Over the past 10 years, CIALCA, the Consortium for Improving Agricultural Livelihoods in Central Africa, has played a pioneering and pivotal role in applied integrated systems research, actions and innovative partnerships in the Great Lakes Region. Since the establishment of the consortium in 2006, CIALCA has contributed to lifting an estimated number of 560,000 people out of poverty in Burundi, Rwanda and eastern DRC. Through active partnerships with governments, public and private partners, technologies were developed and disseminated and thousands of farmers have been trained in Burundi, Rwanda and eastern DRC on a broad range of topics including good agricultural practices, pest and disease control, soil fertility management and erosion control, banana seed multiplication techniques and nutrition and dietary diversity.The year 2016 marks a milestone as CIALCA celebrates its 10 year anniversary. To commemorate this, IITA and Bioversity International are organising a cocktail side event during the 7th FARA African Agricultural Science Week (AASW) scheduled to take place in Kigali, Rwanda. Organised by and for “Friends of CIALCA”, the event will take place on June 15, from 6 to 8 PM, and invited speakers include:
- The Belgian Ambassador to Rwanda (CIALCA is funded through the Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation);
- Dr Murekezi, former CIALCA and current Director General of Agricultural development in the Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources;
- Dr Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of IITA, who played a major role in the creation of CIALCA.
For questions about the event, please email Solange Zawadi or telephone +250 788 864 712. Download the CIALCA 10th anniversary flyer.
In 2013, CIALCA and its network of partners were fully integrated into Humidtropics.
Humidtropics would like to acknowledge the CGIAR Fund Donors, the Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation, and other donors and investors for their provision of core and project-specific funding without which the Program could not deliver results that eventually positively impact the lives of millions of smallholder farmers in tropical Americas, Asia and Africa.
Congratulations CIALCA or should I say congratulations to all those that improved their livelihoods thanks to this program. It would be great if you could share some CIALCA success stories here