News

The CORAF community, through its Executive Director, Dr Abdou Tenkouano, wishes to congratulate Dr Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), following his election as a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (WAS). Dr. Sanginga's membership is effective from Friday January 1, 2021.

The AMS is a global network of scientists and organizations working to advance science in developing countries. AMS Fellows are among the world's most accomplished scientists and engineers working to support sustainable prosperity through research, education, policy and diplomacy.

The CORAF community would like to congratulate Dr. Sanginga on this outstanding achievement, which we know will provide him with a global platform to continue using his expertise, knowledge and skills to tackle the urgent challenges of hunger, disease and poverty in developing countries.

In his almost ten years at the helm of IITA, Dr. Sanginga has led many innovative programs designed to make agriculture more inclusive and attractive to young people and students.

"Concerned that agriculture in Africa was being left to the older generation, Dr. Sanginga launched a program called IITA Youth in Agribusiness (IYA). This program aimed to attract young African university graduates and the unemployed into agriculture through an incubation program in modern agricultural practices that enables them to set up their own agribusinesses," writes CORAF's Executive Director.

The initiative was subsequently adopted and financed by the African Development Bank as a flagship program known as ENABLE Youth (Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment for Youth), which is currently being rolled out in a dozen African countries.

"Using the prize money received in 2018 from the Food Prize in Africa, Dr. Sanginga created the Them Early Program (STEP), which aims to convince primary and secondary school children that agriculture is the future. As a result of this program, there is an increase in the number of students choosing to pursue their studies in agriculture," added Dr. Tenkouano.

Dr. Sanginga has over 30 years' experience in agricultural research and development, particularly in applied microbial ecology, plant nutrition and integrated natural resource management in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, having worked with the University of Zimbabwe, IITA, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Austria and CIAT's Institute of Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility, according to the IITA website. He became Director of IITA on November 01, 2011.

Dr. Sanginga will join 1,278 elected members of the Academy representing over 100 countries; 14 of them are Nobel laureates, scientists and engineers; around 84% of them are from developing countries whose work has had a significant impact in the South.

CORAF coordinates agricultural research in 23 West and Central African countries. Its main mission is to improve food and nutritional security and stimulate prosperity. IITA is a non-profit organization based in Ibadan, working to improve crop quality and productivity, reduce risks for producers and consumers, and generate wealth from agriculture, with the ultimate goal of reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty.