Д-р. Robertson Simbagije
1)MODERN TECHNOLOGIES DEPLOYMENT FOR SORGHUM AND MILLETS ENHANCED PRODUCTIVITY, PROFITABILITY, FOOD SECURITY AND PUBLIC NUTRITION PROGRAMME IN TANZANIA
ACRONYM : MTD-PPFP PROGRAMME
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Aridity associated with current climate change are drawback against efforts to improve agricultural productivity and livelihood of communities in the semi-arid areas of Tanzania. The highly affected areas include parts of Dodoma, Singida, Tabora, Shinyanga, Katavi, Mbeya, Mara and Kilimanjaro regions. These areas are frequently affected by recurrent drought sometimes causing total crop failure hence the perpetual vicious cycle of malnutrition, food insecurity and income poverty. The envisaged programmes’ actions are in accord with the ASDP II strategic objectives one and two and will involve developing and scaling up technologies and innovations intended to promote both formal and informal seed systems to enhance agricultural productivity, profitability and food security; through improved access to high quality seeds of climate resilient sorghum and millets and other leguminous crops known to enhance human nutrition and soil fertility improvement.
The programme's purpose will be to contribute to the national effort of developing an industrialized economy through the programme’s main actions in line with ASDP II strategic objectives (SO) 2 and SO 3 of improving production and productivity; strengthening and developing competitive value chains respectively. ASDP II (2023-2028) appreciates the increased crop productivity as a prerequisite for food security and agricultural commercialization. It calls for accelerated adoption of technologies for improved seeds and Good agronomic practices. ASDP II also advocates farmer’s organization capacity building on entrepreneurship, business skills, and organizational and leadership management. It further emphasizes investment in agro-processing and value addition as important elements towards achieving agricultural commercialization.
To ensure the achievement of the programme goal and planned actions, BISOTA will build farmers, researchers and extension officers capacities on Integrated Soil Fertility Management Technologies in the context of Agro-biodiversity, Digital Climate Agricultural Information Advisory Services (DCAS) and Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies (CSAT) digitization. Plant Breeders and agronomist capacity building will be on biometrics and bio-informatics applications to increase their efficiency in integrated Breeding Platforms for accelerated breeding, technology development and dissemination for wider adoption.
Assessment of market availability, associated marketing and technologies’ adoption constraints; and opportunities for enhanced sorghum and millet productivity in the country is planned. The improved crop production, utilization, commercialization and promotion will be through various capacity building to Value chain actors.
The up-scaling plan will be based on:- building the capacity of local sorghum and millet value chain actors for increased adoption of improved varieties; enhanced ecosystem-based approaches; leveraging improved technologies to increase production, productivity, skill and knowledge; influencing policy changes to foster the development of these value chains and increase uptake of produce and derivative products; influencing the end users’ behaviour for increased consumption and demand for both the whole grains as well as derivative products. Use of for-profit models to help develop new markets that will help sustain the initiative and create great impact.
Towards the end of the programme, there will be strengthened sorghum and millet seed supply systems to meet end-users requirements. Through the deployment of modern processes and techniques, a new and wide range of sorghum and millet-based products will be developed and promoted for increased sorghum utilization and technology adoption.
Programme coverage: Dodoma, Singida, Tabora, Shinyanga, Katavi, Mara, Mwanza, Simiyu, Mbeya and Kilimanjaro regions.
The programme's estimated budget is T.sh: 13,500,664,096.00 equivalent to USD $ 5,869,853.95 only for the duration of Five years.
THE PROGRAMME APPLICANT: PLANT BREEDERS AND OTHER INVENTORS SOCIETY OF TANZANIA (BISOTA). The society has a strong human capacity to implement the programme in an effective and efficient manner. It has a multidisciplinary team of scientists and supporting members of staff trained with Diploma, Bachelor, Master to Doctorate degrees. These are highly motivated to implement the proposed programme and they include Breeders, Agronomists, Pathologists, Entomologists, Human Nutritionists, Post-harvest technologists, socio-economists, Accountants and Soil scientists. Apart from human resource endowment the society has seventy acres of land suitable for conducting field experiments if developed to suit the programme purpose.
Potential Collaborating Institutions:
Ministry of Agriculture, Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute, Minister of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Finance, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Seed and food processing companies, Tanzania Bureau of Standards, Ministry of State in the President’s Office for Investment and Industrialization, Small Industries Development Organization, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Ministry of Health, Community Development and special groups, The Prime ministers office through local government authorities (LGAs) namely District Councils in the projects area, Tanzania cooperative development commission (TCDC) through facilitation for the formation and formalization of Small and Medium Enterprises of Farmers, Processors and Food vendors groups.
2)THE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION INTO DIGITALIZED CLIMATE INFORMATION ADVISORY SERVICES AND CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR ENHANCED CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN TANZANIA
Programme Executive Summary
Global Climate change severely affects agriculture productivity in various ways. Droughts, floods, altered temperatures and the emergence of new pests and diseases resistant to commonly used chemicals drastically reduce crop yields. Small-scale farmers are especially struggling to cultivate nutritious, safe and sufficient food. To develop agriculture technologies adaptive to the changing climate, it is crucial to identify the most suitable technologies for specific agroecological conditions. A diversified portfolio of technologies needs to be developed to respond to the new challenges brought by changing climatic conditions. Farmers in remote rural areas often have the greatest need for improved crop varieties that grow in their local micro-climate, this project therefore places farmers at the front-line of beneficiaries of the proposed agricultural technological and innovation advancement.
This programme will contribute to the implementation and achievement of the National Climate Change Response Strategy (2021-2026) objective of enhancing the national resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change and enabling the country to pursue low-emission development pathways so as to achieve sustainable development. Build farmers’ capacity for access, use and driving co-production of Digital Climate Information Advisory Services (DCAS) and non-digital communication channels for farmers that face barriers to accessing digital delivery channels.
This programme also will build on the long-lasting positive synergy and symbiotic relationship existing between the Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute(TARI) and Tanzania Meteorology Agency(TMA). TARI and TMA have their facilities well distributed across different agro-ecologies in Tanzania and have great potential towards helping farmers cope with and mitigate the impacts of climate change through agricultural technologies generation and climate information packaging. To effectively deliver their services, it is important for both TARI and TMA to recognize the importance of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in order to determine whether scientific recommendations options are appropriate in mitigating the effect of climate change and leading to the adoption of climate-smart technologies by the local communities. The understanding and appreciation of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) will enhance participation and adoption of appropriate technologies and strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation by local communities.
The programme will involve comparing scientific approaches and indigenous Knowledge in copping and mitigating the effects of current climate changes in the target local communities. It shall evaluate integration options for scientific approaches or strategies and available IK to determine the most appropriate combinations in response to climate change complexity. The purpose is to integrate and promote the use of Digital Climate Information Advisory Services (DCAS) and Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies (CSAT) as multi-functional solutions for reaching many farmers in a relatively short time. This will be a way of deploying and availing farmers with advanced technical pieces of information and improved technologies at an affordable price.
Integration of DCAS with IK crafted in CSAT is envisaged to offer significant opportunities to build resilience and improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. CSAT will be blended with DCAS and packaged electronically in various software applications to suit the needs of a wide range of end users in their local conditions. The targeted end users are smallholder farmers especially youth and women, local government authorities, community leaders, crop merchants, policy-makers, researchers, and livestock keepers. The integral interactive online digital platforms will provide these clients with access to accurate and up-to-date climate information, advice and guidance on how to effectively use technical pieces of information to make timely and informed decisions to actions.
A network of digitized farm sites for gathering local communities’ production, production constraints, technological solutions and weather data is needed to cope with changing climatic conditions, as well as to assist breeding programs to track changing market requirements. It is envisioned that Breeding programs will deliver, sustain and accurate on-farm data on genetic gains in the face of climate change. Farmers will have sustainable access to new varieties with demonstrably improved variety performance than currently grown local varieties of both food security and commercial crops in Tanzania.
Investment in the proposed digital tools, technologies and innovations is needed to support farmer decision-making and the various institutions that provide information and guidance to farming communities are planned. The total programme cost is estimated to be Tanzanian shillings one billion and seven hundred fifty-three million (T.sh 1,753,000,000.0) only equivalent to $ 762,173.91 USD over the span of two years.
3)ALLEVIATING MALNUTRITION AND INCOME POVERTY AMONG URBAN AND SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES OF TANZANIA THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORTIFIED NUTRIENT-DENSE FOOD PRODUCTS
Executive summary
Malnutrition is the current devastating problem facing the world due to disrupted nations’ economies by the COVID-19 pandemic, the severe impact of climate change, and widespread political conflicts preventing communities from engaging in the production sectors. There has been a heavy reliance on nutritionally poor cereals with very limited essential amino acids that exacerbated the incidence of malnutrition among malnutrition-vulnerable groups. The limited access and availability in time and place of safe, affordable, and diversity of nutritious foods; limited general public awareness, and poor policy advocacy for good nutrition and nutrition education campaigns for school feeding programmes have greatly contributed to the stance.
This project is therefore designed to alleviate the deteriorating nutrition of the resource-poor, nutritionally vulnerable groups and nutritional-conscious urban communities through enhanced Post-harvest Processing and food Fortification. The mode of operation is to increase the availability and diversity of fortified nutrient-dense food products through extrusion cooking and baking technologies for improved shelf life and marketability. The diversity of fortified nutrient-dense food products will be made using the blend of millet, sorghum, green grams, mushrooms and milk for extrusion cooking and some of the blends will be incorporated with wheat flour fortified with eggs for baking purposes. The developed products will include extruded porridge flour (Infant formula), snacks, hard and soft doughnuts, composite flour for bakeries in the production of brown bread, mandazi recipes and other commercial products.
The physical properties, nutrient profiling and sensory qualities determination will be performed using standard methods in the extraction of evidence-based information on the nutritional and healthier suitability of the products for consumption. This is the food-based approach of its’ kind to alleviate malnutrition among vulnerable groups, enhance school feeding systems and provide employment to youths and women in Tanzania. There is no envisaged stiff competition once the public is made aware of the nutritional importance of the above mentioned products. There will be a series of teller-made technical training workshops on food processing, business promotion, formalization and intellectual property rights. Moreover, The PPF centre will help to complement the efforts of local and central governments and other stakeholders working towards sustainable food and nutrition security in Tanzania.
If funded The PPF centre will contribute towards the achievement of Tanzania’s Development Vision 2025, implementation of ASDP II 2017- 2028, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 and associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) number 1,2,3,8 and 9 to a great extent. The PPF Centre of Excellency will play a pivotal role in the management of post-harvest losses and value addition technologies and innovation transfer among the wide range of processors and consumers. University students undertaking food science and human nutrition technology courses will enjoy practical training at the centre and contribute to their improved performance. The graduates will be equipped with the necessary skills for self-employment, and engagement in the ongoing industrialization, and commercialization processes in the country. The PPF Centre of Excellency Capacity Building estimated cost is Tz shillings One billion, five hundred seventy-eight million, and sixty-four thousand five hundred only (T. Sh 1,578,064,500.0) equivalent to six hundred eighty-six thousand and one hundred fifteen USD dollars only.(USD $ 686,115.0 only. The project duration is twelve (12) months.
4)AGRICULTURAL BIO-METRICS, BIO-INFORMATICS, INNOVATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFER (ABBITT) Centre
By: Plant breeders and other Inventors Society of Tanzania (BISOTA), P.O. Box 2189, Dodoma, Tanzania. Mobile: +255 784 997 411/+255 654 330 429. Email:[email protected]; [email protected],
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The ABBITT’s Objective is to enhance the capacities and performance of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) and Universities to develop and disseminate demand-driven innovation and technologies that meet the end user’s requirement.
The first action is to establish infrastructures and install ICT equipment in a modern data management facility in Dodoma. The facility will be stationed at Nzuguni Agricultural Showgrounds. It will include the building of the main building, toilets, water tanks, electrical power installation, and acquisition and installation of ICT Equipment and Tools.
The second action is capacity building in Information, Communication, and Telecommunication (ICT) techniques applications in crop breeding programs. Capacity-building training workshops will be organized and will involve the use of modern data analysis techniques, scientific data presentation, Cartographic works, reporting and publication. Tailor-made courses on research methodology will be organised for newly employed researchers, tutors, MSC and PhD students from universities. It is anticipated that the skills acquired will nurture innovations, technological discoveries and modern farming towards the modernization of agricultural production and a national industrialized economy.
The third action is to improve the capacity and performance of the Agriculture sector through consultative activities and technical backstopping in Data management i.e. data analysis using modern computer software, developmental proposals, feasibility studies and scientific reports and paper writing for different researchers within NRS, NGOs, companies and universities.
The fourth action is developing the Agricultural Research Database of agricultural innovations and technologies both in scientific and plain languages simplified for easy uptake. The data warehouse will be a web-based system designed to automate research technologies for easy tracking, data consolidation and report generation. The database and the facility will be used to collect, process, store and retrieve agricultural research information easily.
The ABBITT facility will provide services to 361 researchers, 214 Research assistants and 229 Support staff from the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) distributed in a well-organized network of 18 Agricultural Research Centers (ARCs). The agricultural technologies and innovations will be sourced and stored in the database for easy accessibility by stakeholders for sharing and dissemination. The facility will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of information storage in electronic format and dissemination. Heads of 16 research institutes will have access to the database interact with researchers and exchange reports and scientific information. As pivotal, it will save time and cost of travelling between institutes through video conferencing using tie-lines in convening meetings. Research managers, policymakers, development partners, researchers, farmers and agri-business industries will have quick and timely access to information and make timely decisions and planning. The facility will eventually, contribute towards achieving government envisaged industrial economy. The ABBITT establishment is estimated to Cost One billion, three hundred ninety-eight million, one hundred fifty-four thousand and nine hundred fifty (is TSH. 1,398,154,950/= ) only.
