Regions Covered:
Breeding in Morogoro, commercial production in Morogoro, Mbeya, Songwe and Tabora | Distribution across Tanzania
Target Beneficiaries:
600 smallholder farmers (SHFs) (60% women, and 30% youth) and 2 Local seed companies
Market Facilitator:
Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute (TARI) - Ilonga Centre
Project Partners:
Private Sector seed companies Highlands Seeds Growers Ltd of Mbeya and Lima Africa of Tabora
Project Goal:
To strategically enhance the production of early-generation seeds and certified seeds for availability, accessibility and affordability of sunflower-improved seed varieties among smallholder farmers for increased productivity, production and sustainability of the sunflower value chain.
Agenda: Enhancing national capability in breeding, commercialisation and distribution of improved Sunflower seeds
Systemic Constraint:
Low availability, accessibility, and affordability of improved seed.
Interventions:
- Strengthen the contribution of local seed companies in seed multiplication and distribution.
- Support smallholder farmers (youth and women) to produce and distribute certified seeds.
- Support the establishment of block farms for the production of sunflower seeds.
- Increase production and availability of different classes of sunflower seeds in the country.
- Produce Early Generation Seeds (EGS) and distribute them to partner companies for commercialization
Key Activities:
- TARI Ilonga to produce and multiply Early Generation Seeds (EGS) of improved varieties TARI- ILO-2019, TARI-NAL-2019.
- TARI Ilonga to promote sunflower technologies through different dissemination pathways i.e through field days, promotion using TV programs, radio, manual material development, training materials, journal publications and leaflets.
- Seed companies to support the establishment of block farms for sunflower seed production through contractual arrangements with farmers (youth and women) owning 20-100 acres.
- Seed companies to conduct training of farmers including youth and women through farmer field days on appropriate and attractive sunflower seed production technologies.
Expected Changes:
- Enhanced access to EGS by seed companies.
- Information on sunflower technologies is available to seed stakeholders.
- Capacity of the seed companies to produce certified seeds enhanced.
- Enhanced access to certified seeds by smallholder farmers.
- Enhanced Market opportunities for certified seeds.
- Women and youths groups adopt GAPs for seed production.