RadioIITA has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with several key media partners from Nigeria’s Eastern and Western regions, marking a significant step towards leveraging radio and communication to transform agriculture in Africa.

In his opening remarks at the signing, the Deputy Director General Partnership and Delivery stated that the MoU symbolizes the commitment to address Africa’s most pressing hunger, malnutrition, and poverty challenges. Together with its partners, IITA aims to empower farmers with the knowledge and tools they need to enhance productivity, improve livelihoods, and ensure food security.

Dashiell enumerated that the partnership will benefit IITA in terms of a wider reach and enable the partners to produce greater agricultural content.

Speaking on the crucial nature of the new partnership, Radio Lead Dajie Odok emphasized that RadioIITA, a community radio station, has limited reach and struggles to connect with millions of farmers, especially those in rural areas. This collaboration aims to overcome those limitations and fulfill its objectives.

“We are eager to share content that will empower farmers. We recognize the urgent need for technology to ensure food security, and we look forward to establishing further partnerships with other radio stations in the Southern and Northern parts of Nigeria,” she stated.

The partners participated in a series of training sessions designed to familiarize them with IITA innovations and enhance their ability to effectively disseminate appropriate information on agriculture.

The Head of the Germplasm Unit at IITA, Lava Kumar, spoke on the importance of farmers knowing the health status of the planting materials. The Germplasm unit helps to prevent the spread of pests and diseases in plants. Kumar stressed that the new partnership would help disburse relevant information to farmers and aid the adoption of best practices in farming.

Innovations like the seed tracker and molecular characterization of viruses and their genomes were showcased and adequately explained to the partners.

Similarly, IITA Cassava Specialist Mercy Diebiru—Ojo also engaged with the partners and shared IITA’s technique, namely the rapid multiplication of cassava stems through Semi-Autotropic Hydroponics (SAH). She explained that the SAH technology is suitable for rapidly dispersing improved cassava varieties in all African growing areas as it uses simple facilities and requires limited capital investments.

According to her, plants emanating from the SAH technique have a better resistance to pathogens in open fields than those in stem cuttings. Thus, this technique presents a viable strategy for combating infestations and increasing yields in cropping systems across Africa.

Also, with the production of disease-free SAH plants, transferring planting materials between countries becomes easier.

Food Safety Scientist Titi Falade, who delved into the issue of Food Safety and the importance of using Aflasafe to reduce the risk of liver cancer, emphasized that food safety is crucial to improving public health and food security.

However, a significant impediment to food security is the high prevalence of staple crop contamination with different compounds, including mycotoxins, produced by fungi such as aflatoxin.

She stated that IITA‘s solution to food contamination caused by Aflatoxin is a bioprotectant called Aflasafe, which should be in the hands of every farmer producing grains in Africa.

She stressed that the media partnership can further propagate the knowledge of aflatoxins in food and its solutions, thereby assuring improved food quality and safety in Africa.

In response to the training, the partners Ifediora Tagbo, representing Choffan Communications, owners of Ijele 93. 1 FM &  Blaze 91. 5 FM, Anambra State, Okey Odogwu, Group General Manager, Prime and Power Media Ltd, owners of Dream FM 92.5 and Prime Sports Radio Enugu 104.9, Enugu, and Oluniyi Dahunsi, Deputy Director Programmes Federal Radio Corporation Ibadan Zonal Station all agreed that the partnership is critical for the stations due to the high level of research being conducted by IITA and should be spread across all communities.

Tagbo disclosed that the Eastern part of Nigeria lacks access to quality agricultural information, and he believes this partnership would help fill the gap.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 by 𝐀𝐧𝐮 𝐎𝐲𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐲𝐞