Posted on May, 24, 2024 at 09:24 am
THE Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute (TARI) has surpassed its target to conduct agricultural technology by almost three times, boosting the sector’s productivity.
TARI planned to carry out 25 agricultural technologies in this fiscal year, however it did 64 research by the end of March, demonstrating its capability and determination.
TARI Director General, Dr Thomas Bwana told Daily News recently that they managed to surpass the target after the government increased the institute’s budget, enabling them to conduct more research by engaging more people. TARI’s total budget was increased from 31.8bn/- in 2022/2023 to 41.5bn/- in 2023/2024.
“The development budget—research and seed production—was increased,” Dr Bwana said. TARI will continue to strengthen the national agricultural research system to enhance the development and dissemination of the technologies, innovation and management practices to address the real news of farmers and other agricultural stakeholders.
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“These technologies are 53 high-quality seeds, eight of the good agricultural theories and three studies focusing on value addition. “Among the 53 high-quality seeds researched, six have been confirmed for use, including five of grapes and one of tobacco,” Dr Bwana said.
Agricultural technology classically embraces research and extension, and for the most part research in developing countries has meant the development of new crop varieties and improved methods of crop management in the field.
For instance, they have managed to create new five grape seed varieties which have high yields per hectare with high insect resistance.
“The researched grape seeds are characterized by high yield of between 7.5 and 27.5 tonnes per hectare, insect resistance with a longer life span of between 14 and 21 days after harvesting compared to other types which go bad after seven days,” said Dr Bwana.
Moreover, he said that 47 of the 53 technological studies were submitted to the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) for testing and approval for human consumption.
Other seeds include six for beans, ten legumes, four cashews, six rice, six bananas, nine corn, three tobacco and three eggplants.
Early this month, the Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, while tabling his 2024/2025 budget, unveiled that among the eight studied technologies conducted by TARI, three were for protection and five for the cashew nut which was approved for use.
Mr Bashe said that the other three types of value-addition technology were for the mix of vegetables and mango, beetroot juice, passion fruit and mango juice where it is already recommended for use. Mr Bashe said TARI in collaboration with Tanzania Automotive Technology Centre (TATC) designed a sugarcane processing machine for small farmers which is in the testing stage.
TARI is a semi-autonomous body under the Ministry of Agriculture, responsible for all agricultural research activities conducted by the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) in Tanzania.
Source: Daily News