Former VP and new VC of NM-AIST visit IITA Arusha
A former Vice President of Tanzania and the Chancellor of the Nelson Mandela Africa Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), Honorable Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal and incoming Vice Chancellor, Prof Emmanuel Luoga, visited IITA research facilities including the lab and field at the university.
NM-AIST delegation visiting the lab facilities
The IITA team briefed them on the ongoing research activities to breed high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties of Mchare—a popular cooking banana in Tanzania under the Breeding better bananas project. The IITA facilities are open for the university’s use in its training programs as part of IITA’s efforts to build the capacity of future researchers.
The team, led by Allan Brown , banana breeder and head of the IITA team at NM-AIST, highlighted the importance of Mchare banana as a Tanzanian natural resource that needs to be preserved for future generations and the significance of the work continuing beyond the life of the project.
Dr Allan Brown takes Dr Bilal and Prof Luoga on a field tour.
[su_quote]“One of the areas we are keen on is to work with the university to develop a center of excellence for banana research,” said Brown.[/su_quote]
The Vice President and the incoming Vice Chancellor appreciated the work of IITA but challenged the team to extend its research to dessert banana and support Tanzania to export dessert banana to the world
