Dar es Salaam
Cassava has and will always play a big role in improving the lives of
farmers in Tanzania as it is widely grown in most parts of the country
and holds immense potential as a cash crop through value addition. The
government will therefore support efforts aimed at supporting farmers
to optimize the crop and realize this potential, the Minister of
Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Hon Engineer Christopher
Chiza has said.
Hon Chiza noted that in Tanzania cassava still suffers from being
widely perceived as a fall-back crop during famine while the
prevalence of cassava mosaic and cassava brown streak diseases hamper
its production.
The minister was speaking to a delegation from the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) led by Dr Victor Manyong,
Director for Eastern Africa, during a courtesy call to the minister’s
office this week.
The minister also noted that although a lot of cassava is being grown
in different parts of the country and some even exported to
neighboring countries, a good volume of the crop is still wasted and
rotting in many farmers’ fields. He therefore urged IITA to continue
assisting the country’s farmers to optimally produce and use this crop
through its research efforts, and in return he assured the team of his
ministry’s full support.
He said the country needed research on processing and on marketing,
and the findings to be widely disseminated to reach farmers. He added
that farmers also need access to varieties that can withstand the two
main cassava diseases.
Dr Manyong, on his part, said Tanzania is one of IITA’s priority
countries and that the institute is investing a lot of resources to
boost its research and development capabilities and activities in the
country.
He emphasized that it is due to the good support received from the
government that IITA decided to establish its Eastern Africa Hub in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He added that IITA is currently constructing
a state-of-the-art science building at its offices in Mikocheni to
backstop its research activities in the country. He reported that the
science facility will be completed early next year.
Dr Manyong also assured the honourable minister that IITA will bring
to fore its abundant technical expertise to support the Tanzanian
government in enhancing the country’s agricultural sector, especially
focusing its efforts towards cassava commercialization.
Dr Kanju, IITA Cassava Breeder who was also with the visiting
delegation, told the minister that the institute, together with
relevant government departments and development partners in the
country, had achieved significant successes in developing cassava
varieties that were tolerant to the two diseases. He added that some
of these varieties have already been officially released to farmers.
He noted, however, that the challenge now is producing enough planting
materials to address the demands of farmers. To this end, he said that
IITA and its partners are undertaking planting material multiplication
efforts.
The minister assured the IITA team that in order to help with the
multiplication efforts, his office will explore the possibility of
tapping into institutions such as prisons and the National Youth
Service (NYS).
# # #
For more information, please contact:
Catherine Njuguna (c.njuguna@cgiar.org)
IITA East Africa Hub
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
About IITA
Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and people’s
lives. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle
hunger and poverty. Our award-winning research for development (R4D)
is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the
development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We work with partners in
Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop
quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA
is an international nonprofit R4D organization established in 1967,
governed by a Board of Trustees, and is a CGIAR Research Center.