Green Resources Innovations For Livelihood Improvement

Project summary

The proposed collaborative project titled “Green Resources Innovations for Livelihood Improvement (GRILI)’ will be carried out in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Manyara region where Synadenium glaucescens, and Commiphora swynnertonii are found in plenty and highly utilized as source of traditional medicine. Its main objective is to catalyse the socio-economic development and poverty reduction through training, research and expansion of market opportunities of value added Green Resource Products (GRPs) with pharmacological value for livelihood improvement. The specific objective of GRILI is to strengthen the research capacity and generate new knowledge of relevance to adding value and commercialization of GRPs in Tanzania. The project will apply innovative methods to identify and characterize antimicrobial active ingredients of GRPs from S. glaucescens and C. swynnertonii; determine the likelihood that resistance will develop towards antimicrobial active ingredients of GRPs; determine the extent and effect of adulteration of GRPs in the Tanzanian market; develop a business model for commercialization of GRPs by different actors in the GRP-value and supply chains; and disseminate research results to policy makers and end users at national and international levels. One post-doc, 4 PhD and 2 MSc students will be trained and institutional research capacity build at the Tanzanian institutions with emphasis at SUA. The anticipated longterm impact of the project is increased employment opportunities and incomes, and improved livelihoods of the green resources-dependent communities as well as contribution to competitive economic growth of the country.

Outputs

Midterm report
Five PhD students icluding one female are recruted in the project. Zaituni Msengwa (female), Frank Rwegoshora, David Credo, Christopher Mwankuna and Eziacka Mpelangwa are writting their thesis and manuscripts, and ambitious to complete their study by end 2022. All PhDs had study stays in Denmark twice for sample analysis, training courses and writting.Two female MSc. students (Anna and Mary) have submitted their thesis for examination and are waiting for Viva. Each student is supervised by both a North and South collaborator and the publications are jointly.
Joint activities:
i. Joint field work among student were done whenever needed, common wrtiters workshop conducted, exchange of samples and information to enable workpackage activities were done. Regular Research meetings conducted by the Principlal investigator has strengthedn linkage between student and supervisors
ii. Installation of an analytical instrument (LC-MS/MS) fitted with a strong power backup was done in 2020. The equipment is runing and at Least 500 samples has beed analysed leading to publications.Major service for the instrument done.
iii. Technical LC-MSMS training to technical staff from different institution related to GRPS regulation or quality assurence has been done to build technical capacity as well as colloboration among technical staff who handle analytical equipments in Tanzania. The trainning was done at SUA in collaboration expert team from the department of Pharmacy, Copenhagen Univerisity.

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