{"id":13826,"date":"2026-06-20T12:30:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/gift-supports-cornells-tanzanian-cassava-efforts\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:35:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:35:51","slug":"gift-supports-cornells-tanzanian-cassava-efforts","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/gift-supports-cornells-tanzanian-cassava-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Gift supports Cornell\u2019s Tanzanian cassava efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"An anonymous gift of $2.65 million to support Cornell and partner research in Tanzania will improve distribution of new and more resistant varieties of cassava while empowering women and marginalized groups in the East African nation.\n\nCassava is a fundamental staple and basis of food security for 500 million people across Africa and a major source of employment and income for millions of farmers. In Tanzania alone, more than 2 million smallholder farmers \u2013 81% of whom are women \u2013 rely on cassava for their income.\n\nThe gift will launch a three-year project called Muhogo Bora \u2013 a Swahili phrase meaning \u201cbetter cassava.\u201d The new initiative in Cornell\u2019s Department of Global Development<\/a> will create a fully integrated cassava seed supply chain and will improve linkages between farmers, seed entrepreneurs and markets among the nearly 3 million people in the country\u2019s Western Zone, Southern Highlands and Central region.\n\n
\"Gift
A farmer with an improved cassava variety<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nLed by researchers Chiedozie Egesi<\/a> et Hale Ann Tufan<\/a> in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with support from the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute<\/a> (TARI) and the Institut International d'Agriculture Tropicale<\/a> (IITA), Muhogo Bora will reinforce existing scientific efforts like Cornell\u2019s Prochaine G\u00e9n\u00e9ration Manioc<\/a> project with the aim of improving livelihoods and quality of life for rural farmers.\n\n\u201cBetter quality cassava feeds many more people and provides income generating opportunities for agricultural entrepreneurs, with positive ripple effects on millions of people,\u201d the anonymous donor said in a statement. \u201cCornell\u2019s demonstrated commitment to scholarship and the improvement of people\u2019s lives for the past 150 years, with the experience to manage complex and multi-year research programs with outstanding international faculty, positions it well to promote transformation in these Tanzanian communities. We are delighted to provide the financial resources to achieve such meaningful objectives.\u201d\n\nDespite women\u2019s important role in cassava production in Tanzania, restrictive gender norms often exclude them from key farm decisions. Muhogo Bora will create an effective and more inclusive cassava seed system working with women cassava farmers.\n\n\u201cBy working with women farmers to support them to become successful seed entrepreneurs, we hope to attract young people to farming and build the next generation of cassava farmers in Tanzania,\u201d said Tufan, who leads NextGen\u2019s survey division and is a leading voice on gender issues in agriculture and crop improvement.\n\n\u201cFocusing on women benefits all,\u201d Tufan said. \u201cFostering greater inclusion and creating more equitable outcomes for women farmers can help close a destructively large economic and empowerment gap between men and women and drive change in the food system.\u201d\n\nMuhogo Bora researchers plan extensive market research in Tanzania to better understand prevailing social structures, farmers\u2019 needs, and opportunities to introduce new and more resistant cassava varieties. That improved understanding will then drive outreach efforts to provide farmers with education about the new varieties, skills development and access to credit and markets. The project will develop and test gender transformative seed system development approaches to ensure a focus on supporting women farmers.\n\nThe team\u2019s rapid response approach will focus on three key goals:\n
    \n \t
  • increase understanding of the needs of rural Tanzanian farmers, seed producers and consumers;<\/li>\n \t
  • expand system capacity while empowering women and rural farmers as seed entrepreneurs; and<\/li>\n \t
  • distribute cost-effective technologies to address hunger and drive prosperity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSerious obstacles \u2013 both longstanding and emerging \u2013 threaten the crop\u2019s productivity and profitability. Devastating plant diseases such as cassava brown streak disease, which rots the plant\u2019s edible pulp, ravage Tanzania\u2019s cassava crop and create losses of $51 million each year. Production and seed distribution systems are lagging in Tanzania due to under-developed infrastructure and significant need for outreach and training.\n\nMuhogo Bora will support growers through workshops to build awareness of improved varieties and enhance distribution of cost-effective technologies, including relevant apps and mobile cash payments. These interventions will be underpinned by gender analysis of the barriers women face in participating and benefitting from cassava seed systems, to ensure equitable outcomes. These improved practices, along with the use of newly released NextGen Cassava varieties, are expected to triple the national average yield.\n\n\u201cCassava breeders are hard at work developing varieties that are responsive to farmers and consumers, but these efforts too often fall short without a functional seed system which integrates detailed knowledge of the needs of the people who grow, process and eat cassava every day,\u201d said Egesi, who leads the NextGen Cassava project. \u201cMuhogo Bora merges social science and plant breeding in ways that will drive real change for the people of Tanzania.\u201d\n\nMatt Hayes is associate director for communications for Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.<\/em>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    An anonymous gift of $2.65 million to support Cornell and partner research in Tanzania will improve distribution of new and more resistant varieties of cassava while empowering women and marginalized groups in the East African 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