ALLIANCE for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has said the pursuit of green revolution is showing great promises, with local companies already producing improved and quality seeds.
According to a Senior Programme Officer with Kofi Annan chaired AGRA's Programme for Africa's Seed System, Dr George Bigirwa, the local firms that received AGRA support are now producing high quality maize, sorghum and sunflower seeds.
"Quality seeds are an important component for food security and realisation of the green revolution," said Dr Bigirwa during a tour of Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions by AGRA's Vice-President for Programmes Segenet Kelemu.
Dr Kelemu, Ms Ann Mureithi from AGRA's Communications department and journalists had visited AGRA supported projects in the regions. Over ten Tanzanian firms with financial and capacity building support from AGRA, Dr Kelemu said, have made big strides in the seed improvement.
From 2007 to date AGRA has financially supported seed projects under PASS in Tanzania with over 11 million US dollars (over 18bn/-) in 36 projects. Dr Bigirwa said large-scale seed farming offers opportunity for many farmers to access well researched seeds in terms of quality, availability and affordability.
Production of the quality seeds domestically reduces the use of meagre forex on seed importation. Shortage of quality seeds is one of the problems that Tanzania faces. PASS supports country-level crop breeding teams that work closely with farmers to develop new varieties.
PASS funds and trains local entrepreneurs who establish and grow private, independent seed companies' to produce and distribute the seed. A farmer in Babati, Rajesh Atiya from Krishna Seed Ltd, speaking to the visiting AGRA delegation, said he was expecting bumper harvests this year, thanks to AGRA support.
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