It was great to be back in Addis for a week in January and to attend the ILRI staff party on 14 January (with apologies for not wearing my kilt this year!).  It’s always good to meet up with former colleagues and old friends. The atmosphere at the party was good and even the rain didn’t dampen the spirits. It was also gratifying to see so much activity and feel the buzz on campus.  The big infrastructure projects (new genebank and gym) are progressing well. It was also clear that the investment in new water supply infrastructure (new storage tank and bore well) were worthwhile given the challenges of water supply in the city. It was also exciting to see the new metro trains running past the entrance to the campus.

The new President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, famous for his bow ties, has put agricultural development firmly back on the agenda at the African Development Bank.  Previously Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria, and former staff member of IITA, Africa Rice and ICRISAT, Adesina sees the agriculture sector being critical to economic development in the continent.

As part of this new initiative he has invited the CGIAR Centres to develop a proposal for a large grant (up to $700M over 10 years) to support a $25B investment in agriculture (as loans to national governments) over the same period. This is an amazing opportunity for us to demonstrate how our technologies can transform agriculture in Africa.

Given that livestock accounts for about 40% on average of Agricultural GDP we are arguing that the livestock sector should receive a large share of this investment. It’s early days in this process but Jimmy and I are working hard with IITA, who are leading the initiative, and the other CG Centres, to ensure that we grasp this great opportunity and to ensure that livestock is fully represented in the program.

On 25 January Jimmy and I made a courtesy call to the new Cabinet Secretary for Ministry of Agriculture Livestock & Fisheries, Government of Kenya, Hon Willy Bett and the new Principal Secretary for Livestock, Hon Andrew Tuimur, who has joined the ILRI board as the representative of the Government of Kenya. They were both very keen to learn more about ILRI, what we do and how ILRI and the Ministry can work more closely together.  We will follow up with more detailed discussions in due course.

Till next month

Iain