Learn more about the International Year of the Potato

The CGIAR Research in Africa gives you research projects that are carried out by CG Centres in the region. The map seeks to answer the question: ‘who is doing what, with whom and where’. You can browse and update research projects from this link

WELCOME TO CIP SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym, CIP) seeks to reduce poverty and achieve food security on a sustained basis in developing countries through scientific research and related activities on potato, sweetpotato, other root and tuber crops, and on the improved management of natural resources in the Andes and other mountain areas.

CIP headquarters are in Lima, Peru and its regional headquarters in SSA are in Nairobi, Kenya. CIP scientists are also based in Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, and Benin. Our efforts in the region are focused on research for development to combat vitamin A deficiency through the effective deployment of pro-vitamin A rich, orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes and to combat poverty and food insecurity utilizing late-blight resistant potato varieties.

CIP - SSA 2009 Activities

Sweetening Lives with Sweetpotato

A five-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help set the groundwork for reducing malnutrition, combating vitamin A deficiency, and improving incomes for 10 million African households within 10 years[Des Moines, Iowa, October 15, 2009]

The International Potato Center is launching a major project to leverage the untapped potential of sweetpotato to significantly improve the nutrition, incomes, and food production of farming families in sub-Saharan Africa, especially among impoverished women and children. The project, entitled Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA), will be implemented in eight Sub-Saharan African countries, and is supported by a five-year, $21 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.(Read More)

CIP hosts booth at the All Africa Horticultural Congress: 31st August to 3rd September 2009, Asafari Park Hotel,Nairobi Kenya

Participants at the recent All Africa Horticulture Congress had the opportunity to learn more about the range of activities undertaken by CIP across sub-Saharan Africa. The Minister for Agriculture, Honourable William arap Ruto(pictured), toured the booth. He was intrigued by the different characteristics of the potato clones which were on display and which are currently being tested under national performance trials in Kenya. Dr.Ian Barker Head of Seed Systems at CIP and Sammy Agili a Sweet potato breeder at CIP explained to him that the top quality potatoes on display were new varieties grown in Kenya, from seed produced in Kenya. Read More

GTZ Adaptation to climate change project TOA - Minimum Data modeling workshop 24-26 June 2009, ILRI campus, Nairobi, Kenya.

In the context of the GTZ/BMZ funded project 'Participatory development and testing of strategies to reduce climate vulnerability of poor farm households in East Africa through innovations in potato and sweet potato technologies and enabling policies', CIP organized a three day workshop at the ILRI campus in Nairobi last week (24-26 June). Participants included researchers from the three project countries (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia) as well as CIP scientists and professors from universities in the Netherlands and the US. Information on stakeholder meetings held in the study areas last year as well as survey data currently being collected for the project were shared and methodologies to ex ante test adaptation strategies in the context of climate change were introduced. Read More

CIP - SSA 2008 Activities
The year 2008 can be characterized as building on opportunities emerging out of crisis. The political upheaval in January 2008 following the presidential elections in Kenya (where our regional office is based) and the resultant displacement of many productive families combined with the global economic turndown resulted in higher food prices throughout the world and particularly in Kenya and Uganda.
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Key Highlights for 2008
Key Highlights from CIP-SSA in sub-Saharan Africa for 2008.
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