| Cotton
Research Stations.
The research activities are done at two research centers namely
Ukiriguru and Ilonga. Ukiriguru caters for Western Cotton
growing Areas (i.e Mwanza, Shinyanga, Mara ,Tabora, Singida,
Kigoma and Kagera) while Ilonga caters for Eastern Cotton
Growing Areas (i.e Morogoro, Iringa, Coast Region, Tanga,
Kilimanjaro and Arusha). These two regions vary greatly in
terms of weather condition, soil fertility, pests and diseases
occurrence the conditions which necessitated the development
of different seeds varietiesfor each zone. The current commercial
varieties for Western Cotton Growing Areas areUK77, UK 82
and Uk 91 which is in multiplication stage. The varieties
for Eastern Cotton Growing Areas are IL 74 and IL 85.
Research
Funding
Before the introduction of free market economy the research
activities were funded jointly by the government and the Tanzania
Cotton Marketing Board until 1993 when the liberalisation
policies came into place. But there was no clear policy on
who should take over the fund research activities on cotton,
thus leading into postponement of research from the 1995/96
season as there was no money allocated by the government and
Tanzania Cotton Market Board had changed to a regulatory Board
with no business operations. But the activities resumed in
1996/97 season when the cotton sector started funding the
research on cotton
Cotton
Varieties
Genetic
background of UK Varieties.
The breeding activities started in 1939 where the original
seeds for sowing came from Uganda. This seed was made of mixture
of United State cotton varieties. With the effort to improve
the genetic constitution of the local varieties, selection
started which helped the release of the first variety called
Mwanza local. Due to existence of cotton pests and diseases
like jassid and Fusarium wilt necessitated the breeding of
varieties which are resistant to the Jassid, Fusarium wilt
and bacterial blight.
Genetic
background of IL. varieties
These varieties i.e IL.74 qnd IL. 85 were obtained from the
breeding of seeds from Uganda and Malawi while the new breeder
seed which is about to be release i.e ALAI 90 is crossed from
the Acala SJ -1 and Albar genotypes of eastern local material
It is difficult to distinguish these varieties using their
color, leaf shape, petal color, pollen color, fuzz color and
lint color.
Characteristics
of cotton varies grown in Tanzania
Cotton cultivation in Tanzania is done in two areas namely
West Cotton Growing Area (WCGA) which comprises of Shinyanga,
Mwanza, Mara, Tabora, Kagera, Kigoma na Singida and East Cotton
Growing Area which is made of Morogoro, Coast, Tanga, Kilimanjaro,
Arusha and Iringa regions. These two areas vary greatly in
terms of weather conditions, soil fertility and diseases and
pests. Due to these variation in weather conditions and other
factors prompted the need to develop different varieties suitable
for these areas.
The
current commercial cotton varieties grown in West Cotton Growing
Area are UK77, UK 82 and UK91 which is still at the multiplication
process. UK stands for Ukiriguru and the number refers to
the year the variety was released.
TABLE
1 : ILONGA VARIETIES
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