IITA Tanzania recently provided a power generator to the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Mikocheni center, to increase the efficiency of seed multiplication for smallholder farmers in Tanzania. A brief handover ceremony took place at the TARI office, a close neighbor of the IITA Eastern Africa hub office in Dar es Salaam.
The provision is part of a supportive solution to the power outage affecting the tissue culture laboratory efficiency in clean seed production and multiplication, causing delays in delivering the materials to farmers and the private sector.
In his remarks, TARI Center Manager Fred Tairo noted that TARI has been receiving seed multiplication tenders from IITA but has experienced delivery delays due to frequent power cuts and failure to have a backup power source. “We have been in partnership in multiplying clean cassava seeds. With this power generator support, we assure to increase efficiency and deliver the planting materials on time,” Tairo said joyfully.
Tairo also lauded the continuous technical support provided by IITA in the cassava seed system and other crop research activities.
Moreover, the head of the tissue culture laboratory at TARI Mikocheni, Magreth Lupembe, noted that the generator would help them deliver the partners’ outputs on time. “Currently, we have a project that needs us to produce cassava varieties; this generator will help increase production,” she added.
IITA Eastern Africa Hub Director Leena Tripathi noted that the strong partnership between IITA and TARI focuses on cassava and other crops. The partnership led to the release of the first new, improved cooking banana variety, “TARIBAN,” launched early this year for commercialization. She stated that banana also needs a tissue culture lab for multiplication, and the lab would support seed multiplication for scaling to meet farmers’ access and demand.
“Seed multiplication of the tissue culture plants needs much care. Thus IITA, through the BASICS-II project, is supporting the tissue culture lab with this backup power source so that it can work efficiently on many other crops to increase productivity,” Leena stressed.
IITA partners with TARI on several projects, including the Building an Economically Sustainable and Integrated Cassava Seed System (BASICS-II) project, to provide farmers with access to affordable, quality-assured seed of in-demand cassava varieties. They are achieving this by establishing a commercially viable seed value chain across breeder, foundation, and commercial seed levels.
Contributed by Hadi Rashid
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