TARI releases 21 improved vegetable varieties for use in Tanzania

TANZANIA is the host country of the World Vegetable Centre. Early this week, Correspondent PETER KEASI got hold of Dr Gabriel Rugalema, the Centre’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa at Arusha office and discussed a number of issues on the centre’s work in Tanzania and beyond.

During the discussion, Dr Rugalema hinted that Tanzania has a huge potential to be a major player in the horticulture sector not only in Africa but also globally.

The country, he said, has a wide range of agro-ecologies: meaning Tanzania can grow also sorts of horticultural crops. For example, Tanzania can grow temperate crops in the cooler zones of Lushoto and Njombe, can grow tropical crops in many regions of the country, and can grow dryland crops in the semi-arid zones of the this country.

He said the centre has worked closely with its partners to produced 21 improved varieties of various vegetable types that have been released in Tanzania in collaboration with the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), adding that countries like Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Eswatini, have adopted some of the vegetable varieties developed by the Centre.

He also revealed that the Centre’s genebank in Arusha has the largest collection of collection of vegetable germplasm in Africa that is available for use by seed scientists, vegetable breeders, students and farmers and that the centre plans to increase the storage capacity from the current 4,000 accessions to around 25,000 accessions…

QUESTION: Your admirers say the name of your Centre — the World Vegetable Centre — shows the significance of the Centre. We know Arusha is where the World Vegetable Centre launched its Eastern and Southern African Regional Programme in 1992. Now it is 2022. Can you briefly describe the stride you have made in the past decade?

ANSWER: Indeed, it has been thirty years since the World Vegetable Center established its offices at Tengeru on the eastern outskirts of Arusha city. I commend the foresight of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania for the decision to host the Centre and my wish is one day to see many other international agriculture research centres choosing Tanzania as their home base.

Back in 1992, the Arusha office was established as the African Regional Programme for Vegetable Research and Development. Although the Centre had been established to primarily serve the SADC region, it actually operated as a continent-wide vegetable R&D programme.

However, due to the high demand of the Centre’s technical support, it has become necessary to open offices in other parts of the continent to ensure that our unrivalled technical expertise on vegetables is accessible more easily by countries and communities that need it.

Our office in Arusha remains the largest and still provides technical support to other regions. When you look at the Centre’s footprint today, we have grown from a single office in 1992 to three sub-regional offices in Africa with country offices in a number of countries.

There is a sub-regional office in Mali, which was opened in 2014 and serves as a sub-regional for West and Central Africa (Dry land Regions). We also have a sub-regional office in Benin for West and Central Africa (Coastal and Humid Regions).

This office was established in 2017. You have asked me to describe the stride the Centre has made: Let me point out a few examples: Seed systems strengthening: Since the establishment of the Centre in Arusha, it has worked closely with its partners to produced twenty-one (21) improved varieties of various vegetable types that have been released in Tanzania in collaboration with the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI).

Countries such as Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Eswatini, to mention just a few have adopted some of the vegetable varieties developed by the Centre.For example, Tengeru 97, the tomato variety developed at the World Vegetable Center, is the most popular variety in Zimbabwe.

Using World Vegetable Centre’s breeding lines, private sector companies such as East West, RijkZwaan, Syngenta, and SeedCo (to mention but a few) have released varieties either as hybrids or open-pollinated. The World Vegetable Centre has always been aware of the deficiencies inherent in the African vegetable seed sector, namely small research pipeline, low volumes of commercial seeds, low investment in seed research, etc.

To address the shortcomings, the Centre has teamed up with the African Seed Traders Association (AfSTA) to form the African Vegetable Breeding Consortium (AVBC). The AVBC aims to strengthen the vegetable seed sector in Africa. We believe this continent-wide consortium will result in robust seed research, production, quality control, investment in seed research and seed trade system. Germplasm collection, characterization, conservation, and use: Over the years the Centre has invested in the collection and conservation of a wide range of vegetable seeds.

The seeds are then characterized, processed and conserved for future use. As a result, the Centre’s genebank in Arusha has the largest collection of collection of vegetable germplasm in Africa that is available for use by seed scientists, vegetable breeders, students and farmers.

As I speak, the Centre has invested in the expansion and improvement of the genebank. Our aim is to increase the storage capacity from the current 4,000 accessions to around 25,000 accessions. For the uninitiated, an accession is a type of seed material. We collect and conserve wild, semi-cultivated and commercially available seed materials.

Every year we distribute over one tonne of seeds for various uses in Africa and beyond. Focus on capability: The Centre recognizes that having the largest collection of seeds and investing in the breeding of improved varieties is not enough to transform the vegetable sector.

For this to happen it is imperative to have well-trained scientists as well as farmers who have the awareness, skills and confidence to produce safe vegetable crops. Since its establishment, the Centre has invested in human capacity development and vegetable research infrastructure development in various countries in Africa.

At the Centre in Arusha, every year we train hundreds of farmers on a wide variety of topics ranging from vegetable production, agri-business establishment and management, post-harvest loss management to protected cultivation. Last year over 32,000 Tanzanian farmers (mainland and Zanzibar) benefitted from our training programme.

We also host and supervise students from various universities and other tertiary level institutions. Most of them come to us on internships, field attachment or thesis-based research mandated by their institutions.

Just to give an example, we have a special relationship with Sokoine University of Agriculture, University of Dar es Salaam, Nelson Mandela African Institute of Technology but we receive students and scientists not only from these institutions but also from certificate and diploma level colleges in Tanzania. We also receive and supervise students from universities outside Tanzania.

Q. We are told the centre has professional research and development staff working across Africa on important vegetable crops such as tomato, pepper, onion, cabbage and a range of African traditional vegetables. How strong is your professional research and development staff working in Tanzania?

A. We have a core staff of about 30 scientists in the Eastern and Southern Africa region and over 400 scientists in other parts of the world. We all work together as a team to deliver whatever results are required of us. We also bring in expertise from outside the Centre particularly through our collaboration with national research institutions, universities and the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR). Research is a collaborative endeavour and my Centre takes deliberate effort to harness inputs of researchers with competent knowledge and skills.

Q. Do you see vegetable research and development progressing well in Tanzania?

A. I think it is fair to say that in the recent years Tanzania has placed emphasis on horticulture because of the sector’s rapid expansion and contribution to the economy.

Although many vegetable value chins are still in the nascent stage, the momentum is palpable. However, research and development (R&D) of vegetable crops still need improvement to ensure that it produces products that meet the standards and requirements of the market.

When you look at the vegetable R&D space in Tanzania, you see that there are three broad groups of players. First, public sector R&D led by the Tanzania Agriculture Research Research Institute (TARI), second, international research centers of which the World Vegetable Centre is a significant player.

Third, private sector R&D efforts led by private sector seed companies. Each one of the players is doing a good amount of research and development, sometimes in partnership, sometimes as a single entity. Measuring the progress would require the following:

(i) a clear national policy/strategy on vegetable R&D,

(ii) coordination of the R&D efforts and one umbrella; and

(iii)regular assessment of progress, gaps and challenges. Without this kind of framework, it is difficult to say whether the progress is good or not. Probably the right answer is that Tanzania is making progress but there is ample room for improvement.

Q. We are told the vegetable sub-sector in sub-Saharan Africa is severely underdeveloped and vegetable consumption is extremely low. But, there is always something good about Africa’s fortune.

This time, we are told, Africa has diverse agro-climatic zones and in these zones there is enormous potential for smallholder farmers to produce numerous vegetable crops for domestic and international markets. In your own honest rating is this enormous potential being taken advantage of by Tanzanian smallholder farmers?

A. You are asking a very interesting question. In my over thirty years of working in the international agriculture and food security space, it is not the first time I am hearing someone talk about Africa’s potential to produce this or that or to do this or that. Each time I hear somebody speak about Africa potential, I quickly remind them that people don’t eat potential or don’t buy goods and services using potential.

Potential is neither a good nor a currency. It is something latent. If we really want to transform Africa’s economies and in so doing create jobs and income for our people, it is imperative to develop the agriculture potential of the continent into products, commodities, jobs and income.

That’s when we can talk about Africa’s fortune. So, to get back to your question, yes, Tanzania has a huge potential to be a major player in the horticulture sector not only in African but also globally.

The country has a wide range of agro-ecologies which means we can grow also sorts of horticultural crops. For example, we can grow temperate crops in the cooler zones of Lushoto and Njombe, we can grow tropical crops in many regions of Tanzania, and we can grow dryland crops in the semi-arid zones of this country.

We are making strides in a few value chains such as avocado, lettuce, French beans. But by and large the potential of this country is still untapped. One caveat is that we should not think of tapping the potential only by increasing production or developing a market for crop x or y.

Most importantly, is to develop the value chains all the way from availability of quality seeds, good production methods, predictable input supply, aggregation, grading, warehousing, packaging, and transportation to marketing. This matters both for the domestic as well as the external market. To be continued.

● About the Author: Keasi is a seasoned professional journalist working as a media consultant and researcher based in Dar es Salaam. He can also be reached at keasi1971@ gmail.com or +255 713466661.