CCARDESA ICKM Strategy 

Deciphering the constraints in SADC’s agricultural cross[1]border trade: Policy

Policy brief SADC Cross Border Trade Advocacy Strategy: steps in addressing trade barriers

A policy brief on the inclusion of climate-relevant science, technology inidcators in the sadc agricultural sector:

Groundnuts (Arachis Hypogaea) in Tanzania

In Tanzania, where groundnut is one of the main annual crops, the production cost of groundnut is cheaper than of other annual crops like rice (Akpo, Muricho, et al., 2020; Bakari et al., 2021). The total production cost of groundnut ranges from 500,000 TZS/ha to 1,000,000 TZS/ha compared to rice, which ranges from 2,500,000 TZS/ha to 3,250,000 TZS/ha (Ndabila, 2018). Groundnut can be produced in all areas with an altitude below 1500m and having alluvial soils (Daudi et al., 2012). In Tanzania, groundnut is mainly produced in Dodoma, Tabora, Geita, Shinyanga, Songwe Mbeya, Katavi, Singida, Rukwa and Manyara regions (URT, 2021). Likewise, groundnut is largely produced in Kigoma, Mwanza, Mtwara, Simiyu and Kagera. Most of these regions are either semi-arid or arid and mostly challenged by drought, food insecurity and poverty.

Currently, the country needs to cope with increasing drought due to climate change, market shift, and other biotic and abiotic stresses (Zurich, 2014). In addressing these challenges for improving people’s livelihood, Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) in collaboration with other development partners released 17 improved groundnut varieties (Mwalongo et al., 2020). Six improved groundnut varieties were release between 1960s and 1990s (Daudi et al., 2012). The outcomes, however, were below expectations attaining maximum average productivity of 444 kg/ha during the period. Thereafter, 11 more improved varieties were released, and productivity increased to an average of 745 kg/ha. This is still less than the average productivity of Africa, which is 800kg/ha (FAO, 2020). Even though the new varieties were available, it was reported that about 81% of the groundnut producers still use old varieties, which are less resistant to drought and diseases, have low productivity between (0.5t/ha to 1t/ha) against the potential yield of between (1-2t/ha) and low market value (Mwakimata, 2017).

Limited use of improved varieties by farmers was reported as one of the major bottlenecks to realize high yield in the country (Daudi et al. 2018; Akpo et al. 2020). Use of improved varieties will make ever lasting effects on peoples’ health, financial power and human resource capacity of the country. Studies illustrate that the groundnut market is expanding in Tanzania due to a rapid population growth rate of 3.1 per year, multiple uses of groundnut and exports of about 20,000 tons per year (URT, 2020). All these factors combined raised an alarm of increasing awareness and use of improved groundnut varieties.

This variety catalogue underscores the important characteristics of all the released groundnut varieties since 1960s to date, an effort to enhance stakeholders’ awareness and groundnut utilization along the value chain in Tanzania.

Groundnuts (Arachis Hypogaea) Varieties Released in Tanzania

Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) in collaboration with Development Partners released 17 improved groundnut varieties (Mwalongo et al., 2020). Six improved groundnut varieties were release between 1960s and 1990s (Daudi et al., 2012). The description of the varieties have been provided in the document.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important staple food in Mozambique but its production is facing constraints such as drought, floods, cyclones, soil infertility, diseases, and pests, being drought one of the most limiting factor. To meet the challenge of producing under such conditions, it is important to invest on breeding programs to produce maize varieties that are resistant and adaptable to the present agroecological conditions. Maize is a C4 plant that evolved a biochemical mechanism of concentrating CO2 to overcome the oxygenase activity of Rubisco, which makes C4 plants photosynthetically more efficient than C3 plants. We Hypothesized that the levels of enzymes involved in photosynthesis (PEPC, PPDK, NADP-ME, and RubisCO) and their Post Translational Modifications (PTMs) correlate with the photosynthetic capacity of maize plants under drought stress. To examine their potential role as molecular markers for drought tolerance, we will make use of cutting-edge proteomics techniques. We will also provide data on agronomic performance and nutritional quality of the maize grain grown under the Greenhouse conditions in ITQB and under the local practices and agroecological conditions in Mozambique. We will use maize B73 as a control to test three varieties from Mozambique: Matuba, ZM523, and ZM 309. The main goal of the present project is to contribute with knowledge and important data that can be added to Mozambique’s maize breeding programs.

TORS- Website Maintenance and upgrades of the core development platform - Drupal - CCARDESA Secretariat, Botswana.

TORS- Website Maintenance and upgrades of the core development platform - Drupal - CCARDESA Secretariat, Botswana.

Esta publicação foi elaborada no âmbito do Projecto de Apoio Técnico aos Programas de Nutrição e Segurança Alimentar de Moçambique (PSAL), inserida na cooperação técnica trilateral entre Moçambique, Brasil e Estados Unidos que teve como foco principal o fortalecimento da cadeia produtiva, o aumento da produção e a melhoria da qualidade das hortícolas produzidas em Moçambique, através da implantação de novas tecnologias de cultivo e de processamento visando o o incremento da oferta de alimentos e a diversificação da dieta alimentar das famílias. Este manual tem como finalidade de divulgar os principais resultados  alcançados pelo Projecto PSAL, tendo como alvo todos os profissionais ligados à  cadeia de valor das hortícolas em Moçambique.

The article was published after a Training of Trainers (ToT) for the Smallholder Empowerment Programs (SHEP) at Bunda College with support from the SAFE initiative. SHEP originally emerged through trial and error in the process of technical cooperation between Kenya and Japan for improving Kenya’s agricultural extension services. The cooperation started in 2006 and the SHEP Approach was developed as an innovative
method of agricultural extension services backed by the disciplines of economics and psychology. SHEP is an approach in agricultural extension that facilitates small-scale farmers to conduct market-oriented agriculture. The above-mentioned agricultural extension project in Kenya that utilized this method doubled the farming income of 2,500 targeted farmers in just two years. In the opening speech of the 5th Tokyo International Conference on African  Development in 2013, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his desire to change African Agriculture from “Grow and Sell” to “Grow to Sell”. Building off of this, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working with the Kenyan government to spread the knowledge of SHEP to agricultural extension officials and extension staff in other African countries. Currently, over twenty African countries are implementing the SHEP Approach.