Eastern Africa: State-of-the Art Science Building to Boost Agricultural Research

By Staff Writer

DAR-ES-SALAAM----The fight to secure the food and income for millions of small holder farmers in eastern Africa, an area that experiences severe food shortages from time to time, is poised to get additional ammunition by the construction of a state-of the art-science research block by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The building whose foundation stone was laid by the country’s Prime Minister, Hon  Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda on Tuesday last week is expected to be completed in October next year and will serve the institute’s research for development activities in 17 countries in eastern and central Africa.

Speaking during the foundation-stone-laying ceremony, Hon Pinda rightly noted the building would generate much needed scientific research to provide solutions to problems of food security and poverty alleviation therefore improving the lives of millions of small-holder farmers in the country and the region.

“Research plays an important role in increasing productivity by developing cost effective socially acceptable knowledge and technologies that are suitable under prevailing environments,” he said. “Therefore, the importance of agriculture research should be emphasized.”

He noted that in Tanzania, agriculture was the backbone of its economy and played an important role in its overall economic development and the livelihood of its people. He said statistics showed that in 2009, the agriculture sector contributed 24.6 percent towards the Country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and during the 2009/2010 farming season, the sector managed to produce 12.32 mllion tonnes of food against an estimated demand of about 11.15 million tonnes, leading to food self-sufficiency of about 110.6 Percent.  

However, he said overall productivity was still very low and the country had not achieved its goals on food security and poverty alleviation by ensuring adequate and surplus food production, for local consumption and for export.  

Furthermore, he noted there were still more challenges ahead in the pursuit for food self sufficiency and poverty alleviation posed by the increasing population coupled with global warming. These call for more investment of resources - money, human resource and infrastructure development and greater collaboration in agricultural research among local, regional and international institutions.

Agricultural research, Pinda said, has a very important role to play to generate knowledge on how to sustainably increase productivity. These include providing farmers with improved high yielding varieties resistant to the major pests and diseases, with good agronomical practices that they can follow to get the maximum yield and sustainable and cost effective ways to control pests and diseases and on processing and proper post harvest handling of the farmers’ produce.  

The IITA science building is an ultra-modern, environmentally friendly building with state-of-the-art, energy-efficient construction, appliances, and renewable energy sources, such as solar water heating, solar power, and natural lighting. It will reduce its energy use by 65-70 per cent with efficient air handling control. It is dedicated to the fight against hunger and poverty and will contribute towards boosting agricultural productivity in the region.