IITA – Award winning science
18 December 2006
Two IITAscientists were among few recipients of this year’s Science Awards conferred by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), at its recent annual general meeting in Washington DC. The Oscar worthy awards ceremony showed short video clips of our winners and cumulated in receiving the awards from World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz (see images below).
Thomas Dubois, a biocontrol specialist received the Promising Young Scientist Award for his work creating more durable bananas in the Great Lakes region of eastern Africa, where the plant is often the chief contributor to household income. Dr Dubois developed enhanced tissue culture planting material – created from the banana’s cells – that has resistance against pests and diseases. The material, intentionally infected with a beneficial fungus, offers protection against pests and diseases and has been delivered to farmers via an innovative public-private partnership. Tom’s work on a fungus used to ward off banana pests and diseases is helping to protect Ug anda’s staple food – one of the most important sources of income in East Africa’s Great Lakes region.
The Outst anding Senior Scientist Award went to Bir Bahadur Singh, a plant breeder who retired from IITA two years ago after almost 30 years. Widely known as Mr Cowpea, B.B. Singh’s many contributions include a fast-maturing “60-day” cowpea variety for the tropics, with seeds resistant to more than 10 diseases, as well as drought- and heat-tolerant varieties of the legume. Cowpea is one of Africa’s most versatile crops – it feeds people and livestock and, as a nitrogen-fixing legume, it also improves soil fertility. Dr Singh’s more reliable varieties help ensure that this early-maturing “hungry season” crop provides income and sustenance in the period before cereal crops are harvested. In a continent with a track record for poverty where animal protein is too expensive for resource poor faming families, cowpea with 22% protein help to meet the nutrient needs of the rural dwellers.
Announcing the awards, CGIAR Director, Francisco Reifschneider said “poor farmers in developing countries are confronted with a seemingly un-ending series of challenges ranging from low rainfall and poor soils to plant diseases and sick cattle … this year’s awardees are applying innovative science and technology to these and other challenges to make a difference in the lives of millions of poor farming families”.
IITA is also one of 11 CGIAR Centers that share the 2006 Outst anding Partnership Award for their efforts to administer the CGIAR Genebank in trust for the world community. The repository of 600 000 accessions of crop, forest and agroforestry species–the majority of which are stored as seeds – is an insurance policy of sorts which underwrites food security and insures genetic diversity well into the future. Scientists from around the world, for example, have drawn on the Genebank for wild relatives of common crops whose desirable traits, like disease resistance or the ability to mature before the first frosts, are bred into new varieties. The CGIAR Genebank is the most modern, well-maintained example of a practice which dates back thous ands of years in which traditional agriculturists have selected and saved seed from plants that expressed a diversity of beneficial traits.
Two other IITA scientists, Prof. Malachy Akoroda and Dr Chuma Ezedinma were honored at an international symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC) in the State of Kerala, India. The occasion was the 14th triennial symposium of the ISTRC jointly organized by the Indian Society for Root Crops and Central Tuber Crops Research Institute.
Dr Ezedinma, Project Economist of the IITA Integrated Cassava Project received an award for the Best Oral Presentation, while Prof. Akoroda, the Project Agronomist received the long service award as ISTRC president, and was re-elected as Councilor for African countries of the international body. The theme of the symposium was “Global perspective to enhance production and marketing of tropical tuber crops”. The symposium was attended by about 250 participants drawn from public institutions, research institutes, universities, and private industries, from over 25 countries.
Over the years, IITA scientists have received series of awards for scientific breakthroughs in efforts to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
