Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture Permanent Secretary, Hon. Andrew Massawe applauded IITA’s achievements in attaining agricultural milestones. He noted partnership for impact with national agricultural stakeholders, the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) to improve breeding, seed propagation innovations, and multiplication, and the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) to build capacity in seed certification.
This was revealed in a three-day official visit by the IITA Eastern Africa Regional Hub management to the Ministry of Agriculture and TARI from 15 to 17 May. The activity was organized and supported by the Building Economically Sustainable Seed Systems for Cassava, Phase II (BASICS-II), The International Fund of Agricultural Development’s South-South and Triangular Cooperation (IFAD-SSTC), and African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) projects. The visit’s objective was to update the new Permanent Secretary, Hon. Massawe on recent engagements between IITA and the Ministry and potential areas of partnership. The IITA Eastern Africa Regional Hub Director Leena Tripathi appreciated the Ministry of Agriculture for their support and shared IITA’s operation experiences in Tanzania related to administration challenges, including robust enabling environments for scientific work and engagements.