Meeting of experts on root crops starts today in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Dar es Salaam, 6 March 2017. Over 300 researchers, development partners, private sector practitioners, and farmers from all over the world start their week-long meeting, 6 – 10 March, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to discuss advances and new developments on root crops research and collaboration in Africa. This is at at the 13th Symposium of the International Society for Root and Tuber Crops – Africa Branch (ISTRC-AB).
The meeting will be opened by Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzaniawith the Hon. Dr. Charles John Tizeba (MP), the Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. The theme of the meeting is “Expanding collaboration and catalyzing innovation of root crops for accelerating Africa’s economic growth.”
Root crops such as cassava, sweet potato, potato, and yams are very important in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa – more than 240 million tons of root crops are produced annually on nearly 23 million hectares of land. The combined value of yam, cassava, potato, and sweet potato exceeds all other African staples, including cereal crops (on average 169 million tons of cereals are produced from 108 million ha of land).
The crops are not only cultivated for food but increasingly they are also becoming industrial crops through processing into high-value products. This in turn has seen a steady increase in the crop’s production across the continent. However, this has stemmed from expansion of land cultivated to the crop rather than an increase in yields, which are the lowest in the world.
‘Tanzania is indeed honored to be hosting this meeting that brings together experts from all over the world to discuss research and development on root and tuber crops. Many challenges faced by these crops include lack of access to and adoption of improved varieties, poor farming practices including low usage of inputs such as fertilizers among others, lack of organized markets and poor mechanization,” said Dr Hussein Mansoor, the Director for Research and Development in the Ministry of Agriculture, ahead of the meeting.
He said he therefore hoped the presentations and deliberations during the meeting would help the country and indeed the continent find practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges facing the smallholder producers of these important crops.
“This meeting brings together the world’s leading researchers on root and tuber crops to Tanzania. Notable researchers include the 2016 World Food Prize laureates from the International Potato Center, Drs Maria Andrade, Jan Low, and Robert Mwanga who will be sharing with us their research on orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP). OSFP are rich in beta-carotene (vitamin A) and therefore have great potential to improve health across Africa,” “said Prof Lateef Sanni, president of the ISTRC-AB and from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.
“Together with yellow-fleshed cassava, these crops show how research can be used to find sustainable solutions to food and nutrition security across the continent,” he said.
Root and tuber crops are versatile staples that can enable Africa to meet its food and nutrition security as they produce more food per unit area of land than most crops. However, they also suffer from high postharvest losses – they spoil very easily and storage is a challenge.
“Addressing postharvest losses and markets cannot be overemphasized in the efforts to boost production of root and tuber crops in Africa. If not well addressed, then all the work done to increase production through development and adoption of improved varieties, and good agronomic practices will not realize the anticipated benefits. This is one of the areas the meeting will focus on including attracting investors,” said Dr Victor Manyong, IITA Director for Eastern Africa.
Other areas that the participants will deliberate on are efforts to control the major pests and diseases of roots and tubers such as cassava brown streak disease and cassava mosaic disease; and sweet potato virus disease and root rot, which significantly reduced the crop’s production nearly wiping it out from the country. These include breeding resistant varieties and establishing clean seed systems to reduce the spread of diseases as farmers share infected planting materials.
The organization of the meeting was led by Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. Other partners included IITA, CIP, Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and Cassava Adding Value for Africa (CAVA) project that is led by the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC). Tanzania was selected as the venue of its 13th Symposium at ISTRC-AB’s last meeting in Ghana in October 2013.
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