The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project led by IITA will receive an additional US$2.2 million per year from the USAID mission in Tanzania to scale out appropriate technologies to smallholder farmers in the maize- and rice-farming systems of Tanzania.
The project has been working in the country for almost three years to identify, test, and adapt best-practice technologies to sustainably increase whole farm productivity of small-holders through use of innovative technologies to improve their livelihoods and at the same time conserve their natural resource base.
Africa RISING will use the complementary funding to work together with two development programs supported by USAID under the Tanzania Feed the Future (FtF) Initiative to disseminate these technologies to more farmers beyond those reached by the research project. The two partner programs are NAFAKA (Tanzania Staples Value Chain) led by ACDI/VOCA and TUBORESHE CHAKULA (Let’s improve food) led by Abt Associates.
“In our three years of research being conducted in Manyara (Babati district) and Dodoma (Kongwa and Kiteto districts), in partnership with diverse researchers and farmers, we have already identified very promising technologies and farming practices that have increased productivity significantly. We will work with NAFAKA and TUBORESHE CHAKULA to widely disseminate these technologies to thous ands of small-holder farmers to increase their production in sustainable ways,” said Prof Bekunda Mateete, Chief Scientist, Africa RISING in East and Southern Africa based at Arusha.
The new partnership project aptly titled “Enhancing partnership among Africa RISING, NAFAKA and TUBORESHE CHAKULA Programs for fast-tracking delivery and scaling of agricultural technologies in Tanzania”, will benefit 47,000 maize-based farming households from small-holder farming communities who will receive new technologies that will diversify and increase their food supply and quality, and income sources, and improve the quality of degrading cropl and.
The new project will exp and the area under improved rice production technologies by 116,000 hectares and increase both maize and rice yields per unit area by 50%.
These activities will be conducted in the primary regions of Manyara, Dodoma, and Morogoro with planned extension to Iringa and Mbeya, all in the Feed the Future’s zones of influence.
Africa RISNG has brought together a multidisciplinary team with researchers from national and international organizations to address the major challenges faced by small-holder farmers in maize-based systems in East and Southern Africa and which lead to the low productivity observed in farmers’ fields.
For example, the average yield of rice in Tanzania of 1.95 t/ha does not meet the country’s consumption targets as well as the export potential to the surrounding importing countries Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, DR Congo, Rw anda, and Burundi. The country therefore needs at least to double its rice production.
The complementary project will run for 3 years, starting October 2014.
For more information, please contact:
Catherine Njuguna, c.njuguna@cgiar.org
About IITA, www.iita.org
IITA is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Its award-winning research for development (R4D) approach addresses the development needs of tropical countries. IITA works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967 and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA works on the following crops: cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava, and maize. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
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