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research on seeds
During the colonial era, the focus of agricultural research in Tanzania was on the major export crops: coffee, cotton, sisal, tea and
tobacco. After getting independence, the focus of agricultural research was directed to food crops and livestock produced by
smallholder farmers. Networks of publicly funded research stations and substations were established in the major agro-ecological
zones under the Department of Research of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MALD). Research on certain
commodities and disciplines such as maize, sorghum and millet, sugarcane and animal diseases was undertaken at a regional level
by the East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organization (EAFRO) of the defunct East African Community (EAC) till 1977.
In 1983 the first National Agricultural policy was developed. This was followed by the Agricultural and Livestock policy of 1997
which also mandated the encouragement and facilitation of national and local seed production, conditioning and marketing. The
role of indigenous knowledge in seed management is also given emphasis. After inception of the 1997 policy; the production of
quality declared seeds (QDS) at the farm level was initiated.
Liberalization of output markets was followed by revisions to the Seed Act to harmonize it with the new policy approach. The
Tanzanian law allows and encourages seed to be produced at village level under what is termed Quality Declared Seed (QDS).
Under the QDS system, the village community selects farmers to produce seeds of various crops to be sold to other farmers at
affordable prices. The QDS system approach appears encouraging as it has resulted in lowering seed prices to farmers.
Plant Protection Act was put in place in 2001 with an objective of providing for the protection of new plant varieties in order to
promote plant breeding activities that will stimulate, facilitate and improve agricultural research in the country, through the grant
and regulations of plant breeder’s rights and the establishment of a plant breeder’s rights registry, which is entrusted with the
obligations of granting plant breeders rights.
As a result of partnership and consultation between the public and private sectors, Tanzania boasts of a well-defined seed industry
with all necessary legal and institutional frameworks in place. The country has two legislations which ensure production and supply
of quality seeds to farmers. They are the Seed Act of 2003 and the Seeds Regulations of 2007 which govern seed production and
trade related issues and the Plant Protection Act of 1997 which governs plant quarantine or phytosanitary issues.
Under the Seed legislation, a regulatory framework for control of the quality of seed produced, imported, exported and used by
the farmers in Tanzania is provided. The law provides for a compulsory seed certification, laboratory seed testing, variety
evaluation and registration under the control of the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI). The Institute is also
responsible for Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) testing and the National Performance Trials (NPT) which are necessary
tests for variety release and registration. Under the system, locally bred varieties are tested for three years/seasons before being
released for commercialization. Varieties released in other Eastern African countries whose seed systems are harmonized with that
of Tanzania, need only one season of verification before being registered. The legislation also recognizes other regional harmonized
seed systems, including the East African and quality declared seeds (QDS)) regional systems.
This Tanzanian law is considered reasonable enough to achieve its ambitious targets on quality seed production and supply.
However it is becoming more and clearer that the informal seed system is not taken care by these policies sufficiently.
Components and key participants in Tanzania’s seed system.
•Local variety breeding
This is done in the 12 Agricultural Research Institutions (ARIs). The ARIs are zonal and focus on crops and issues
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relevant to their particular agro-ecologies. The extent of actual breeding work taking place varies between research
institutions. There is also an active bean research program at Sokoine University.
• Seed certification
New varieties are then submitted to the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institution which has its
headquarters located in Morogoro for DUS tests and then for NPTs (for two years).
• Production, processing, regulation and distribution of foundation seed
