Clean Yam Planting Material
Overview
Deputy directors update
Andy Frost writes...
RIU funded work on the clean yam planting material project through the commissioned work strand. The programme was considered as a potential RIU Best Bet following a call in West Africa but there was a view that despite great merit it wasn't quite ready for Best Bet investment. It needed more time. One of the real strengths of RIU was that it had great flexibility in its investment in research into use programmes.
The clean yam planting material project was one of the last investments of phase 1 of the RIU programme. The RIU investment was used to provide proof ofconcept and to address constraining factors that prevented good research being put into use.
In addition to the funding package RIU was able to offer considerable capacitybuilding by our plant expert Andy Ward who worked as a facilitator and innovation broker. His role was to support the partners to be investment-ready for the larger investment they needed to take the project to the next level. Building on the experience being involved in the RIU Best Bets process.
It is very gratifying to see that this work (and the earlier work funded under the RNRRS) is feeding into a substantial new project to be funded by the Gates Foundation. The Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project has secured around US$ 12m. This shows great leverage for the RIU investment of time and money.
Overview
| Lead organisation | Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary (MSHR) |
| Delivery area | Nigeria |
| RIU start date | June 2010 |
| End of RIU investment | January 2012 when the project was picked up by IITA and received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
Deputy directors update
Andy Frost writes...
RIU funded work on the clean yam planting material project through the commissioned work strand. The programme was considered as a potential RIU Best Bet following a call in West Africa but there was a view that despite great merit it wasn't quite ready for Best Bet investment. It needed more time. One of the real strengths of RIU was that it had great flexibility in its investment in research into use programmes.
The clean yam planting material project was one of the last investments of phase 1 of the RIU programme. The RIU investment was used to provide proof ofconcept and to address constraining factors that prevented good research being put into use.
In addition to the funding package RIU was able to offer considerable capacitybuilding by our plant expert Andy Ward who worked as a facilitator and innovation broker. His role was to support the partners to be investment-ready for the larger investment they needed to take the project to the next level. Building on the experience being involved in the RIU Best Bets process.
It is very gratifying to see that this work (and the earlier work funded under the RNRRS) is feeding into a substantial new project to be funded by the Gates Foundation. The Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project has secured around US$ 12m. This shows great leverage for the RIU investment of time and money.
| Seed yam project, November 2010 (08:07) |  |
