Exportation Of Tanzania’s Based Seeds Improves -

By STAFF REPORTER

TANZANIA has successfully managed to increase tonnage in exportation and marketing of the country’s produced seeds into various countries, from 1,094 tons to 1,172 tons between 2021/22 and 2022/23 period.

Statistics at the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) depict that during the period, 2021/22 -2022/23, a total of 65 licenses of exportation of seeds outside the country were issued to seeds traders.

Dr. Patrick Ngwediagi, the Director General (DG) of the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI).

Presenting the encouraging report over development of the sub-sector in the country recently in Dodoma Capital City, TOSCI’s Director General (DG), Dr. Patrick Mgwediagi however unveiled that during the period, a total of 59,255 tons of seed was imported in the country to help bridge some existing gapes in the sector within the country.

“During the two years, 2021/22 to 2022/23, TOSCI issued a total of 4188 seed importation permits,” he informed.

Going into further details pertaining to the general improvement of the seed sub-sector in Tanzania, he communicated that during the past two years, TOSCI had successfully managed to inspect and officially registered a total of 2,782 new seed farms across the country, covering at least 122,290 hectares.

“In order to assure the seeds are being preserved in accordance to the recommended manner and quality, TOSCI had also conducted a professional inspection of at least 330 seeds warehouses,” he said.

Not only that, but the TOSCI’ chief boss said the vital exercise also involved inspection of at least 8,710 seed shops, to ensure if the dealers are marketing the certified seeds.

” TOSCI will continue standing stable to assure the farmers across the country are equipped with the certified seeds so that they can stand a chance to increase their crop production and productivity, ” he assured.

In the same vein, he said the state-owned seeds watch -dog was continuing to build capacity of its staff, saying a total of 70 of TOSCI’s seed pundits were received different relevant trainings during the past two years.

He added also, during 2021/22 to 2023/23 fiscal year, the Institute issued a total of 21436039 labels to different seed products that were inspected and certified for official use.

So far, he communicated that during the past two years the institute has managed to train a total of 3134 seed dealers on how to perform their business in reflection to the set regulations.

According to him, the past two years saw TOSCI registered a total of 1811 seed dealers in the country.

“The other achievements that we succeeded to register in a period of two years elapsed include establishing and installation of the TOSCI Online Application, the vital cloud- connected system to help easy dispensation of our services, ” Dr. Ngwediagi bragged.

He also added that there had been also construction of Genetic Reference Library at TOSCI’s headquarters in Morogoro region, the vital facility for the professional checkup of the seeds that are being used by the farmers in Tanzania.

The Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) was established under the Seed Act No. 18 of 2003 as a successor to Tanzania Official Seed Certification Agency (TOSCA), which is a government entity under the Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives.

TOSCl’s Head Quarter is in Morogoro with branches in Mwanza, Arusha and Njombe. TOSCI is responsible for verification of new crop varieties for official release and certification of seeds produced for sale in the country.