Cassava cultivars resistant to devastating root-root developed

Scientists of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have developed cassava varieties resistant to Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) in collaboration with their counterparts at the National Agricultural Research Systems in Tanzania. The dreaded root rot disease-has been ravaging the cassava belt of East Africa's Great Lakes Region.

The causal pathogen of CBSD is called Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) and causes yield losses in cassava of 20-80%, adversely affecting people's livelihoods all over Eastern Africa. The disease is the most limiting factor in the food security efforts of Tanzania, whose 40 million people depend on the crop for their daily caloric intake. In economic terms CBSD causes an annual loss of about US$50 million for the farmers in Tanzania.

Dr. Caroline Herron, IITA plant pathologist studying the dynamics of the virus in East Africa says, "In the last five years CBSD also has invaded Kenya, and moved westwards around the shores of Lake Victoria into Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and moved down to Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique."

Dr. Edward Kanju, IITA cassava plant breeder and Mr. Haji Saleh of the ministry of agriculture in Zanzibar, say that "the farmers involved in the participatory breeding project drove the government to officially release the CBSD field resistant cultivars, and that the challenge is to replace the weak plants with the newly released resistant ones."

CGIAR