Agricultural Institutes Teams Up To Empower Sorghum Seeds Producers -

By Senior Reporter VALENTINE OFORO

THE Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) in cooperation with the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) has conducted special training towards the sorghum seeds producing farmers in the lake zone regions.

The three- day workshop held at Mwanza-based TARI Ukiriguru center attracted a total of 35 farmers from Mwanza, Shinyanga, Tabora, Simiyu and Mara regions.

Facilitated by the agricultural researchers in the sorghum seeds sub- sector from TARI Ilonga and Ukiriguru centres, as well as from TOSCI, the training centered focus to impart the farmers with key skills and regulations on sorghum seeds multiplications and marketing.

Speaking yesterday here at the climax of the training, the National Coordinator for sorghum research program, Mr Emmanuel Thomas said the vision behind the training was to heighten production and availability of improved sorghum seed towards the farmers in areas where the crop thrives.

He informed that the training was part of implementation of the ACCELERATED and VISA projects which are being executed jointly by TARI, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Center for Tropical Agricultural (CIAT).

“In making sure that we promote the best seeds so that they can be known by the stakeholders, it is important to produce enough seeds to meet the needs of the seeds that are emerging,” Mr Thomas said.

Moreover, Mr Thomas who’s a researcher from TARI Ilonga research center, responsible for researching millet crops nationally.

He observed that there’s huge deficit and high demand for the millet seeds in the regions mapped in the country’s lake zone, and in the western part.

“We’re highly expecting that this training will bring about positive changes through scaling up production of the sorghum seeds to the tune of assisting the farmers to improve production and productivity,” he observed.

Speaking for his part, seeds inspector from TOSCI in the lake zone, Mr Evance Kaganda said apart to train the seeds producer farmers on laws, regulations and procedures for producing quality seeds, the institution will continue to inspect the farms of those farmers to ensure they produce as per regulations.

“When they have started production, they must register their fields, and we will be responsible to go and inspect them two to three times in order to see if the quality of the seeds is considered, and after they have harvested, we will be responsible to go and take samples and then come to test them in our TOSCI laboratories,” he detailed.

And some of the beneficiaries of the training have said that the training has shown them other opportunities in agriculture, especially the seed business.

“It’s like many of us were in the dark, we didn’t know many things, we are really grateful for this training and I believe we will do well in agriculture” said Victoria Polika, a farmer from Kaliua, Tabora.

The other beneficiary farmer, Ms. Juliana Ngassa, a millet farmer in Uchunga district in Kishapu District, said: “Through this training I have learned to use short-term quality seeds that can withstand climate change to get a sufficient harvest,”