IITA in Zambia

IITA has been conducting research activities with local partners in Zambia since the early 1980’s. But the IITA Zambia research station was established in 2009 when the IITA Board of Trustees decided to make the place the Southern Africa Hub. The station overseas operations of IITA research stations in three countries; Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. It is situated on a 50-hectare campus with modern scientific, training, and administration facilities, including a 30hectare irrigated research farm. Our vision and mission for the region by 2020, is to raise at least one million poor people out of poverty and put back into productive use at least 500,000 hectares of degraded land. We will help farmers diversify their cereal-dominated monocropping farming systems to include a wider range of more climate-resilient and drought-tolerant crops such as cassava and legumes. We will also promote the use of cowpea and soybean that fix biological nitrogen to contribute to sustainable intensification and help resolve the challenges of malnutrition.