Mission

“To offer leading research partnership that facilitates agricultural solutions to hunger, poverty, and natural resource degradation throughout sub-Saharan Africa.”

IITA’s mission is to assure food security for some of the world’s poorest people and provide them with viable strategies that create real, long-term results for economic development and community stability, while building an ecologically sound future that takes into account the issues of climate change. At IITA, we are dedicated to alleviating these problems and working to transform agriculture in Africa.

Vision

“The lead research partner facilitating agricultural solutions to overcome hunger and poverty in the tropics.”

IITA sees a bright future for Africa. We see a continent that can become a world leader in agriculture and sustainability. We understand that Africa needs a proactive CGIAR-supported Center that is closely linked to the demands of this continent. Our core beliefs and strategy reflect this.

In line with the new CGIAR, IITA is focused on four System-Level Outcomes described in the Strategic Results Framework.

1. Increase food security
2. Reduce rural poverty
3. Reduce the prevalence of under-nutrition
4. Introduce sustainable natural resource management

IITA will advance these System Level Outcomes within five impact zones in sub-Saharan Africa by increasing major staple food yields in target R4D regions by two-thirds. Focusing on cassava, yam, maize, banana and plantain, soybean, and cowpea is the fastest and easiest way to impact farmers and increase the average farm income by half. As rural, farming communities in Africa are among the poorest in the world, these increases will lift over 11 million Africans or almost a fifth of households above the poverty line. Our vision of the future sees the region’s farms commit to restoring natural resources and sustainable farming practices for seven and a half million hectares of degraded farmlands, conserving them for future generations of farmers and food producers.

The Knowledge Center offers a variety of print and non-print materials plus access to electronic journals and databases. We subscribe to the full text of over 135 electronic journal titles. The Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), which represents our print collection, is on the web with over 110,000 records. The collection is mainly in English with some titles in French. The photo library has over 1,000 records and can be accessed via Flickr.

The Knowledge Center collections in agriculture and life science disciplines represent 50 years of cutting-edge research by IITA and partners.

The Knowledge Center at headquarters provides easy and quick access to the information that researchers need to work productively and cost effectively regardless of their location.

Services

The services on offer include the following:

• Online access to the full text of the research output of IITA scientists since inception in the IITA Bibliography
• Online access to the full text of IITA publications in the IITA Bibliography
• Online access to the full text of current journal articles in over 135 journals. (includes collaboration with all other CGIAR center libraries)
• Access to the full text of journal articles in 145 journals via TEEAL (spell out)
• Access to various electronic databases like CABDIRECT, CGVLibrary (centralized access to libraries, catalogs, and databases held by CGIAR centers) and AJOL (African Journals Online) and so on
• Internet / Database searches
• Assistance for retrieval from the shelves
• Electronic delivery of documents to scientists
• Interlibrary loan (local and international)
• Access to images in the image gallery on Flickr
• Reference service (via e-mail, on-line chat, live-support requests, phone, or at the circulation desk)
• Lending of books and journals
• Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI)
• Distribution of relevant IITA publications to staff, donors, partners and other interested users.