Dr. Arnold Angelo Mushongi
Dr. Arnold Angelo Mushongi, PhD
Senior Maize Research Breeder, Southern Highlands Agro-ecological Zone of Tanzania based at Agricultural Research, Africa
Arnold Mushongi has a PhD (Plant Breeding with a bias in maize) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa under the scholarship of the Rockefeller Foundation and an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). His PhD thesis research was on ‘Genetic studies of secondary traits and yield heterosis in maize under high and low nitrogen conditions, incorporating farmer perceptions and preferences for varieties.’
The traits of interest for his study were, under high and low N conditions: stay-green, leaf chlorophyll concentration, rate of kernel dry-down, effective duration of grain filling period, earliness (calendar physiological maturity), grain yield per se, ear characters (kernel number, ears per plant, health), kernel moisture content at harvest, etc. From 2009 to date, Arnold heads the Tanzania’s biggest Maize Improvement Programme (in terms of activities and geographical coverage) based at ARI-Uyole. It should be worth-noting that maize in Tanzania is synonymous with food security; now the crop is a major source
of income for rural-poor resource farmers who typically produce maize. Dr Mushongi is a conventional maize breeder with additional skills and experience in molecular breeding (from Japan at NIAS and at ILRI-BecA Hub), participatory plant breeding, management of plant genetic resources and biodiversity (from Japan and Addis Ababa University), biometry, environmental impact assessment, phytopathology, ecology, among others.
At ARI-Uyole, Mushongi conducts maintenance breeding, inbred line-hybrid development, population improvement, germplasm management, seed production research, breeder and pre-basic seed production, designing and evaluating hybrid trials.
The germplasm generated and maintained at ARI-Uyole is also used by graduate students in Agriculture for various study objectives. Popular maize hybrids released by the Maize Improvement Programme at ARI-Uyole, include: UH615, UH6303, UHS5210, and UHS5350.
Transforming Tanzania’s Agrarian Sector through Maize Breeding
by Dr. Arnold A Mushongi
Dr. Arnold A Mushongi mentions in his report about how maize is a political crop in Tanzania & Sub Saharan Africa, a crop that was popularized in the Southern Highlands Zone between 1950s and1970s. The diversity of uses of maize decreases with level of economy of the country. The potential of the crop to boost Agrarian Economies is higher particularly in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) as maize is synonymous with food security and it is also a source of income to rural resource-poor farming communities.
The report further mentions that genetic advancement in crops contributes significantly to food security. MacRoberts (2009) reported that improved varieties are a prime catalyst to strategies use of agro-inputs and other sectors of crop development. For instance, tolerance of crops to biotic stresses would minimize use of pesticides (Robinson, 1987), whereas tolerance to biotic stresses may suggest use of less fertilizers under low soil moisture conditions (Bänzinger et al., 2000), all of which reduce costs of production to resource-poor farmers (Echarte et al., 2008) and facilitate sustainable conservation of natural resources (Duvick, 1999).
Mushongi recommends, the viable solution would be to engage private sector in the design for new maize cultivars in order to increase grain yield productivity under unpredictable production conditions.
The availability of fake inputs in the market where farmers loose money for seed, pesticides, fertilizers and labour thus perpetuating poverty to farmers who are already resource poor and produce maize under suboptimal conditions.
Smallholders are likely to be even farther from realizing yield potential, for reasons not confined to weather. One reason is that the genetic advances offered by breeding research have not been matched by agronomic practices and efficient support services for smallholders, many of whom are located in marginal areas. Byerlee and Heisey (1996) asserted that as adoption of improved maize moves into more marginal areas the effects on national yield levels are also numerically marginal. Put simply, there may be little advantage of using a hybrid if the yield potential of the farmer’s soil is less than 1 ton.
Read the article (.pdf)