Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute

Academic qualifications, work and experiences.

Dr. Catherine Gwandu a plant breeder specialist and currently is a head of plant breeding section at TARI-Kibaha. She has more than 10 years’ experience in agricultural research.

Dr. Catherine Gwandu holds a BSc in Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, MSc in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from Sokoine University of Agricultural Morogoro, Tanzania and PhD in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Professionally, Dr. Gwandu has been involved in sweet potato, cassava and sugarcane projects particularly on diagnostic of sweet potato and cassava virus diseases diagnostics, breeding for whitefly resistance on cassava genotypes, studies of pest’s population dynamics on crops and development and evaluation of sugarcane varieties for improving sugarcane productivity in Tanzania.

To date Dr. Gwandu has total of 7 papers in peer review journals. Among her main research goals at TARI-Kibaha is to conduct and coordinate demand driven research in order to give solution to farmers and to improve production and productivity.