By STAFF REPORTER, Morogoro
Tanzania has embarked into implementation of an ambitious project for the acknowledgement and purification of the landrace rice seeds in the country.
The country’s pilot project for the purification of the local rice seeds at the Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute (TARI), in its Morogoro-based Dakawa center is covering at least four acres, attracting 25 diverse seeds of a total of 54 landraces collected.
Giving an exclusive interview to the publication, Dr. William Titus, the Plant Breeder and Coordinator of Research and Innovation at TARI Dakawa Center said the timely initiative was focusing to elevate quality and availability from reputable source of the local rice seeds for farmers acrossTanzania.
He informed that, although currently standing at the helm of the East and Central Africa (EAC)'s rice production sector, Tanzania was however grappling with numerous challenges pertaining to the rice seed sub- sector.
"Most of the rice growers in Tanzania are yet to adopt use of the improved rice seeds as they prefer landrace seeds, which are not productive and have not been registered in the country’s formal seed system, " he expressed.
The senior rice pundit added that, despite comprising with important genes, the landrace seeds are not responding well to fertilizers as well as irrigation, exacerbating to poor yields among the farmers.
Barnabas Sitta, the Plant Breeder at TARI- Dakawa, demonstrating the product of the RGA's technology at the Center.
" The project aims to improve availability of landrace rice seeds for breeding and varietal improvement purposes" he said.
He said the government has so far rolled out a total of 30m/- as a starting package to support the initiative.
Dr. Titus said the 54 landraces that are being purified throughout the project were collected from different rice- growing famous regions in the country, including Morogoro, Mbeya, Mwanza, Shinyanga, Tabora, Simiyu and Kigoma.
Others are Iringa, Manyara, Kilimanjaro, Katavi, Coastal region, Arusha and Rukwa.
For his part, Barnabas Sitta, the Plant Breeder at TARI- Dakawa Centre, said the general vision of the project, among others, was to take some of the potential genes from the landraces, and infuse them to other breeding lines.
"Apart from facilitating access to landrace rice seeds, the project eyes to enable the local rice growers to qualify and benefit from the world rice market," he added.
He informed, at the world market, the rice grains are usually tested through genetic finger printing, the challenging screening towards the local farmers.
"Majority of the local farmers are often applying a mixture of informal landrace seeds in their plantations to the bad tune that they are being disqualified to trade in the global potential markets, " he observed.
Moreover, Sitta added, the on-going project targets to set a formal system for the availability of the landrace rice seeds in the country.
In general efforts to heighten performance of the rice sector in Tanzania, the equipped centre,TARI Dakawa has so far innovated and introduced to the farmers, the best rice variety, the TXD306, populary known as 'SARO 5"
Detailing further over the seed's performance, the research assistant at the Center, Ngabo Pamba said the farmer's crowd- puller variety was thriving in abundance in all irrigated and rainfed lowland rice agro-ecologies across the country.
"The variety has the maturity duration of between 120 and 125 days and plant height of around 95 to 100 centimeters, whereby the yielding capacity is between 7 and 8.5 tons per hactares, " he detailed.
Dr. Jerome Mghase, TARI Dakawa Center Manager, said Tanzania is currently topping the rice production sector within the East and Central Africa.
The DARI Dakawa Centre chief boss said, since 2010, Tanzania was selected by the Eastern Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme ( EAAPP) as the regional hub for rice production, the project which had so far played meaningful role in improving the sector’s thriving in the country.
In further strategies to have Tanzania's rice sector reaching new heights, the Dakawa Centre has also adopted the world's fast breeding method to get fixed lines.
Christened 'Rapid Generation Advance Technology' (RGA) system, the modern breeding method has been introduced in the country for the maiden time by TARI in its Morogoro-based Dakawa center.
RGA is a breeding approach that uses single seed descent (SSD) as the breeding method in a small screen house or glasshouse space. Using RGA could save a lot of valuable land space ( around 90 percent), and shorten the time period for developing breeding lines by at least two or three years as compared to the pedigree method.
Statistics show that most of huge percentage of the farmers in the country are using local and traditional seeds, many of which have low yield potential.
Most of the rice grown in Tanzania, according to research, depends on rainfall and few irrigation schemes, the situation which needs urgent rehabilitation.
Upland systems are prone to drought, weed infestation (including Striga), and attacks by pests and diseases (blast).
However, the rainfed lowland systems suffer from floods during heavy rains and more often face drought as well, whereby weed infestation, pests (African rice gall midge and stem borers), and diseases (rice yellow mottle virus, blast, bacterial leaf blight) cause low yields.
Moreover in Tanzania, soil fertility is generally low and rice competes with other crops such as maize, for land and labor.
Inadequate postharvest technologies result in low-quality rice and low prices in the market. Farm operations are mostly (95 percent) done manually.
OPPORTUNITIES
Tanzania has large land resources suitable for rice (29 million ha) and abundant water resources (underground, rivers, and lakes) for irrigation. There is also clear political will of the government to enhance rice production and productivity.
There is currently a suitable policy environment, with tax exemption measures on the import of agricultural machinery and subsidies provided to farmers on agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and seed.
The government is providing an enabling environment for the private sector to participate more strongly in agricultural production, processing, and marketing.
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