TAAT ARM 2019 Group Photo (Photo: TAAT)

Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is convening a high-level partnership meeting to review its activities in 2018 and plan for the 2019 year.

The meeting which kicked off today at the Benin Marina Hotel, in Cotonou, Benin Republic, brings together ministerial level government representatives and experts from the government of Benin, African Development Bank (AfDB), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the other implementing agencies of the TAAT program, and Coordinators of TAAT Compacts.

The meeting is expected to assess and review 2018 work plan viz successes, challenges, roles and activities; discuss 2019 work plan and implementation guideline; explore emerging pathways for scaling up adoption of TAAT technologies, based on the concepts of technology toolkit; and create a common understanding by all actors in the TAAT program regarding expectations to produce results that are measurable and in line with program goals and building commitment to the implementation of a robust program-wide Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning system.

Key speakers at the event include: Hon. Gaston Cossi Dossouhoui, Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fishery, Republic of Benin; Dr. Ken Dashiell, Deputy Director General, IITA, Mr John Andrianarisata, AfDB Country Manager Dr. Jonas Chianu AfDB; Dr. Chrys Akem, TAAT Program Coordinator IITA.; Dr. Mpoko Bokanga, Head TAAT Clearinghouse among others.

The meeting ends on Thursday, March 7th.

Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is a program initiated by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of its Feed Africa Initiative. The main objective of the program is to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight Priority Intervention Areas (PIA).

The program is implemented by IITA in close partnership with other CGIAR Centers and specialized technical centers (e.g. AATF, IFDC), FARA, national agricultural research and extension systems and private sector partners. TAAT is not a research program; it is an initiative to promote and disseminate proven high-performance food production technologies to millions of farmers in a commercially sustainable way through a network of people and institutions forming a Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure (RTDI) within an enabling environment.

It requires close partnership between the AfDB and other developmental partners such as the World Bank, IFAD, BMGF, AGRA, USAID, EU, DfID and others.

The TAAT program increases agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected value chains. TAAT operates as a network of interacting “Compacts” with nine devoted to specific commodity value chains, and six others serving as “Enablers” that provide needed specialist services.

The nine (9) value chain compacts are rice, maize, cassava, wheat, sorghum and millet, orange-flesh sweet potato, high-iron beans, Livestock, aquaculture compacts. The six (6) enabler compacts are soil fertility management, water management, capacity building, seed policy, fall army worm control and ENABLE TAAT compacts.