Chrysantus Akem: The one that stands out is varietal transformation.

Each of the products has target varieties chosen either because of yield, or because of the adaptation they want to bring to scale. It's a good opportunity because it's a technology that stands out. The second is mechanization. We all know that we can't transform agriculture in Africa by using the hoe and the machete. Some people have jokingly said, the hoe and the machete belong in the museum and we need to focus on mechanization. How can we look at these mechanization options - whether production or post-harvest - on which we can focus to transform agriculture in Africa? Transformation is also at the heart of what we're looking at. We want to look at it as a value chain. So the technology we're focusing on goes from production right through to the end consumer. These are the two key areas we want to look at, which is the same objective of the CAATP. The CAATP looks at technology all along the value chain. At IITA and CGIAR, we've been working on breeding high-yielding, adapted varieties that are resistant to all the different pests and diseases, and we think we have technologies to rapidly transform some of these varieties so that we can achieve maximum yields or the required processing in a short period of time. We're ready to take some of these techniques to scale. Take for example: if you take one hectare of cassava, you can multiply the material and plant 10 hectares. We have methods that can increase this 100 times in less than a year and be able to have enough material to plant a hundred times what you started with. These are the technologies we're ready to use to transform cassava technologies. If we look at yam as another example, we've developed techniques that allow us to use yam vines to produce a tuber and multiply by a hundred what we can do now. So there are technologies that IITA is ready to use, and we're ready to share some of these techniques with other countries so that we can rapidly transform agriculture as part of the joint PPAAO/TAAT collaboration.

CORAF: You just mentioned silos; how do you plan to work with national and regional agricultural research systems across Africa to adapt technologies and achieve the desired results?

Dr Chrysantus Akem: To break down silos, we need to start planning together. Now is the time to plan together with all partners. Right now, we have the AfDB and the World Bank. Both donors want to make a difference. CORAF and IITA are the two implementing agencies. To be effective, we need to think together and develop our priorities together. Furthermore, IITA and CORAF have similar partners at national and regional levels. So, if we make the preliminary plan on how we can take this to scale and then engage national partners and develop modalities, it can make a difference. More importantly, national partners need to come on board because we want it to be sustainable this time. We want TAAT to be owned by national partners.

CORAF: And speaking of sustainability, TAAT and WAATP will come to an end at some point. How do you ensure that countries take ownership of these programs and put in place sustainable arrangements?

Dr Chrysantus Akem: Yes. Planning is something we need to build into the program right from the design phase. Past programs have tried to do this, but they may not have been very effective. But this time we need to do it in such a way as to secure the commitment of national partners. One way of securing country commitment is to obtain matching funding. This means that national partners must not only join in, but also make their own contribution. It means providing staff, land and other infrastructure such as laboratories to make this an ongoing program. And we also want to make sure that countries integrate this into their national agricultural program planning processes. That way, you don't have a difference between national and international programs. If this planning becomes an annual affair where the technical and political staff of national governments are systematically involved, this will lead to full assent and commitment. With this approach, we believe it can indeed be sustainable even when we start to pull back.

CORAF: We always end this conversation with a very individual question. You've been on the development scene for a very long time, as we begin to plan this critical program for the western and central regions, do you have a major concern?

Dr Chrysantus Akem: Yes, my concern is to honor our commitments. The Malabo declaration stipulated that countries would invest at least 10% of their national budgets in agriculture. As far as we know, only a few countries have met this commitment, and very few others have gone as far as five percent. So my concern is that we need to stop talking and start doing. The African government needs to measure commitment by what it does, not just what it talks about, because the time has come for us to go beyond talk and start action.

CORAF: Thank you very much for talking to us. We appreciate your time.

Dr Chrysantus Akem: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure. I hope and look forward to a strong collaborative relationship between IITA and CORAF.