A land expert creating a contemporary botanical archive for a safer and more efficient agriculture in Tanzania

Global warming is increasing the number and frequency of insect pests that threaten global agricultural production. In countries like Tanzania, where agriculture is the main source of income and livelihood for the country, finding sustainable ways to deal with this problem is paramount.

Chemical pesticides play the lion's share in combating pests in the fields, both because they are readily available and because of their immediate effectiveness. 

Yet they are expensive and harmful to nature, the ecosystem, farmers and consumers.

Dr. Angela Mkindi's research project focuses on the creation of a physical and digital database on pesticidal plants from northern Tanzania and the development of a effective formulations derived from these local plants: to start with Tephrosia vogelii, Tithonia diversifolia, Lantana camara.

Today, small-scale farmers use this plant by drying it, pulverizing it and dissolving it in soap and water for 24 hours, and then filtering it off residues through a sieve made of used bags.

A lengthy and inefficient procedure to which science could bring efficiency, speed of use, repeatability and control.

Research in the field.

Angela is collecting information from communities in the Arusha, Manyara and Kilimanjaro regions through questionnaires administered. 

Data on traditional knowledge of plants, their use and possibilities for future use with formulas optimized by science is giving her a detailed botanical, and social, picture that is not widely known in Tanzania at the moment.

For almost 10 years, she has been working with farmers' groups in Hai district, Moshi region, to identify the most suitable plants to protect crops by developing simple and inexpensive ways to spread their use.

The relationship with the local farmers’ community in this part of northern Tanzania is well grounded and based on mutual trust, giving to Angela and her assistant Emmanuel a transparent overview on the obstacles, needs and opportunities in the use and commercialization of bio pesticides based on local plants.

The plant specimens are collected by her assistants Immaculate and Yohana, catalogued and enriched with metadata such as their GPS location, their economic use and the chemical composition of their active ingredients obtained by phyto-chemical analysis done in the laboratory.

The second part of the project involves the creation of a formula for producing organic pesticides derived from these plants, and in particular from Tephrosia Vogelii.

The chemical composition of the plants’ active ingredients is obtained by phyto-chemical analysis done in the laboratory. 

Nanotechnology optimization.

Angela is also working in the lab with a nano-technologist student who is a cotton expert and who will optimise the efficiency of the plant based pesticides.

A contemporary botanical data base.

Angela's research project involves the creation within the Nelson Mandela Institution of Science and Technology of an up-to-date documentation of pesticidal plants with in northern Tanzania. 

Current herbaria that collect the plant varieties existing in northern Tanzania are far from exhaustive in terms of geographical, socio-economic and application information. 

The use of some of these plants as natural pesticides is known, but little is documented about their phytochemical components. 

One of the aims of Angela's research is to fill these gaps, seeing a contemporary herbarium that is rich, comprehensive and usable for research and industrial purposes.

A passion since childhood.

Angela is an expert ecological pest management, who has been researching and teaching at the Mandela Institution of Science and Technology in Arusha for over four years now, but her passion for plants and environmental ecosystems has an ancient origin, since she spent months as a child in her family's home village of Kwizu on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and in inspiration of her agronomist dad.

It was there that she developed her first knowledge of the traditional uses of plants as natural pesticides and realized the importance, and fragility, of ecosystem balances. 

Impact in the community. Botanical diversity as a resource.

What Dr.Mkindi dreams of is creating the conditions in Tanzania for more and better use of local plants as natural pesticides. In Tanzania, but in the whole of Africa in her opinion, this would be more possible than ever given the amount of botanical diversity there.

The updated and enriched herbarium would be a valuable resource for students, researchers and industry. 

An optimized and easily reproducible formulation for the production of a natural pesticide could help farmers make greater use of it, improving their lives, those of the gatherers and sellers - often women - healthier.  As well as improving the quality of agricultural products for the end consumer.