Sokoine University of Agriculture

RESEARCH IS high on the agenda of Tanzania’s Sekoine University of Agriculture – not surprising since the motto of the university is ‘Management of natural resources for sustainable development and poverty alleviation’. The institution’s stated mission in this regard is to look in particular at land-use issues, crop and livestock production,
fisheries, natural resources, as well as mechanised agricultural technology; and then to integrate the results of the research both into training programmes and into the country’s agricultural extension services.

To achieve these goals, the university has well over 200 academics and research staff trained to doctoral level (out of a total academic staff in 2008 of 333) in all fields of agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine. These specialists operate at the interface of the nearly 50 signed agreements on research collaboration with research institutions both in Tanzania and in countries like Kenya, Uganda, Denmark and Norway.

Sekoine University of Agriculture is based outside Morogoro (200 km west of Dar es Salaam) on the first slopes of the Aluguru Mountains that lie to the east of the Tanzania/Zambia highway. There are three satellite campuses: one in Morogoro itself, another up north in Arusha, and the third in Lushoto (around 300 km north of Dar es Salaam) There is also a constituent college in Moshi that is attached to the university.

Created as an independent institution out of the agricultural faculty at the University of Dar es Salaam in 1984, the university now has four faculties of it own. The faculties are: Agriculture; Forestry and Nature Conservation; Veterinary Medicine; and Science; and each offees undergraduate and postgraduate programmes to doctoral level.. Two institutes – of Continuing Education and of Development Studies – complement the work of the faculties. The university also houses the National Agricultural Library, as well as a Centre for Sustainable Rural Development and the Pest Management Centre.