NAIVASHA, Kenya, 27 October 2026 — Tanzania’s potato farmers will keep working hard and going nowhere unless they abandon old habits for certified seed and expert advice. That was the message from a Potato Council of Tanzania (PCT) board member on the second day of the 13th World Potato Congress.

Mr Luvanda, a potato farmer from Mbeya in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor, spoke to Kilimokwanza on the sidelines of the congress. It runs from 26 to 30 October 2026 at Sawela Lodge, Naivasha, and is the first World Potato Congress held in Sub-Saharan Africa. The National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK) and FreshCrop Ltd are hosting it.

He said he came to learn. What he found, he said, was proof of how far other potato farmers have travelled — and how far Tanzanians still have to go.

Certified seed, not old habits

Mr Luvanda said the biggest lesson was about seed. Many Tanzanian growers replant tubers from previous harvests rather than buying seed produced and certified by researchers.

“We farmers in Tanzania, myself included, have just been farming out of habit,” he said. “We work, but we stay in the same place. We do not move forward.”

“We keep reusing the same seed that has never been certified. We use local seed,” he added. “Now we must change, and use the seed that the experts produce.”

He also urged farmers to rely on extension officers rather than on one another. “We ask each other for advice and think we are doing well, when in fact we are getting it wrong.”

The stakes are high in his home region. Iringa, Njombe and Mbeya account for 70–80% of Tanzania’s potato production. 

“Where the money is”

Asked what he would tell Tanzanians about the size of the global potato trade, Mr Luvanda compared the crop with maize, the country’s staple.

“The potato business is where the money can be found,” he said. “You cannot compare someone who grows maize with someone who grows potatoes. The difference will be big.”

He did not give income figures, and his comparison of how many seasons each crop allows a year was not clear on the recording.

A wake-up call for young farmers

The congress drew young delegates from Canada and elsewhere who have chosen potato farming. Mr Luvanda said Tanzania’s youth are already in the crop, but are held back by the same seed problem.

“At home in Tanzania, young people really are engaged in potato farming, but they do not use seed prepared by researchers,” he said. “Young people must wake up, so that we can do better.”

Chips mayai on the world stage

Chips mayai — chips cooked into an egg omelette — is widely regarded as a Tanzanian street dish. Recipes and videos of it now circulate on social media in Canada, the United States and beyond.

Mr Luvanda said the congress could be the moment Tanzania claims that brand. “Tanzania must now wake up so that this chips mayai brand can succeed, and so that we take chips mayai to the whole world,” he said.

Taking the lessons home

Mr Luvanda said he would carry what he saw in Naivasha back to growers in Mbeya. He described the congress as a gathering of farmers from almost every part of the world, come together to share guidance on what to do next.

“I have learnt great things, and when I return we must put them to work and change,” he said. “Let us not carry on out of habit, as we have always done.”