More than 50 participants were present at the kick-off meeting in Morogoro on March 14, 2023, including representatives from NIBIO, TARI, Rice Council of Tanzania, Norges Vel, Helvetas, and two rice experts from India (MSSRF and TNAU).

At the meeting, project coordinator Dr. Sekhar Udaya Nagothu emphasized the importance of the project and its potential to improve sustainable rice productivity and farmer livelihoods in Tanzania. He outlined the project goals and expected impacts and how this could be achieved through institutional capacity building on SRI over the next three years. This will be supported by on-farm trainings and farmer demonstrations across the different irrigation schemes where the project will be implemented.

A special feature of this project is the south-to-south cooperation where TARI researchers and extension officers will be visiting India and work with the ongoing Resilience project partners (a project funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway/the Norwegian Embassy, Delhi). Sekhar also commented that due consideration will be given to the environmental considerations, gender and youth integration and value chain analysis and addressing relevant SDGs (1, 2, 5, 6 and 13).

From NIBIO, Dr. Mehreteab Tesfai, who was also at the kick-off meeting, will work on the soil and water management challenges and precision management, and how they can be addressed by farmers adopting SRI. The project will reach out to 4000 smallholders growing rice in Tanzania.