Impacting Agricultural Productivity in Tanzania Through the Wheels of Statistics

• Activity Number: 291
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Statistics Without Borders
• Author(s): Emanuel Msemo*+
• Companies: Virginia Tech
• Keywords: LISA ; LISA 2020 ; SUA ; Virginia Tech ; Statistical Laboratory ; Research Collaboration

Abstract

To spread out and promote the value of statistical thinking in all phases of scientific research, LISA (Virginia Tech's Laboratory for Interdisplinary Statistical Analysis) has a program to help establish 20 statistical laboratories in developing countries by the year 2020. As the backbone of the Tanzania economy, agriculture employs more than 75 percent of the labor force. Having an excellent potential for agriculture-led economic growth, the country needs more sustained agricultural growth to reduce overall poverty in the country. Farmers need to get the right information on how to turn technology (e.g. improved seeds) into increased productivity. Research with more tangible results can play this role. In this talk, I will explain my involvement in LISA 2020 at Virginia Tech, and will touch upon the process of establishing a statistical laboratory at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania. Through this laboratory, statisticians at SUA will collaborate with researchers and provide them with support and mentorship in statistical thinking, analysis and education so they will have the skills to turn their research into tangible results for Tanzanian farmers.