In DR Congo, the fishery and aquaculture sector constitutes an essential source of economic activity, surpassing livestock, accounting for 12% of agricultural GDP. The industry contributes to 40% of total animal protein intake in the country. The annual average per capita fish consumption is about 5.9 kg—very low compared to the continental average of approximately 9.4 kg. Most fish consumed in the country is imported from neighboring countries and China. However, DRC has vast environmental resources to produce what is required for home consumption and could even become a net exporter of fish....

For over 30 years, IITA has significantly invested in research for development in Cameroon, particularly on seed systems, integrated pest management, integrated soil fertility management, and nutrition. The scaling out technologies and innovations developed by IITA and other development partners has been limited, however, due to weak extension services. Since the creation of the Partnership for Delivery directorate at IITA, the trend is changing drastically through programs like Technologies for African Agriculture Transformation (TAAT) and ENABLE Youth. Since May 2018, IITA has extended its ENABLE...

Efficiency in any operation is critical for the evaluation of outputs. In research, in general, and socioeconomic research in particular, quality of data and the speed at which they are processed largely determine the efficiency of a program. It is not unusual to get the baseline report of a project in the middle of its execution or even towards its end. This is not necessarily a failure of project managers but part of the constraints they face due to the data collection tools available to them. Thus, besides the project timeline, data collection tools play an essential role in effectively executing...

African development partners are committed to supporting youth entrepreneurship programs, as evidenced by the implementation of the AfDB-funded ENABLE Youth program that operates in several African countries under the leadership of IITA. With financial support from the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD), IITA launched a three-year project (2018-2020) titled “Enhancing Capacity to Apply Research Evidence (CARE) in policy for youth engagement in agribusiness and rural economic activities in Africa,” also known as youth researching youth. A core tenet of the project is the recognition...