Agriculture, Kasyanju explained to her countrymen, is the mainstay of the Dutch economy, adding that the Dutch are heavily involved in advanced and highly mechanised potato, dairy, poultry and horticultural farming.
Kasyanju said the seriousness of the Dutch and their devotion to work had turned this small nation into one of the world's economic heavyweights.
The Netherlands is a small country with 41,543 square kilometres and a population of 17.02 million; Tanzania is 22 times bigger. Yet the Netherlands is the world's second biggest exporter of agricultural products after the US, she explained.
Although there has a been continuous decline in potato production in most European countries, with a highly mechanised agriculture, the Netherlands devotes almost 25 percent of its agricultural land to potato production and the Dutch have broken the world's potato yield record of more than 45 tons per hectare.
The Netherlands leads in the sales of approved potato seed in the world and sells about 1,000,000 tons a year because, she said, it has more than 500 approved varieties of Irish potatoes.
The Netherlands has sold seven potato varieties to Tanzania, so now the African nation has a total of 11 varieties so far. According to Kasyanju, a number of Dutch companies have shown interest in potato production in the country and they are the kind of companies with expertise and capability in processing and marketing the produce.
Thecitizen.co.tz reports how Tanzania and the Netherlands have also agreed to establish a Centre for Development of the Potato Industry in Tanzania (CD-PIT) in Uyole area in the environs of Mbeya City.
