Posted on February, 28, 2022 at 09:12 am
Tanzanian Minister of Agriculture, Honourable Hussein Mohamed Bashe, wants the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to support the East African region towards cassava, soybean and banana transformation for economic prosperity.
In a meeting with researchers from IITA, including those working under the Building an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System, phase 2, (BASICS-II), Bashe acknowledged that agriculture is crucial to the economic prosperity of the country but observed that the potential is yet to be unleashed.
He said: “Take cassava, for instance. During Ramadan, my meal is incomplete if there is no cassava. The crop is still a food security crop …. My question is: how can we turn this crop into a cash crop?”
Data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) shows that the average yield per hectare of cassava is still below 10 tonnes, making it difficult for countries, such as Tanzania, to compete globally in exports.
Like cassava, soybean is another crop that is yet to be tapped owing to a lack of improved and industry preferred varieties.
IITA Hub Director for Eastern Africa, Dr Leena Tripathi, pledged IITA’s commitment to work with Tanzania to tackle the challenges confronting agriculture.
“Tanzania is strategic for us, and we are ready to work with you,” Dr Tripathi assured the minister, adding that a lot of technologies were available in IITA to advance the transformation of banana/plantain, soybean, and cassava.
On cassava, Prof Lateef Sanni, Project Manager of BASICS-II harped on the need for Tanzania to learn from Nigeria, especially the Presidential Initiative on Cassava (1999-2007) that drove cassava by linking productivity to markets.
“Understanding the market demand for cassava and cassava products and responding to market demands will help in creating a sustainable cassava transformation,” Prof Sanni said.
Source: The Guardian