Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute

Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) has assured its stakeholders that it will continue to conduct various research that aim to innovate the best agricultural technologies that address numerous challenges facing the agricultural sector along with the value chain including Climate change which has caused many challenges in agriculture sector resulting to hindrance in productivity.

These remarks were made by TARI’s Director General Dr. Thomas Bwana at the official opening of a workshop recently conducted in Dodoma which brought together agricultural stakeholders to discuss on how to use market intelligence and seed system insight to groundnut, sorghum, and bean to drive varietal turnover.

Dr. Bwana talked about the great research work being done by TARI which of recent has seen the release of a total of 16 new improved varieties including; Beans - TARIBEAN 6, TARIBEAN 7, TARIBEAN 8, TARIBEAN 9, TARIBEAN 10, TARIBEAN 11, Groundnuts - TARIKA 1,  TARIKA 2, TARISOR 1 and TARISOR 2 of Sorghum. 

The workshop provided insight to stakeholders on newly released varieties while highlighting the critical role stakeholders play in deriving varietal turnover and adoption as well as insights about key market segments for each crop by highlighting promising market opportunities and further on develop a common understanding of how to access and utilize market intelligence information.

Giving her testimony after having used the improved varieties, the workshop beneficiary, Olipa Mahala a Chamwino based farmer in Dodoma Region said she previously used traditional seeds which would give a harvest of 4-5 sacks per hectare compared to the improved variety TARISOR 1 which produces 15-20 sacks per hectare.

Another beneficiary, Agatha Lazier who is a peanut butter processor based in Dar-es- Salaam urged stakeholders especially farmers to seek for various agricultural information from experts like TARI, in order to increase productivity.

Miss Agatha said, “Peanut butter processors we sometimes suffer unnecessary loss because we do not seek for information and expertise, for example among the released groundnuts varieties we need to utilise them according to the guidance from researchers who can advise us on the best variety for processing peanut butter.”

The workshop brought together researchers, farmers, seed entrepreneurs of groundnut, sorghum, bean and peanut butter processors who had an opportunity to discuss and share expertise and experience along the value chain of the aforesaid crops.

Similar workshops were conducted in Arusha and Dar-es-Salaam organised by TARI in collaboration with International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMITY) and had 224 stakeholders in attendance.