Upon directives of His Excellency Prof. Yerlan Alimzhanuly Baidaulet, the Director General of the Islamic Organization of Food Security (IOFS), Mr. Abdula Manafi Mutualo, Advisor at Coordination & Cooperation Department, led the Organization’s delegation to conduct Advanced Training on “Agronomic Methods on Cassava in Mozambique”, on 28-29 August 2023 in Maputo, Republic of Mozambique, the first ever event convened by the IOFS in that Southern African country.
History was in fact made also because it is the first in-person cassava event within the mandate the IOFS has to implement relevant initiatives to advance to agenda of strategic commodities for Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation ( OIC ). For the historic moment to be a reality, the IOFS counted with the close cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Republic of Mozambique through the generous hosting of the event by the Agrarian Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM).
The cassava capacity building that brought together about 25 participants across Mozambique with representatives of national research Institute, researchers and private sector working in cassava sub-sector counted with the special participation from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), which was represented by Momodou Ceesay, its Lead Community Driven Development and Rural Institution Specialist. The event provided an interactive platform to discuss new innovations and challenges to increase cassava production and productivity in OIC Member States at large while focusing Mozambique in specific.
It shall be emphasized that the first day of the event was greatly supported content-side with experience of hosting country of Mozambique in various segments of good agronomic practices. Particularly, international experts from the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana shared their experiences with Mozambicans in cassava production and productivity.
It must be mentioned that Dr. Abubakar Ahmad, IOFS Cassava Program Consultant and coordinator of the event, assisted the IOFS Advisor for ensuring the positive outcome of the Capacity Building Activity (CBA).
