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Press Release

April 20, 2022

TARI-Kibaha, Terunuma, Matoborwa, and JICA gain the farmers' hearts after the release of New Japanese Sweet Potato Varieties.

Ministry of Agriculture, through its Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Kibaha, has officially released two new Sweet Potato varieties which are suitable for mid altitude and warm semi-arid agro ecology after all required verification procedures have been conducted.

TARI Kibaha participated in the official introduction and field survey evaluation of the five elite sweet potatoes varieties from Japan, these include Tamayutaka, Koganesengan, Annouimo, Izumi 13 and Taihaku.

These varieties were in advances yield trials for seasons, and the best performing varieties were the Tamayutaka and the Koganesengan. The two varieties were proposed for evaluation in National Performance Trials (NPT) by the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI), and as a result, the two varieties Tamayutaka (TARI SP7) and Koganesesengan (TARI SP8) are officially released by Variety Release Committee under TOSCI for multiplication and use by the public.

The verification process was supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in collaboration with the two Japanese companies, i.e. the Terunuma Co., Ltd. (former company name: Terunuma Katsuichi Shoten Co., Ltd.) from Japan, and the Matoborwa Co. Ltd. based in Dodoma, through JICA's survey scheme "Verification Survey with the Private Sector for Disseminating Japanese Technologies" which aim at demonstrating Japanese technologies' effectiveness in improving specific development challenges.

The three years' JICA survey project from 2017 to 2020 have verified the effectiveness of the said Japanese sweet potato varieties, the efficient cultivation techniques for sweet potato production, and the saccharification methodologies of sweet potatoes through storage. All of those can contribute to increasing and stabilizing farmers' income, building new food processing business, and creating employment in Tanzania.

The target area of the said survey was Dodoma, and its main beneficiaries were sweet potato farmers and processors.

PhotoTamayutaka (TARI SP7) at contract farmer's field
(source: Matoborwa Co. Ltd.)


By using the two new sweet potato varieties and adopting new cultivation methods from Japan, farmers will be able to produce sweet potatoes with the higher market value. Sweet potatoes' saccharification technology will also add value for processors. These activities are ultimately expected to increase and stabilize farmers' income.

The said Dodoma-based food processing company, Matoborwa, will utilize these Tamayutaka (TARI SP7) and the Koganesesengan (TARI SP8) in order to produce even more tasty dried sweet potatoes, i.e. Matoborwa (in Sukuma language).

PhotoThe factory manager with dried sweet potato
(source: Matoborwa Co. Ltd.)

PhotoDried sweet potatoes made in Tanzania
(source: Matoborwa Co. Ltd.)

PhotoDried sweet potato package for Tanzania
(source: Matoborwa Co. Ltd.)


For more information about press conference, please contact:
Ms. Ridda Andrew Dally
JICA Tanzania Office
P.O. Box 9450, Dar es salaam
Tel: +255-22-2113727/30
Mobile: 0787248557
Email: Andrew-Ridda@jica.go.jp.

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