A team of experts from the World Bank has commended the commitment of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) to food systems transformation in Africa. This was disclosed recently during the visit of the of the team to the Cotonou campus of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Benin Republic.

During the visit, Dr Solomon Gizaw, the Head of TAAT Clearinghouse in a presentation entitled TAAT: Responding to the call to feed Africa, highlighted TAAT’s efforts at harnessing purposeful and customised partnerships with governments and the private sector for agricultural transformation; addressing policy bottlenecks that inhibit the free flow of technologies; building robust supply chains for food production technologies; and creating demand for technologies via a value chain approach to technology dissemination.

Dr Gizaw further shared success stories from TAAT’s integration of proven technologies into country projects financed by development banks across Africa. The World Bank team were then taken round a tour of facilities at the campus.

In a response, Dr Simeon Ehui, World Bank’s Regional Director for Sustainable Development for Africa who led the team commended TAAT’s demonstrable commitment to transforming African food systems through the innovative deployment of path-breaking agricultural technologies and conscious engagement of public and private sectors in technology scale-up.

Sponsored by the African Development Bank as part of its Feed Africa Initiative, TAAT aims to double the productivity of crops, livestock and fisheries by making proven technologies available to more than 40 million agricultural producers by 2025. These will produce an additional 120 million tonnes of food and lift 130 million people out of poverty.