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Published on
10.08.23
After great effort put into the official release in 2021 and multiplication of the four new, improved hybrids of the important staple cooking banana, “matooke”, commonly known as TARIBAN, the new hybrids planting materials have finally reached the smallholder farmers across the country to improve the banana production and improve farmer’s livelihoods in Tanzania.
The newly released varieties—TARIBAN 1, TARIBAN 2, TARIBAN 3, and TARIBAN 4—were distributed by Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) in regions of Morogoro, Mbeya, Bukoba, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, and other parts of Tanzania, including Zanzibar, Simiyu, Tanga, Dodoma, and Dar es Salaam.
Establishing TARIBAN varieties has brought hope in transforming banana production and enhancing the growth of the agriculture sector. “Over 28,280 banana plantlets have been multiplied with the assistance of Aarti Mahajan of MEDA and Vishnuardhan Banda of IITA and distributed to farmers in the promotion of the varieties during the field days in banana-producing regions across Tanzania,” said Fatuma Kirua, Research Officer from TARI Tengeru.