About 70 per cent of the impact by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Africa came from research outputs by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, according to the latest Impact Assessment of the CGIAR’s Science Council.

The 2007 assessment, which is still the latest from the archives, notes that the value of the impact/benefit was greater than the total CGIAR investment in African since 1971.

“That is something to be really proud of,” said IITA Director-General Dr. Peter Hartmann at a reunion forum with former IITA staff in Bali, Indonesia.

According to him, 60 per cent of the maize grown in West and Central Africa today comes from IITA varieties.

The director-general also noted that IITA had remained a very stable institute.

“It goes for nothing sexy and does not play the latest fashion game. It does the basic, steadily and consistently. That is its force. This works,” he said.

Hartmann was quick to mention that the success being recorded by the institute was a result of the commitment and foundation laid by the former staff.

He stessed that the present management never reinvented the wheel. “We did not have to undo anything. We just had to build on what you all had built. So it was enjoyable,” he added.

On the CGIAR reforms and the future of IITA, Hartmann said the institute was working towards diversifying its support base, but maintained that CGIAR was one of the supporters.

To help the Institute in this direction, IITA has been doing a few things; the director-general told the alumni group. Last year, Innovation AfricaTM (Research Park for Africa) was created to help capture more scientific synergy.

“The physical facilities should be ready by June 2012. We are building a coalition of three centres to serve Africa ’s crop needs.”

“We are working on a Pan-African wide instrument to help nations tackle biological threats (pests and diseases).

“We are producing more commercial products. We have just released AflaSafe against Aflatoxins. The Gates Foundation is helping us seek firms to produce it commercially. We are clustering IITA scientists in fewer locations (hubs), so we can support them better. In short, we are investing in IITA’s future,” he explained.