Thirteen (13) Technical staff working in Technology Transfer and Partnership (TTP) under the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) were trained on e-Extension through animated videos facilitated by Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) on the 19th of July 2024, at Kibaha Research Center in the United Republic of Tanzania. This was a Training of Trainers (ToT), which provided TARI with advanced alternatives to complement dissemination of Technologies, Innovations and Management Practices (TIMPs). The event was supported by the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) through the Food Systems Resilience Programme (FSRP).
FSRP is a multiphase World Bank funded initiative regionally overseen by CCARDESA which is aimed at increasing the resilience of food systems and preparedness against food insecurity in participating countries. The programme is currently being implemented by Madagascar, Malawi and Tanzania with expectations to expand to other countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.
In Tanzania, climate change poses significant risks of prolonged drought and unpredictable weather, threatening the livelihoods of subsistence farmers and, as of 2022, nearly 26 million people in Tanzania lived in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 1.90 U.S. dollars a day (Statista, 2024). Agriculture contributes nearly one-third of the country’s GDP, employing 75% of the entire population with continuous dissemination and access to improved technologies as the main catalyst.
According to Dr Fred Tairo, the Center Manager of Mikocheni Research Center, who was speaking on behalf of Dr Thomas Bwana, the Director General of TARI, among others, the institute is mandated to enhance development and dissemination of TIMPs to address the real needs of farmers and other agricultural stakeholders. Hence the e-Extension training is long overdue given that the adoption of non-conventional methods can only leapfrog the current efforts of the institute on technology transfer.
Several studies indicate that agricultural technology transfer occurs when an individual acquires, imitates, or adapts technology developed elsewhere, to improve the level of his/her agricultural productivity. Inadequate assimilation of technology is limiting the rate of agricultural growth over time, thus affecting quantity and quality of what is produced. Dr Geradina Mzena, the Director of TTP, expressed her gratitude to CCARDESA for bringing SAWBO to TARI to introduce the concept of animated videos to timely avail critical agricultural scientific content to extension and farmers while maintaining quality and accuracy throughout the process.
SAWBO is a global initiative transforming peer reviewed scientific content into easy-to-understand 2D and 3D animated videos in local languages. So far, SAWBO has managed to work with experts across the globe to develop over 150 knowledge products available in more than 300 local languages which can be accessed and downloaded for free from the different SAWBO platforms including website and mobile app.
For Dr Barry Pittendrigh, Professor at Purdue University in the United States and co-Director of SAWBO, despite the strong willingness by Governments across the globe to have more extension officers, no country in the World, including developed countries, can engage enough personnel to cover the entire farming community. The adoption of innovative approaches such as e-Extension methods is consistently gaining ground to complement conventional methods. In addition, Dr John Medendorp, SAWBO Strategic Manager emphasized that despite the alarming ratio of extension officers to farmers, it is now possible to reach all of them with high quality content on improved technologies if we adopt innovative approaches, and with time e-Extension will become inevitable.
Participants unanimously rated the training as being extremely relevant as preparations are ongoing in Tanzania to boost agricultural technology transfer country wide. The SAWBO team took the opportunity to announce the availability of funds to develop animations for Tanzania on specific value-chains, including legumes. At the end of the training, TARI received a pico-projector and wireless speaker to conduct further training and demonstrations. More of such gadgets will be provided in due course to facilitate trainings in other areas.
It is also worth noting that this training comes as part of the current formal agreement between CCARDESA and SAWBO to fast-track the dissemination of improved technologies across the region. Hence through FSRP, more SADC member states will benefit from similar trainings in collaboration with SAWBO.
