Cassava Archives | Page 26 of 29

Tanzanian Minister for Agriculture Maghembe touring the product exhibition at the IITA-organized Cassava Week in Dar es Salaam. Behind him is Victor Manyong, IITA R4D Director for East and Central Africa.

Cassava stakeholders in Tanzania called on the country’s top leadership to champion the crop to transform the country’s agricultural sector and catalyze its economic development. They emphasized that the crop, if well exploited under a national cassava development platform, can help fight poverty and hunger in the country. They appealed to Tanzania’s highest office to commit to and support this initiative.

They observed that the direct involvement of the presidents of other countries such as in Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia in cassava development initiatives had played a big role in their successes and wished to see the same in Tanzania under the guidance of the current president, H.E. (Dr) Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. Cassava sector stakeholders aired this appeal at the conclusion of the first-ever Cassava Week in Tanzania, held on 12-16 September in Dar es Salaam.

Echoing their sentiments, Hartmann, Director General of IITA, in a speech read on his behalf by Victor Manyong, R4D Director for East and Central Africa, at the launch of the Cassava Week said that agriculture offered the country great opportunities for economic development and cassava was one crop that can play a key role in transforming the sector.

He added that it is important to increase the country’s technological capabilities to acquire, adapt, and apply modern agricultural sciences, and invest in developing the skills of Tanzanian youths to develop and run successful agribusiness. He said that the country did not lack investors; rather, it lacked skilled graduates to operate commercial agribusinesses.

Following up on the IITA DG’s lead, Hon Prof Jumanne Maghembe, Tanzania’s Minister for Agriculture, Food Security, and Cooperatives, the event’s guest of honor, noted that cassava was not only a hardy food crop that grows in almost all agro-ecological zones but can also significantly contribute to poverty reduction and foster rural development through its diverse uses. In Tanzania, cassava is the second most important source of energy after maize, comprising about 19% of the country’s food basket.

However, he said the country’s current average yield of 6 t/ha of fresh weight, compared to the potential of 30 t/ha, needed to be addressed on top of value addition and marketing. He commended the efforts by cassava sector partners to tackle issues such as breeding improved varieties, seed multiplication, and value addition. He especially cited related work by IITA, his ministry, FAO, Concern Worldwide, Africare, and universities, among others.

But more needs to be done on the marketing side, the Minister emphasized.

“We must build local capacity to efficiently, profitably, and sustainably satisfy new market dem ands with quality cassava products. This should go h and in h and with serious investments to increase processing and to create a wide range of diversified cassava products, promoting local industrial utilization of cassava products, promoting export, creating market linkage, and developing technologies that will ensure all-year round production,” he said.

He congratulated IITA and local partners for organizing the event.

Themed “Food & Wealth for All”, the Cassava Week aimed to showcase the importance and economic potential of cassava as food, industrial, and export crop in Tanzania. The event attracted farmers, NGOs, policy makers, donors, and end-users. Activities included media briefing, field trip to show participants the wide range of activities being undertaken to develop the cassava value chain, and a three-day exhibition at Karimjee Hall and grounds in Dar es Salaam.

H.E. Dr Ishaya Majanbu, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Tanzania, presented a paper on Nigeria’s experience of its presidential initiative on cassava during an open forum in which participants discussed ways to move Tanzania’s cassava sector forward. The document presented by Majanbu was prepared by Oluwotoyin Adetunji, Special Assistant on Food Security to former Nigerian President Obasanjo.

A one-day training seminar on cassava production, processing, value addition, and marketing was also conducted for over a hundred farmers and processors from across Tanzania, while cooking demonstrations were also held for the general public.

Biological control programs by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and partners on cassava green mite have brought benefits worth more than $1.7 billion to Nigeria, Benin, and Ghana in the last 18 years.

Dr. Ousmane Coulibaly, IITA Agricultural Economist describes the figure as ‘a conservative estimate.”

“The figure represents the amount those countries would have spent over the years on other methods such as chemical control and or yield losses if they never adopted biological control,” says Coulibaly during a seminar in Ibadan.

The cassava green mite is a pest that was responsible for between 30 and 50 percent yield loss of cassava in Africa, until a natural enemy of the pest helped contain the devastation. In 1993, scientists from IITA and partners identified, Typhlodromalus aripo, as one of the most efficient enemies against cassava green mite, and the introduction of T.ariporeduced pest populations by as much as 90 percent in the dry season when pest populations are usually high; in the wet season, pest attacks are not as severe.

T.aripo was first released on cassava farms in Benin after it had been transported from Brazil and, subsequently, in 11 countries and is now confirmed as established in all of them, except Zambia. T. aripo has also spread into Togo and Côte d’Ivoire from neighboring countries. It spread at about 12 km in the first year, and as much as 200 km in the second year. Today, the cassava green mite predator has been established on more than 400,000 square kilometers of Africa’s cassava growing areas. Scientists say the control of the pest through the application of toxic chemicals was ruled out because of possible adverse effects of chemicals on illiterate farmers and the environment. Also, disease pathogens and pests tend to gradually develop resistance to chemical pesticides over time. Moreover, most chemical pesticides are not selective and might destroy the natural enemies and the pests together.

Coulibaly notes that since the release of T. aripo, benefits in Nigeria have been estimated at $1.367 billion, followed by Ghana $305 million, and Benin $54 million. Consumed by more than 200 million people in sub Saharan Africa, cassava is a staple food that is rich in calories, highly drought tolerant, thriving in poor soils and easy to store in the ground.

END

For more information, please contact:

Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (East & Southern Africa)

Jeffrey T. Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (International)

IITA – Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria

About IITA
IITA is an international non-profit R4D organization established in 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award winning research for development (R4D) is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of tropical countries.

In late 2009, the World Bank reported that the number of the world’s hungry has jumped the one billion mark. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network says that in Africa alone over 20 million people are at high risk from acute food shortages, with millions more following suit. To mitigate this, agricultural scientists are scrambling to improve food security in a sustainable way and at an unprecedented scale, with researchers looking at a four-point strategy to help Africa weather this storm. Lessons learned here could help the rest of the world cope with such challenges.

This four-pronged strategy include the promotion on ‘non-tradable’ commodities, better integration of markets, closing the gap between actual and potential yields, and diversification of rural economies. This strategy was born out of the recognition of the changing global environment in which international agricultural research centers operate. Unlike the situation in the early 1970’s, current research thrusts have moved beyond just keeping the Malthusian spectre of food scarcity at bay.

Non-tradable commodities are goods or services which are not usually traded outside of a country and whose prices are mainly dictated by domestic supply and dem and. They are, therefore, largely immune from variations in exchange rates or world market trends. In Sub-Saharan Africa, governments should promote the utilization of non-tradable crops such as cassava, sorghum, millet, yam, cocoyam, banana and plantain, cowpea and bambara nut as substitutes to corn and rice, which are prone to global price fluctuations. These could be supplemented by small livestock such as goats and sheep to supply the required nutriments to families in poor communities.

Markets at the local, national, and regional levels in Africa should be better integrated to complement each other. It is amazing to see massive food aid to some parts of the continent to shore-up the lack of food, while in other parts there are production gluts. Northern African countries, for example, have a shortage of animal feed, while those in the sub-Saharan region produce enough cassava to more than satisfy such feed markets. Market integration entails massive political will and investments. Basic infrastructure such as farm-to-market roads and transportation facilities need to be established, while at higher levels, policies supportive of integration need to be formulated and implemented.

In Africa, a big gap still exists between the actual and achievable yields of major food crops. In Nigeria, for example, actual production of rice, maize and cassava are currently at 3.0, 2.8 and 12.0 t/ha, respectively, far below their potential yields of 5.0, 7.0 and 45.0 t/ha. Just by closing the yield gap, food production can easily double or triple.

Already, international agricultural research centres operating in Africa such as Africa Rice, IRRI, IITA, and CIMMYT are pitching in. IITA with its partners, for example, have developed and disseminated better yielding cassava varieties to farmers in Mozambique and Nigeria, which are also resistant to the cassava brown streak disease. At the same time, we are also applying molecular-based approaches to make African bananas resistant to the deadly Banana Xanthomonas Wilt. Africa Rice and IRRI are deploying high-yielding drought-tolerant rice varieties across the continent, while CIMMYT is doing the same with drought-tolerant maize.

Addressing the food challenges in Africa must take into account regional differences. In southern Africa, political and agricultural policies in the past concentrated on the production of only one prime commodity. This made the region vulnerable to natural shocks. For example, the productivity of cereals in this part of the continent substantially drops during droughts or floods. Diversification into a ‘food basket’ strategy would be appropriate in such a situation and should be pursued aggressively.

The research agenda of research centers has also exp anded to include the three goals of agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, and a more explicit focus on poverty reduction that recognizes the dynamic and multidimensional nature of livelihoods of poor people.

For example, scientists now not only emphasize on just producing more pest/disease resistant crops and higher-yielding varieties but also on innovative extension techniques, the creation of input markets and delivery systems, and the strengthening and diversification of output markets.

International agricultural research centers are research for development organisations, but what is research withoutdevelopment? Research-for-development emphasises on the pursuit of a policy of advocacy after research is completed and then exiting to let development specialists bring the fruits of research to the ground where they find practical application.

As centers of excellence, a paradigm shift is needed from being supply-led to becoming more proactive and responsive, and one in which public/private partnerships and client orientation are core principles.

This shift would entail a drastic change in the role of agricultural researchers from just being “the science guys”. They must now also become partners, teachers, students, advocates, development workers, and communicators all rolled into one. Their work then must have an envisioned impact that leads to concrete and practical outcomes that are useful to target beneficiaries and end-users.

These strategies are not overnight solutions: they will take time, commitment, and money. Their potential to address hunger and food insecurity is enormous if the support is there. However, at a time when the world needs them the most, many traditional donors are downsizing their investments in agricultural research, which does not bode well to hungry people in Africa or anywhere else for that matter. But that is a different issue altogether.

###

For more information, please contact:

Jeffrey Oliver, J.oliver@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Manager

Godwin Atser, G.Atser@cgiar.org
Regional Corporate Communications Officer (West & Central Africa)

Catherine Njuguna, c.njuguna@cgiar.org
Regional Corporate Communications Officer (East & Southern Africa)

Communication Office
IITA – Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria
URL: www.iita.org

About IITA
Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and people’s lives. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award winning research for development (R4D) is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is an international non-profit R4D organization since 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR.

Cassava value addition in Africa has offered women farmers another income stream, improving livelihoods and food security, and making them smile, thanks to the United States Agency for International Development-funded project tagged Unleashing the Power of Cassava (UPoCA).

Implemented in seven African countries—Nigeria, DR Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone—by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, the project has benefited thous ands of farmers in these countries.

Today, the Tongea Women farmers in S andeyalu community are filled with joy. Located 486 km from Freetown, Sierra Leone, S andeyalu was once overrun by rebels in 1991. The entire population of nearly 4,000 people took refuge in camps in Kenema where they lived for over 10 years as internally displaced persons (IDPs) until the war was declared over in 2002.

Interactions in the camp brought the S andeyalu people together to form a formidable association called ‘Tongea women’s development association’ comprising of 54 women and four men. It was named after one of the three mountain peaks overlooking their home township called Tongea.

The group initially raised funds through “coping mechanisms,” such as cutting and selling firewood and soap making as IDPs in Kenema.

With the advent of the IITA-UPoCA project and subsequent inauguration of a microprocessing center (MPC), cassava is now an added financial window of opportunity to farmers. Incomes from USAID projects such as UPoCA have helped the people of S andeyalu in rebuilding their community.

Marie Borbor, a member of the Tongea women’s development association, described the IITA-UPoCA intervention and the microprocessing center as a “living bank” in S andeyalu community.

“Now we can fulfill our financial obligations to educate our children and improve our livelihoods. We will do all within our power to sustain the MPC as a viable asset. Long live the American people,” she said.

Another member of the group, Mariama Koi-Braima, Secretary General of the group, said, “We have come a long way to where we are today. The journey has not been easy most times but we have determined to stay together. H anding over this MPC to our group is going to reinforce cohesion among our members as it has demonstrated that worthy ambitions can be achieved through unity for a common good.”

The United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Michael S. Owen, described the transformation at S andeyalu and the resilience of the Tongea Women as “wonderful.”

“We are very happy to partner with you in all you have accomplished in these years. We are very happy to be your partner. Not too many years ago, this town was in ruins but, now, look at what you have accomplished. We are very proud to work with you,” Owen said while h anding over the keys of the IITA-UPoCA-built cassava microprocessing center to the Tongea women farmers.

Since 2009, IITA-UPoCA scientists have backstopped the Tongea women farmers, opening up more than five hectares of their l and for cassava cultivation and distributing over 2,500 bundles of improved cassava varieties to more than 500 cassava farmers.

Braima James, Program Manager, IITA-UPoCA, explained that in March this year, 60 women and 8 men received h ands-on training in cassava processing, product development, and packaging in S andeyalu town.

According to James, this was the most exciting capacity building exercise they had experienced as a group and that the outcome was almost spontaneous.

“From their market facility built for the township, the group immediately put their training into practice the following day. They produced their own home-made gari which was put on the market at the next periodic market day,” he said.

By this action, the Tongea women had a commercial taste of income from processed cassava roots. But cassava processing in the community market facility carried with it some problems, such as contamination of cassava products by goat and sheep droppings. This prompted the group to start a cassava processing center.

The farmers provided l and, unskilled labor, local materials such as timber, bush poles, and mud blocks. This encouraged the IITA-UPoCA to contribute to the project and had the processing center built within three months. Today, farmers in Tongea are happy with their fortunes gradually being turned around for the better.

The success story of IITA-UPoCA is not limited to Sierra Leone alone. It transcends and cuts across other countries such as Nigeria, DR Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania where the project is being implemented.

In Malawi, the project, among other activities revived a moribund starch factory—the first in that country. Besides, thous ands of farmers benefited from improved cassava cuttings, training, and capacity building for processors.

The situation in Nigeria was no different as the project linked up processors to farmers for steady production/supply of cassava roots, provided improved cuttings, training and also helped build the capacities of farmers and processors. The scenario played up the same in the other countries.

Consequently, apart from boosting the productivity of cassava in the project areas and maximizing the utilization of the root crop; the project is also promoting food security and improving the incomes of women farmers and processors in particular, and African farmers in general.

As the project winds down in few months, stakeholders are calling on partners and governments to scale up the cassava value chain model to other communities.

“For a country like Sierra Leone which still has deep scars from the civil war, more of such projects are needed to rehabilitate the people and fight poverty,” said Alfred Dixon, Director-General, Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute.

For more information, please contact:

Braima James, B.James@cgiar.org
Program Manager, IITA-UPoCA

Godwin Atser, G.Atser@cgiar.org
Communication Officer (West & Central Africa)

Jeffrey Oliver, J.oliver@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (International)

Communication Office
IITA – Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria

IITA – Headquarters

Ibadan, Nigeria

URL: www.iita.org

Frequent warnings about approaching agricultural epidemics must be balanced with the solid advances made in producing hardier and higher-yielding varieties of Africa’s staple crops. We round up the latest discoveries.

Headlines promising disaster are commonplace in the agricultural press about Africa. ‘Africa threatened by evolving, deadly wheat pathogen.’ ‘Banana blight puts livelihoods at risk.’ ‘Virus ravages cassava plants in Africa.’ There is plenty of work for the men in white coats as new threats promise to wipe out cassava or banana crops in the next epidemic to mirror the potato famine. However, this year, scientists have made substantial progress on protecting and improving Africa’s main staples: bananas, cassava, maize and rice.

The discovery of new and more robust crop varieties are becoming an ever more regular occurrence. In 2010, there seems to be more good news than bad. In late August, UK scientists announced that they had decoded the wheat genome, which is more complex than the human one. This will allow researchers to develop higher-yielding and disease resistant variants.

Also in late August, the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Initiative, operated by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), announced that the dissemination of 50 new varieties of maize could lead to a production revolution. If the new drought-resistant strains were delivered to 13 leading African maize producers, the researchers estimate that it would boost production by about one third and provide additional food and income worth more than $500m. Access to new seeds and technology are the main barriers to a revolution of this sort. That means more funds are needed and attention devoted to training, information-sharing and access to credit for smallholder farmers.

Better bananas

Scientists have also made advances in protecting Africa’s banana harvests. Banana xanthomonas wilt (BXW) was first identified in Ethiopia in the 1970s and since 2001 has spread to all of the countries between Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. The IITA announced an important breakthrough in August when its scientists were able to transfer green pepper genes into banana plants, leading to resistance to BXW-causing bacteria. Field tests are now being rolled out in Ug anda in collaboration with National Agricultural Research Organisation and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation.

Crafting cassava varieties

The fight against brown streak disease in East African cassava is worrying researchers anew after recent advances in fighting the most dominant plague to cassava plants, mosaic disease. International agriculture experts estimate that the two diseases routinely ruin $1bn in African cassava crops each year.

But the threats to African agriculture help to create working partnerships across the globe. Cassava is the third most important source of calories across the globe, following rice and wheat, and scientists and donors are focusing more time and attention on its protection and improvement.

Poorer farmers are also the least able to protect their crops. Research is needed for both hardier varieties and higher-yielding seeds. A major constraint holding back agricultural development in Africa is low yields. Agriculture in Asia and Latin America was revolutionised between 1960 and 2000 when new varieties were introduced and food production tripled. Average maize yields per hectare in Angola and Mozambique are less than 1tn/ha, whereas irrigated maize production in Egypt yields an average of more than 6tn/ha.

Long-term planning

Agricultural research is a long-term process which requires steady financing in order to help stop today’s threats from becoming tomorrow’s famine. Traditional breeding methods typically take about ten years to develop.

Brown streak disease in cassava has been on the research radar since the mid-1990s, when the UK’s Natural Resources Institute identified it as the most devastating cassava disease in coastal regions of Tanzania and Mozambique. While worries increased this year as the disease spread from low-lying coastal areas to other parts of Tanzania and Ug anda, IITA scientists pointed out that several high-yielding and tolerant crops had been piloted and rolled out by international partners in Zanzibar since 2007. What remains it a problem of funding and capacity: even with Zanzibar’s small population, supply for tolerant crops cannot keep up with dem and. Institutions across the globe are working on the fight against diseases like brown steak, but despite its importance to international food security, cassava research is poorly financed.

Concerns about food security and adverse weather are driving innovation, but players in Africa’s budding biofuels industry also watch developments related to cassava, especially in Nigeria. Ekiti State, Nigeria is taking the lead in cassava ethanol projects and farmers in the region are keen to increase yields. Although some members of the development community would like food security to be pursued for food security’s sake, research on new crop varieties very often comes from cooperation between research institutions, donors and big agricultural companies.

In Thail and, the world’s largest cassava producer, international agricultural institutions across three continents have come together to find a solution to the problem caused by the cassava mealybug. Thail and’s Agriculture Ministry worked on a solution with the IITA office in Benin and Colombia’s Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). Rather then spray harmful pesticides across vast swathes of the country, the Thai scientists and their partners decided in July that using wasps, the mealybug’s natural predators, was the least intrusive intervention.

To modify or not?

The main fault-line in the debate over agriculture research is the issue of genetic modification (GM). International GM initiatives like BioCassava Plus, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are seeking to make traditional crops longer-lasting and more nutritious. Other institutions are investing in alternative means to improve harvests. Along with its work in Zanzibar and Thail and, the IITA is working through more traditional means to boost crop resistance and collect samples of indigenous crop varieties to provide a bigger pool for future breeding programmes.

Ug anda’s Plant Genetic Resources Centre supports GM research and is working on creating new varieties of rice which will take the best characteristics of hardy indigenous varieties. This is worrying policymakers in the East African Community because the regional grouping does not have a common policy on GM produce.

Wider partnerships among research institutions and sustained drives to eradicate crop diseases are the most reliable means to improve crop yields and treat diseases which undermine economic livelihoods and food security. The most recent advances in creating robust and high-yielding varieties of banana, cassava, maize and rice show that African farmers can be better armed to fight natural threats, so long as the technological advances are met with improvements in access to information, finance and improved seeds.

– From the The Africa Report http://www.theafricareport.com/archives2/business/3295629-scientists-bring-hope-of-better-bountiful-crops-.html

In the start of a carefully crafted emergency campaign to thwart a pest outbreak that is wreaking havoc on Thail and’s vital cassava production, agricultural researchers will release a quarter of a million parasitic wasps in the northeastern part of the country.

Thail and’s cassava industry alone accounts for more than 60 percent of global exports of this tropical root crop, which is critical for food security and economic growth in many developing countries. About 5 million growers across Southeast Asia supply cassava to domestic and foreign processing industries, which convert the roots to animal feed and biofuels and also extract starch from them for use in a wide variety of food and other products.

Thail and’s Department of Agriculture is expected to officially start the release of Anagyrus lopezi (the wasp’s scientific name) as a form of biological control in the country’s northeastern province of Khon Kaen on Saturday (17 July), following two small scale releases to evaluate environmental impact.

“Cassava is an important crop for small-scale farmers in our country, so there’s no time to lose in applying the fastest, most reliable solution available, said Amporn Winotai, who is a senior entomologist for Thail and’s Department of Agriculture.

“Cassava is a crucial crop in Thail and, generating more than US$1 billion of income for farmers each year, and more again to industry,” said Tin Maung Aye, a cassava agronomist with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT by its Spanish acronym). “Reductions of that magnitude translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses, especially if the pest is allowed to spread further.”

The pest is the cassava mealybug, known to scientists as Phenacoccus manihoti. Originally from South America, it feeds only on cassava, sucking sap from the plants and causing them to shrivel. Also a South American native, cassava was carried by Portuguese traders to Africa and Asia, where it thrived in the absence of the insect pests that inhabit its home territory.

But eventually, the mealybug and others caught up with cassava, devastating crops first in sub-Saharan Africa and now in Southeast Asia. The spread of cassava mealybug to about 200,000 hectares has been confirmed in eastern and northeastern Thail and, where the pest is causing yield losses as high as 50 percent. Since the country’s cassava industry generates more than US$1.5 billion of income each year— and the overall Thai cassava industry is worth US$ 3bn—reductions of that magnitude could translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses, especially if the pest is allowed to spread further.

In mounting the emergency campaign, Thai scientists consulted with two organizations – the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) branch in Benin and the Colombia-based CIAT, Both centers are supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

IITA, CIAT and various partner organizations curbed mealybug attacks on Africa’s cassava crop during the 1980s through a highly successful biocontrol campaign, which staved off a major food security catastrophe, according to IITA entomologist Georg Goergen, who h and-carried a colony of the 500 wasps from Benin to Bangkok last year to start the testing and mass rearing.

Identifying the cassava mealybug species in Thail and was at first complicated, the Thai Department of Agriculture’s Winotai said, by its resemblance to another closely related mealybug species, P. madeirensis, which is probably also from South America but poses no threat to cassava.

Within a year after confirming the presence of the cassava mealybug, P. manihoti, the Thai Department of Agriculture had arranged for importation of the pest’s most effective natural enemy, following strict quarantine procedures, and then carried out controlled testing and mass multiplication ready for a possible release.

Early on, researchers discarded the option of containing the mealybug in Thail and with pesticides. “Applying chemicals on such a large scale would be environmental v andalism,” said Tony Bellotti, a CIAT entomologist, who has spent 35 years investigating cassava pests. “Sending in the wasps is a proven way to kill the cassava mealybugs quickly and effectively. Think of them as a kind of eco-friendly SWAT team.”

Measuring less than 2 millimeters in length, the A. lopezi wasp has already shown itself to be a formidable natural enemy of the cassava mealybug in South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Even when infestations are low, female wasps are able to detect and home-in on their prey, injecting their eggs into the mealybugs. The pest population is then gradually reduced, as the wasp larvae grow and as adult females feed on the host insect. The wasps pose no threat to humans, animals, or other insects.

The wasp proved so effective in sub-Saharan Africa that Hans Herren, the scientist who led the biocontrol effort there, was awarded the World Food Prize in 1995. The collaborative effort also earned IITA and CIAT the CGIAR’s 1990 King Baudouin Award, which recognizes outst anding contributions to developing country agriculture. The economic benefits resulting from biocontrol of the cassava mealybug in Africa exceeded the cost of the research by a factor of at least 200.

CIAT scientists are investigating reports that that the cassava mealybug has already spread to Cambodia, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. Bellotti expects that it will soon reach other parts of Southeast Asia as well, including southern China, and eventually to Indonesia and the Philippines.

“It’s going to be an international game of cat- and-mouse,” he said. “As the cassava mealybug finds its way to new countries and regions, we can send in the wasps.” In the long term, Bellotti explained, scientists will also need to develop cassava crops with genetic resistance to mealybugs as part of integrated pest management strategies. To be most effective, biocontrol must be combined with more resilient cassava varieties and better crop management.

“Cassava production in Southeast Asia has enjoyed an extended honeymoon, relatively free of major pest and disease outbreaks,” Bellotti continued. “But now it’s over. And the mealybug isn’t the only cassava pest out there. Mites and whiteflies, for example, are also extremely damaging and there are some worrying diseases as well.”

“Thail and’s rapid response to stop the cassava mealybug plague shows international agricultural research at its best,” said Ruben Echeverria, director general of CIAT. “This is why it’s so important for developing countries to have strong research programs working closely with the international centers like CIAT and IITA.”

###

For more information, please contact:

Jeffrey Oliver, IITA, at o.jeffrey@cgiar.org

Michelle Geis, Burness Communications, at +301-280-5712 or mgeis@burnesscommunications.com

Neil Palmer, CIAT, at +57 2 445 0000 or n.palmer@cgiar.org

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a nonprofit research-for-development organization that works with partners in Africa and beyond to tackle hunger and poverty by reducing producer and consumer risks, enhancing crop quality and productivity, and generating wealth from agriculture. www.iita.org

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts socially and environmentally progressive research aimed at reducing hunger and poverty and preserving natural resources in developing countries. www.ciat.cgiar.org

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), established in 1971, is a strategic partnership of countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations supporting the work of an alliance of 15 international Centers. In collaboration with national agricultural research systems, civil society and the private sector, the CGIAR fosters sustainable agricultural growth through high-quality science aimed at benefiting the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources. www.cgiar.org

The article by Donald G. McNeil, Jr. published in the New York Times last month on a disease wreaking havoc on cassava – an important staple in sub-Saharan Africa – was timely, highlighting the unique challenges posed by this not-so-new disease in the continent.

Infected Cassava root — Root of a cassava plant infected by Cassava Brown Streak disease. Photo by IITA.

Known as the Cassava Brown Streak disease, it threatens the food security and livelihoods of over 200 million people. It emerged at a time when the region was just recovering from battling another deadly disease, the Cassava Mosaic Disease.

These two diseases afflict the crop that provides more than 50 percent of the dietary calories of the majority of the population in sub-Saharan Africa, and pose the greatest threat to food security in the region. Combined, they cost Africa more than US$ 1 billion in damages every year. Unfortunately, small-scale farmers and poor consumers bear the brunt of these losses.

Although Brown Streak disease had been known in East Africa for many years, it had always been confined to lowl and coastal areas. The new outbreak has spread rapidly to the relatively high altitude regions (over 3000 feet above sea level) of Ug anda, Kenya, and Tanzania around the shores of Lake Victoria. Worse still, cassava in this region appears to be susceptible.

Brown streak causes greater economic damages than the mosaic disease as it destroys the roots – the more valuable part of the crop. Further, its symptoms are not always evident and reveal themselves only at harvest.

For many years, little attention has been paid to this ‘silent time bomb’, distracted perhaps by the more pressing concerns of the mosaic disease. However, a small but significant research effort was underway on the isl and of Zanzibar.

Almost three-quarters of the population of Zanzibar rely on agriculture for food and income, with cassava being the second most important staple after rice. With over 90 percent of the isl and’s subsistence farmers growing cassava, concerned authorities swung into action.

IITA-developed cassava mosaic virus-resistant variety (left) and susceptible local variety (right). Photo by IITA.

Zanzibar scientists and the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and other partners, bred new cassava varieties to combat the brown streak menace. In 2007, they released four tolerant varieties farmers across the country.

Aside from being tolerant to the disease, the new varieties yield twice as much as the local varieties while satisfying other local preferences such as taste and cooking texture.

Although the varieties are not totally immune to the disease, their roots remain intact. Farmers can confidently plant them and expect a hearty and pristine harvest. The new varieties have been welcomed by the farmers; and three years later, the isl and’s cassava production is stronger than ever.

The more immediate challenge is to get enough planting materials to meet the dem and. Currently, only 10,000 cassava farmers out of the close to a million on the isl and alone are growing the improved varieties. The country’s government,

IITA, and several development partners and donors such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa have been engaged in intensive efforts to rapidly multiply these varieties to ensure they are available to as many farmers in the shortest possible time.

Efforts are also underway to replicate the Zanzibar success in the neighboring countries and in the mid-altitude zones of Tanzania. Working with national partners, more than 15 varieties have been identified in Ug anda and Tanzania that show acceptable tolerance levels even under the harshest disease pressure conditions. They are expected to be released in a year or two after further testing.

Most importantly, farmers will need to evaluate these new varieties under actual field conditions for resistance to both diseases, as well as for utilization characteristics. The best of these varieties will be used in further disease-resistance breeding programmes in other countries such as Burundi, Rw anda, Kenya, and DR Congo.

To accelerate the crop improvement process, the scientists are using some true and tested old but efficient tools, such as molecular marker-assisted breeding. Traditional breeding takes 8-12 years to come up with improved varieties, a luxury of time that affected farmers cannot afford.

Though much remains to be done, Zanzibar’s success has been inspiring. If replicated, this could provide the key to a brighter future for all cassava producers in Africa and, by extension, bring greater economic prosperity to the region.

###

For more information, please contact:

Catherine Njuguna, c.njuguna@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (East and Southern Africa)
IITA-Tanzania

Jeffrey T. Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (International)
Communication Office
IITA – Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria

About IITA (www.iita.org)
Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and people’s lives. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award winning research for development (R4D) is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is an international non-profit R4D organization established in 1967, governed by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has lauded IITA for effectively implementing the Cassava Value Chain Development project in West Africa.

The project, funded by the Common Fund for Commodities and implemented by IITA and partners, seeks to contribute to sustainable improvements in welfare and livelihood of farmers and processors in the cassava sector, at the same time enhancing food security particularly in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Republic of Benin.

The FAO Supervisory Body (FAO-SB) led by Adams Prakash expressed satisfaction with the progress of the implementation of the project’s components, especially the on-time commissioning of the processing centers given the logistical and communication constraints in the region.

He also commended Lateef Sanni, IITA-CFC Project Leader, and his team for effectively coordinating the project.

Contained in a 20-page report, Prakash said staff of IITA and the national implementing partners should be cited for their hard work and dedication towards realizing the project’s goals.

Also of interest to the FAO-SB was the continued relevance and potential impact of the project in alleviating rural poverty through sustainable market-led initiatives.

The FAO-SB report also gave kudos to the provision of opportunities for farmers and villagers to participate in value chains to improve livelihoods.

The report was based on an FAO-SB monitoring mission carried out from 4 to 10 February 2010. The exercise involved field visits to the project sites in Sierra Leone and two of the three sites in Nigeria.

In Sierra Leone, the monitoring team visited the sites in Bo, Moyamba, Bombali, Port Loko, and Western Rural districts; while in Nigeria, the team inspected the sites in Kuje, Abuja, and Joe Beg Bajju in Nassarawa State.

During the field visits, members of the FAO-SB also held discussions with project stakeholders, beneficiaries, and IITA and local implementing partner representatives in the two countries.

The FAO-SB, in a statement, remarked that “It is imperative that the PEA, along with the beneficiaries and public entities, ensure that the opportunity offered by the project is fully embraced”.

###

For more information, please contact:

Prof. Lateef Sanni, l.sanni@cgiar.org
Project Coordinator
IITA Cassava Value Chain Development

Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (West Africa)

Jeffrey T Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (International)
Communication Office
IITA – Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria

URL: www.iita.org

False notions about cassava in many African countries prevent the realization of the crop’s full potential in poverty reduction, food security, and industry. Some of these beliefs and perceptions, which have been ingrained in the culture of many African farmers for so long, need to be addressed and changed if growers and the sector are to progress.

Myth #1: Cassava is a poor man’s crop.

Farmers weeding a cassava field. Cassava does need some labor-intensive maintenance if it is to be productive. Photo by JT Oliver, IITA.

This is one of the most prevalent, albeit false, notions about cassava. According to Anneke Fermont, an IITA researcher based in Ug anda, “our research in eastern and central Ug anda and western Kenya showed that cassava is grown, consumed and marketed by both well-to-do and poor farmers alike”

Cassava is an important food security crop that provides about a third of the starchy staple food consumed in many African countries. It is also an important cash crop, generating nearly as much income as the higher-valued maize.

Myth #2: Cassava does not require much labor.

Contrary to popular belief, growing cassava does require a degree of labor especialy in field maintenance. IITA’s research shows that, for example, cassava’s labor requirements for weeding are much higher than for most other food crops. It is only that many farmers tend to weed their cereal and legumes first and cassava last.

“The crop will therefore develop slower and is not able to compete with the weeds.” explains Anneke Fermont “This forces farmers to weed their cassava fields as many as five times”.

Myth #2: Since cassava could grow on poor soils, it does not need fertilizer.

This is untrue, Anneke says. This myth stems from the fact that cassava is a hardy crop that could survive in poor soils and still give a decent yield.

However, she explains that fertilization studies show that farmers plant cassava on all soil types and, like any other crop, it responds well to manure and fertilizer application. The crop’s tolerance of poor soils does not mean that it would not benefit from the added nutrients provided by fertilizers.

As a result of these myths, most efforts by governments and other stakholders have been geared towards promoting cassava mainly as a food security crop and less as a cash crop. However, following its success as a cash crop in Asia, its potential as a cash crop is now slowly being realized in Africa.

These misperceptions also contribute to the low levels of cassava yield in the continent. A related two-year study carried out by Anneke and her team found that the average yield of farmers was 6.8 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) in western Kenya and 10.6 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) in Ug anda. This was very low compared to its potential yield of over 50 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) under proper cultural management.

With such low yields, East African farmers would not be able to support industries that use cassava as raw material.

However, when farmers follow modern crop management practices, use improved cassava varieties, and apply fertilizers, their yields could more than double to 19.7 t/ha and 23.5 t/ha in western Kenya and Ug anda, respectively, as results of IITA field trials have shown.

“This shows the tremendous cash-crop potential of cassava,” says Anneke. “Putting in place measures to increase yields such as good agronomic practices and access to improved varieties and agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and manure, and attracting industrial investors can have a significant impact on the livelihoods of millions of cassava farmers in East Africa. However, the attitude and perception towards the crop must first change.”

###

For more information, please contact:

Catherine Njuguna, c.njuguna@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (East Africa)
IITA-Tanzania

Jeffrey T Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org
Corporate Communications Officer (International)
Communication Office
IITA – Headquarters
Ibadan, Nigeria

URL: www.iita.org

news crop: Cassava

Share on Mastodon