Key Trends from the 2003 country brief

• Two consecutive projects, funded by World Bank loans and bilateral funding, have been a major influence on the development of research infrastructure in Tanzania in the 1990s and beyond.
• DRD is the main agricultural research agency in Tanzania and accounted for close to two- thirds of the country’s total spending and research staff in 2000.
• During the 1990s, DRD was reorganized with a view to reducing operational costs and increasing efficiency. This process included the privatization of coffee, tea, and tobacco research, which resulted in three newly established nonprofit institutions.
• Like many African (and other) countries, DRD has become increasingly dependent on donor funding. More than half of total 2000 revenue came from the World Bank and other donors.
• Some private companies and NGOs conduct limited adaptive research, but they apparently do not have appropriate research facilities and hence rely on DRD facilities and researchers. However, several of the commodity boards fund research at DRD on the nonprofit institutions.

Tanzania