Global Rice News

Moshi — RESEARCH in agriculture has been described as a solid basis for increasing food production, including rice, whose consumption has increased significantly in recent years.

This was stated by the Kilimanjaro Regional Administrative Secretary, Willy Machumu, during a meeting to present and discuss the technical manual for contributing water use efficiency at irrigation schemes, which was held in Moshi, Kilimanjaro recently.

“All development issues are being implemented with great success after a thorough study, so this study you present today I believe will be the best foundation for increasing productivity in rice production in the country,” he said in a statement read on his behalf by Mr Arnold Msuya from the Kilimanjaro Regional Secretariat.

“I am very impressed and optimistic that the study would improve food production and improve paddy agriculture by helpingto create strategic plans for rain harvesting and preservation of water as well as its proper utilisation,” he said.

He appealed to the participants and the agricultural experts in general to use the results of the study effectively to increase rice production in the country.

“I am optimistic that irrigation paddy fields will be improved and later on increase rice production, especially when put in mind that irrigation paddy fields accounts for 26 percent of the rice production area than the rain fed one,” he noted.

Earlier during a presentation through video from Japan, the Programme Director with the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Dr Nakashima Kazuo, said the demand for rice was continuously increasing due to increasing population growth and the spread of rice eating culture.

“Under these circumstances, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries instructed JIRCAS to conduct a study on improving water efficiency in irrigation schemes in Africa”, he said.

He said the study was aimed at increasing paddy production especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where rice production falls short of consumption, leading to an increase in the region’s rice importations from Asia and North America.

He said it was due to that factor that Japan started its support for rice cultivation in Tanzania in 1974, whereby their experts conducted activities which were aimed at establishing techniques of irrigated rice cultivation in Lower Moshi district.

Speaking on behalf of the Head of the National Irrigation Commission, the Kilimanjaro Regional Irrigation Officer Eng Said Hussein Ibrahim, said the study involved Kilimanjaro Agricultural Training Centre (KATC), Arusha Technical College (ATC), National irrigation Commission, Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute Ministry of Agriculture and JIRCAS.

KATC Head, Eng Nicodemus Shauritanga, thanked JIRCAS for its collaboration in the study, whereby he said KATC’s mentors who participated in the project would now be competent in research works due to the experiences they gained in the project.