TANZANIA researchers have a great role to play in enhancing the availability of quality seeds that will enable farmers to cultivate productively, to ensure food sufficiency well as selling abroad thus, boosting national income.
Among others, Cassava crop has been researched since is one of the world’s important carbohydrate and calorie crops, with annual global production of approximately 282,734,763 million tonnes (FAOSTAT 2018) with African countries accounting for a majority of global production.
Currently, in Tanzania cassava production is low due to the use of traditional seeds and farming methods as a result, the production is between six and eight tonnes per hectare.
If farmers are educated on the use of modern seeds and technology, the yield will be increased attributed by presence of vast and suitable land, improved varieties (high-yielding, drought and disease tolerant varieties), favorable weather conditions, growing population and possibility of diverse utilization in animal feed, confectioneries, paper industries, pharmaceutical and textile industries.
Thus, leading to the increase of income and food securities to farmers and will be able to sell to the neighboring countries’ markets such as Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda and the Chinese market as well.
Apart from using quality seeds, a technology named ‘NURU’ developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with the Penn- Sylvania (Penn) State University in the US and Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO), was introduced to detect cassava pests and prone diseases to provide assistance on the prevention and be able to produce between 40 and 50 tonnes per hectare.
Additionally, the technology implemented can recognise diseases including Cassava Mosaic Disease, Cassava Brown Streak Disease and damage by red and green mites, well as giving assistance to control of the diseases. IITA’s Researcher, Ms Neema Mbilinyi says farmers and extension officers are using the invention to provide information and facilitate learning about various plants.
“Once the technology detects diseases, it provides advice on how to control the identified disease(s),” Ms Mbilinyi says.
Additionally,” the AI directs the farmers to where they can get the best, clean and safe seeds certified by The Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI). Ms Mbilinyi adds NURU also provides valuable information for researchers to understand the details of the plant in three languages of Swahili, English, and French and how to control the diseases.
Mr Gosbert Ndyamkama, A cassava farmer and seeds producer, said the technology helped them to improve the productivity of their crops.
He said, the use of the technology increases his productivity since it shows the disease trend and gives solutions to tackle at a nascent stage.
The IITA team, according to its website, has been working with extension officers and farmers to validate the performance and popularize the technology where has already benefited some 2000 farmers countrywide in detecting and identifying some cassava leaves’ viral diseases, where so far the software provides treatment solutions.
The National Cassava Development Strategy (NCDS) aims at transforming cassava into modernized, commercialized, and profitable sub-sector for food and nutrition security and income generation. It provides a strategic framework that facilitates and supports coordinated implementation of interventions regarding cassava development to tap into the untapped opportunities.
It facilitate the uses of improved technologies along the value chain to boost cassava production and increase productivity and triple the current production from 8.2 per hectare to 24 million tons by 2030.
The growing international demand for high value cassava products for food, animal feed, pharmaceuticals and textile industries provides untapped domestic and export opportunities for the country.
According to the FAO-Food outlook report (2016), international flows of cassava have been hugely dependent on industrial and feed demand particularly from China, the world’s leading cassava importer.
It is within this context, that the need for having a National Cassava Development Strategy (NCDS) focusing on improving the environment for sustainable cassava commercialization was conceptualized. It is for that reason also the government has asked researchers to conduct a study that will help to identify the kind of starch used in local factories so as to encourage farmers and more investment in value-addition of the crop and sell the product to industrialists in the country.
By doing so the country will also reduce the use of US dollars used to import starch and expand the farmers’ market as well as increase the value chain of the crop. The Director of Crop Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Nyasebwa Chimagu says many factories in the country import flour/starch that can be obtained from cassava being grown in Tanzania which they researched and got more productivity.
“We need to know what kind of starch is imported for the use of our local factories so that we can add value and increase productivity of the crop, sell it to industrialists at the same time expand the local markets for the crop,” says Dr Chimagu adding the Government will make available of the new seeds of cassava which enable farmers to produce more by using new technology.
Dr Chimagu says the demand value of starch for 2021 reached 40 billion US dollars and it is estimated that it will continue to increase to 60 billion US dollars by 2026. Dr Chimagu named the areas that need to be researched including pharmaceutical factories, textile, livestock, food and human food consumption.
“We want our researchers to find out the needs of pharmaceutical industries, textile industries and other industries that use starch in order to be sure of the market for the crop in the country,” says Dr Chimagu.
Due to the importance the government has devised a tenyear strategy (2019- 2028) to have quality agricultural seeds.
“In order to achieve the goals, we have a strategy which will enable the government to convey the knowledge on the use of quality seeds to farmers,” says Dr Chimagu.
Dr Chimagu is encouraging stakeholders to continue to educate farmers and Tanzanians in general to use new technology so that they can increase productivity by producing 25 to 50 tonnes per hectare.
He says the cassava farmers in the country have reached 1.9 million and the government continues to encourage young people to engage in value addition for the crop. The Land under cassava production is expected to increase from 0.99 to 1.5 million hectares. He says the increased production will result from cassava intensification and minimal land expansion.
In 2019 about 54.7 per cent of the world cassava production was produced from Africa with Nigeria contributing about 20.9 per cent of the total worlds’ production while Tanzania produced about 5 per cent of the total production in Africa and ranked in sixth position after Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, Angola and Mozambique.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Advocacy, Resource Mobilisation and Seed System Specialist, Dr Regina Kapinga said in the last 20 years IITA and partners such as Ministry of Agriculture made important contribution to the mechanisation of cassava processing in Tanzania through the introduction of the technologies for processing cassava into value-added products especially high-quality cassava flour (HQCF) starch and other derivatives.
Dr Kapinga says the HQCF technology provides opportunities for smallholder farmers to access more profitable markets thus now the impact is seen where also increasing household food security and reducing food and raw material imports, especially wheat by countries.
IITA is persuading bakers to start using cassava and wheat flour in making bread to reduce the dependence on the latter and reduce costs.
Dr Kapinga says according to the findings, cassava flour could replace between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of the wheat flour typically used to make bread without significantly impairing the leavening process that causes the dough to rise.
She says IITA do not want to end up with doing only seed research but as well grain and vegetable value addition and awareness to farmers. Dr Geofrey Mkamilo the Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute (TARI) Director General says cassava production in Tanzania is less mechanized regardless of its labor intensive in activities such as planting, weeding, harvesting and peeling.
Dr Mkamilo says most small-scale farmers are using hand hoe and few are using tractors during land preparation. Inadequate access and use of appropriate technologies to support such activities contributes to low scale of production and elevated costs of production per area.
The TARI boss says the institution focuses to transfer knowledge to farmers and all cassava stakeholders to ensure Tanzania will be main producer of cassava in Africa and the world in general. Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, followed by the Congo DR and Thailand where also Thailand is the largest exporter of cassava starch.
The efforts also is done by the National Cassava Development Strategy (NCDS) to transforming cassava into modernized, commercialized and profitable sub-sector for food and nutrition security and income generation In Tanzania cassava is a major subsistence crop, after maize, especially in Tanzania’s semi-arid areas.
The main production areas of cassava in Tanzania are Mwanza, Mtwara, Lindi, Shinyanga, Tanga Ruvuma, Mara Kigoma, the coastal regions, and Zanzibar.
Government delegates the Cassava research activities are under the mandate of TARI in collaboration with the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), Sokoine University of Agriculture, University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI), Centre for Agriculture Mechanization and Rural Technology (CAMARTEC), IITA, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA).
