Tanzania is finalising plans for a banana research centre.
Belgium has already
pledged $1.29 million towards a banana centre of excellence to be based
at the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology in
Arusha.
The institute's
vice chancellor, Prof Emmanuel Luoga, said the focus will be on helping
smallholder farmers increase their production quotas of the more popular
varieties in the region, including
matooke and mchare, which are still
susceptible to pests and disease.
Bananas are
considered both an important low-cost food staple and an economic
backbone of East Africa and the Great Lakes region and their
outputvalued at $4.3 billion.
Tanzania and Uganda alone produce over 50 per cent of all bananas grown on the entire African continent.
Bananas are popular
primarily due to their non-seasonal nature, and apart from playing a
key role in ensuing food availability all-year round.
Cultivators are
divided into three groups; plantain -- cooking bananas, fruits -- sweet
bananas, and for making local beer or wine.
The banana plant
trunk can be cut up for use as livestock feed, while the bark and its
fibres can be used for fencing, making paper, crafting home decorations
and other works of art.
Last November, the
Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute confirmed 16 new drought- and
disease-resistant banana hybrid varieties developed by researchers in
the three predominantly banana-producing regions of Mbeya, Kilimanjaro
and Kagera.
The new varieties
are preferred by farmers because of their high yield and ability to
thrive under a variety of weather conditions.
The institute is
also already involved in banana farming research in Tanzania's northern
zone through a joint project with the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture.
The $13.8 million project is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Uganda is also a
beneficiary with the project enabling Uganda's National Agricultural
Research Organisation to introduce high-yielding, disease-resistant
hybrid varieties named Narita.
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