Tanzania: new resistant coffee varieties developed with EU support (Voices and Views)

Published on 30 September, this Voices and views article on Capacity4Dev considers the work of the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) which has developed new disease resistant varieties of coffee seedlings with EU support. Over 51,323,308 hybrid seedlings have been multiplied and distributed to growers in the last 10 years, enough to replant about 38,559 hectares or 19% of the coffee area in Tanzania. 

TaCRI have developed 23 new disease resistant coffee varieties. However, the process of multiplying these new varieties for planting on farms across the country takes time. In addition, it can take 18 months for the new varieties to start production compared to 36 months for the traditional varieties. To speed up the process, TaCRI is not only selling seedlings but teaching farmers how to multiply their new varieties themselves. As they are hybrid plants, the new coffee varieties cannot reproduce from seeds so the farmers have to be trained in grafting and clonal propagation techniques.

The article is linked to videos on the ROSA network as well as a story and a project description on the main DEVCO website. It was drafted with input from Raymond Lataste from DEVCO and Prof. James Teri from TaCRI, with support from the Capacity4dev Coordination Team.