TARI TUMBI
TARI - TUMBI
Before TARI, in 1930 the Institute was established as livestock research (livestock Veterinary Investigation Centre – VIC) under Nyamwezi Creameries.
In 1938 the Institute was owned to Nyanza Cooperative Union (NCU) coordinating tobacco collection and marketing.
In 1954 the Institute was sold to British American Tobacco (BAT) working for the same mandate. After establishment of crop authority in 1961, the Institute became under Tobacco Authority of Tanzania (TAT). Various buildings were constructed in 1971/1972 under World Bank project.
In 1977, the institute was owned by the government for training and tobacco research. In 1980 the Institute was under the Tanzania Agricultural Research Organization (TARO) for crop research (tobacco)
In 1989 the institute became the National Coordination Center for Tobacco, Agroforestry and other crop research under the Ministry of Agriculture lead by the Director of Research and Development (DRD).
In 2016 TARI was enacted, and in 2018 the centre had the mandate of coordinating Agroforestry and other field crop research
TARI-Tumbi Centre is one of the 17 Research Centres under Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI). The centre is located in Tabora Municipal, 15 km away along the Urambo – Kigoma highway. The Centre has a mandate to conduct and coordinate all agroforestry research in the country.
To cope with agroforestry technologies, climate change and farmers demand, the centre conducts various researches in collaboration with other centres on oil palm, cereals, legumes, horticultural crops, cashew nut, root and tuber and social economic research
The centre has three sub centres namely;
- Mwanhala – Nzega, Tabora
- Mtanila – Chunya, Mbeya
- Luhafwe – Tanganyika, Katavi
TARI –TUMBI BRIEFLY
TARI Tumbi Centre has a mandate of conducting and coordinating agroforestry and potential indigenous fruits and medicinal tree research in the country. Since 1987, the National Agroforestry Research TARI-Tumbi centre, Tabora. Agroforestry research and development activities in the country have been going on for more than 30 years involving screening of multipurpose exotic and indigenous tree and shrub species suitable for different agroforestry technologies in collaboration with different partners namely world agroforestry centre (International centre in agroforestry research ) (ICRAF), TAFORI, Universities, the Local government authorities, NGOs and CBOs which are now benefiting thousands of farmers in Tabora region and elsewhere in the country.
The agroforestry research address in solving constraints that are related to agricultural production and productivity under different agro ecologicical farming systems includes:-
Problem of Low soil fertility: As a result of these constraints, crop production and productivity are low. Farmers have been harvesting only 2 to 3 bags per acre of maize on poor sandy soils compared to 18 to 22 bags on well managed farmers’ fields.
Yields of tobacco have also been low ranging from 200 to 300 kg per acre against 1000 to 1200 kg/acre on well managed farmer’s fields.
The use of fertilizer and improved seeds in Tanzania is very low compared to other countries. While Tanzanian farmers use an average of 9 kg/ha annually of nitrogen fertilizer as compare the average for Malawi farmers is 27 kg N/ha, and Vietnam 365 kg N/ha (MAFSC 2007). Less than 20% of smallholder farmers use fertilizer in Tanzania.
Environmental destruction :Environmental destruction has been high because rate of deforestation in the regions are high with thousands of hectares of forests being lost through clearing and deliberate burning by residents for different economic activities from within and outside the regions. Today these woodlands are being deforested at over 400000 hectares annually in tanzania (fao, 2007). The forest clearing and burning of forests for shift cultivation, new settlement, fuel wood for curing tobacco and domestic use, and charcoal making
Shortage of forage feed for livestock especially in the dry season Livestock production in terms of meat and milk has also been low as many farmers keep indigenous cattle. It produces only 1 to 2 litres of milk per day compared to 15 to 20 litres in exotic breeds.
Climatic change (Low, erratic and unreliable rainfall)
Predictions show that the mean daily temperature will rise by 30C – 50C throughout the country and the mean annual temperature by 20C – 40C. There will also be an increase in rainfall in some parts while other parts will experience decreased rainfall. Predictions further show that areas with bimodal rainfall pattern will experience increased rainfall of 5% – 45% and those with unimodal rainfall pattern will experience decreased rainfall of 5%– 15%.
Realizing the above constraints to agricultural production, Tumbi Agricultural Research Institute In Collaboration with the International Centre For Research In Agroforestry (Icraf) embarked in agroforestry research and development of technologies for climate resilience, sustainable agricultural production and environmental conservation.
Proven agroforestry technologies include: fertilizer trees, intercropping practices, relay croppingng, alley cropping and biomass transfer for soil fertility improvement, woodlots technologies (rotational woodlots, boundary planting, natural scattered tree management, Domestication of indigenous and medicinal trees for food and health security, trees for livestock feed and trees for reclamation and enrichment of traditional rangeland use systems (fodder and Ngitiris). These technologies are transforming lives in many parts of the country that have the potential to improve farmers livelihoods buffer against climate resilience, hunger and environmental conservation.
These technologies include rotational woodlots that can yield between 50-90 tons/ha, thus alleviating fuelwood shortage, soil fertility improvement technologies and improved fallows using nitrogen fixing trees that have increased maize yields 3 times, fodder banks and Ngitiri technologies that can improved fodder availability during dry season , improve milk yields and domestication of indigenous fruits and medicinal plants and fruits processing into juice ,jam and wine (value additional) while Medicinal trees that have contributed to human nutrition, health and rural livelihood improvements.
Beside this core research mandate, the center conducts research on field crops including cassava and sweet potatoes), cereals (maize, sorghum and rice), legumes (beans, cow peas and pigeon peas) and oil crops (oil palm, sun flower, simsim and ground nuts), and horticultural crops (tomatoes, citrus, mangoes, and water melon). In addition, the center also conducts social economic research like baseline surveys, marketing, impact and adoption studies.
Research on indigenous fruits tree, medicinal plant and agroforestry gene bank evaluation and conservation
Currently there are some indigenous fruits trees and medicinal plants that have been collected and established at TARI Tumbi collaboratively including; Strychnos cocculoides-(Ntonga), Sclerocarya birrea (Amalura/Mng’ongo), Vitex mombassae–(Ntalali), Vitex doniana – (Furu), Tamarindus indica – (Ukwaju), Andasonia digitata, Phyllanthes engleri- (Amla) and 14 priority species namely: Combretum zeyheri, (Msana), Entandrophagma bussei (Mondo), Securidaca longipendiculata (Nengonengo), Zanha Africana (Mkalya), Cassia abbreviata (Mlundalunda), Entada abyssinica (Ngengwambula), Turraea fischeri (Ningiwe), Albizia antelmintica (Mgada), Terminalia sericeae (Mzima), Zanthoxyllium chalybeum (Mlungulungu), Kigelia Africana-(Ninje), Harrisonia abyssinica-(Msomanjara), Acacia nilotica -(Mhale) and Tamarindus indica-(Mkwaju).
The field genebanks serve not only as repositories for conservation of tree species whose seeds do not remain viable for long periods, but also as valuable resources for learning more about the trees' growth, development, and adaptability to various environmental conditions. They are used to supply quality seeds, scions and cuttings for tree planting to various users. The knowledge gained from these field genebanks is essential for the effective conservation, management, and utilization of these important tree genetic resources.