Dr Joseph Ndunguru
MARI is one of the leading Agriculture Research Institutes under
the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives and is led
by the country's presidential science laureate Dr Joseph Ndunguru.
The plans and strategies aim at stamping out cassava diseases in
the Lake Zone, improving productivity to ensure food security through
the support of clean seed systems for farmers and building capacity.
The plans and strategies were outlined by the MARI Officer in
Charge, Dr Joseph Ndunguru at the weekend in Rorya and Butima during the
launch of cassava clean plantlets to farmers.
Dr Ndunguru said that through regional management project of
cassava virus diseases funded by Bill and Melinda Gates and DFID, MARI
has managed to train a total of 500 farmers and other 300 experts on
sustainable production of the new clean cassava plantlets which are free
of diseases.
Dr Ndunguru said that MARI has also established eight demo farms in
Rorya, Butiama and Mbinga. The farms have the capacity to produce more
than 80,000 clean plantlets for each season which would be distributed
to hundreds of farmers.
Furthermore, the project is expected to establish other demo-sites
in this rain season in the Lake Zone and Bagamoyo so that many farmers
whose food and economy have been paralysed by the cassava diseases can
benefit from them.
Dr Ndunguru said that the project has also produced and distributed
several maps to all the district councils in the zone which show the
level and magnitude of the diseases and the virus distribution.
“We want to ensure you that these new clean plantlets are free of
cassava diseases such as cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava brown
streak (CBSD),” he said.
He said that the institute through the project will continue to
bring together farmers from different districts where the demo sites are
taking place to share knowledge and experience on how best they can
manage to fight the diseases.
For his part, the training and outreach Assistant Coordinator, Dr
Fred Tairo asked farmers to cooperate saying it is only through
commitment, determination and hard work that the objectives of the
project will bring desired fruits.
“We expect you to help us in training other farmers. We want all
farmers to benefit from this project so, I urge you to work hard,” he
said.
For his part the National Coordinator for Open Forum on
Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) which is under the commissioner for
Science and Technology (Costech), Philbert Nyinondi, urged the
respective district authorities to make sure that they continue to train
more farmers so that they can be change agents in their respective
villages.
Costech is one of the partners in this project. We have worked with
MARI and farmers in different aspects to make sure that the farmers
improve cassava productivity and increase food security through
supporting clean seed systems.
Earlier during the launch, Butiama District Commissioner Angeline
Mabula and Rorya District Administrative Secretary Murumbe Daudi
welcomed the interventions by MARI saying all farmers should benefit
from the new programmes.
In recent years, the diseases, Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) and
Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) have become a serious constraint to
sustainable production of cassava in the Lake zone.
During the last decade for example, these plant pathogens have
increased in number, distribution and importance and in some villages,
they have forced farmers to abandon their fields.
The launch exercise brought together the farmers from Butiama,
Rorya, Mbinga districts and attended by the district leaders and the
media.
No comments:
Post a Comment