IITA’s first 50 years showed how partnership is a key ingredient for success in IITA’s efforts to bring about transformation in agriculture.

Agriculture is central to the development of the African continent, currently contributing 40% to 80% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in several countries. In recent years, it has been put back on to the development agenda of most African governments. In Nigeria, for instance, the agricultural policy document of the current government builds on the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the previous government, and is tagged as “The Green Alternative”.

For a long time, however, agriculture had been seen as a back-breaking and thankless occupation, contributing to people’s livelihoods and creating employment, but only at the subsistence level. Agriculture, however, has the potential to drive economic development and wealth creation. To harness its potential for transformation, agriculture needs to be seen as a commercial business operation at all…