International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

Who We Are

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) (a member of the CGIAR) is an award-winning, research-for-development (R4D) organization, providing solutions to hunger, poverty, and the degradation of natural resources in Africa. Some awards that IITA has received include the Africa Food Prize (2018) and the World Bio Protection Award (2022) for Innovative Research on aflatoxin management, among several others. Since 1967, IITA has worked with international and national partners to improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. These improvements are made via its R4D and partnerships-for-development (P4D) directorates, including leading the scaling of technologies via the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program working with different partners from across the sub-Saharan Africa. The institute has five hubs in Africa (Central, Eastern, Sahel, Southern and Western Africa hubs), 21 stations and is present in 30 countries.

What We Do in the Project

Our Tasks in HealthyDiets4Africa are as follows:

Leading work package on diversifying agricultural production and food processing to contribute to combating malnutrition via diversification
Contributing develop metrics and indicators, which best describe the project’s objective and subjective, i.e., perceived food environment, and which effectively describe food environment risk factors for malnutrition
Conducting research and addressing food safety risks associated with toxicants including pesticide residues, heavy metals, and mycotoxins).
Contributing to integrated cropping systems such as the use of black soldier fly (BSF) larvae as more affordable animal protein, and BSF frass as organic fertiliser
Scaling of technologies for advancing healthy diets in Africa for improved food security through diversified delivery
Policy advocacy & communication to support positive action and awareness on healthy diets
Contributing to successful and effective project that reaches its aims.