Cassava project catalyst for industrialisation drive

THE industrialisation drive in the country just got a push in the right direction, thanks to the launching of a second phase of a project that will see improved cassava seeds distributed to farmers.


Speaking at the launching ceremony on Thursday, the Ministry of Agriculture Director of Research and Development, Dr Mansoor Hussein, said that the second phase of the project will utilise new breeding technologies that reduce the time to develop new varieties. “We are currently seeing many factories interested in processing cassava into starch for industrial use.

These will definitely provide a ready market for the crop, therefore, suitable varieties are needed for starch extraction,” he said. Dr Hussein said that the potential for industrialisation and processing of cassava in Africa in general and Tanzania in particular is vast and requires scientific innovations for transformation into an economy, something that the second phase promises.

He said that in order to tap into this potential, there is a need to address the many challenges that cassava production faces, such as low yields, where the average cassava productivity is only six tonnes per hectare. This is well below the potential yield of at least 20 tonnes per hectare. “Low yields arise due to the fact that majority of farmers use local preferred varieties with low yield, and their susceptibility to major pests and diseases like Cassava Green Mites, Cassava Mosaic Disease and Cassava Brown Steak Disease,” he cited.

The Kibaha Sugarcane Research Institute Principal Agricultural Research Officer, Dr Kiddo Mtunda said that as a researcher, she is very excited about the second phase of the project because it will enable them to work closely with farmers so that they produce varieties that meet their wants. Dr Kiddo said that at the moment, 21 varieties of cassava have already been released and another is in the process, which aims at increasing yields as well as withstand pests and diseases.

The Ukiliguru Agricultural Research Institute Principal Agriculture Research officer, Dr Heneriko Kulembeka said that ever since China showed interest in buying cassava from Tanzania, the issue of market stopped being a problem, and that the onus was on them to meet the required volumes and that the second phase has the potential to do so.

The Next Generation cassava project (2018-2023) aims at increasing the rate of crop improvement using new technologies in Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania, which is co-funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UK’s Department for international Development and coordinated by the Cornwell University.

The NextGen Cassava Principal Investigator, Prof Ronnie Coffman, explained that in the second phase, NextGen researchers will reach out to their counterparts in Ghana, Rwanda, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo to create a broader network of researchers who can work together to improve livelihoods and food security through a community of practice partnership programme

. “In phase 1, researchers have been using state of the art plant breeding approach known as genomic selection to improve cassava productivity, shorten breeding cycles, provide more accurate evaluation at the seedling stage and give plant breeders the ability to evaluate a much larger number of clones without the need to plant them in the target environment,” he said.

Another goal of phase 1 was to make cassava genomic information publicly accessible on an open database. Cassava researchers all over the world can now compare results and improve breeding programmes without duplicating efforts by using the cassava database.

Last week, a statement issued by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture stated that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UK’s Department for international Development under the coordination of the Cornwell University will be issuing funding of 35 million US dollars (about 70bn/-).

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