Ethanol Producing Plant Using Cassava, Maize Feedstock Launched In Zambia

A Chinese firm on July 24 launched an ethanol processing plant in central Zambia, which the government says will go a long way in helping the country tackle fuel problems and reduce poverty.

The $9 million plant, built by the Zhongkai International Company, will result in the creation of about 200 direct jobs while another 600,000 people are expected to benefit from the investment.

The plant will produce ethanol through agricultural products like cassava and maize. By-products like liquid fertilizer, biofuel and carbon dioxide will also be produced.

Full article...

Nigeria's Average Cassava Yield Rises From 11.7 To 15 Tonnes Per Hectare

Dr. Muhammed Umar, the Permanent Secretary in the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmen, represented by Mr Ayodeji Bobby, Head of Tuber Crops in the ministry...said that Nigeria remained the largest producer of cassava, adding that a total of 36.8 million matric tonnes of cassava were harvested from 3.13 million hectares in 2013.

He said that this was with an average yield of 11.7 tonnes per hectare, adding that this, however, accounted for an insignificant fraction of global value-addition of cassava.

“But because of the Federal Government support through the change agenda of the government raised the production to about 54 million metric tonnes at 15 tonnes per hectare and develop efficient value-added chains.’’

Umar said that this was for high-quality cassava flour, dried chips; starch and sweeteners; ethanol and traditional foods.

Dr Afred Dixon, IITA Director for Development and Delivery said that Nigeria’s cassava annual production was above 50 million tonnes, adding that the increased from 35 million tonnes in the early 90s was not by accident.

He said that this resulted from stakeholders in research development to all other aspects of cassava value chains such as processing, mechanisation, and markets.

Full article...

Nigeria: 'Lack of enabling law stalled cassava flour-for-bread initiative'

Nigeria is the world's largest cassava-growing (est. 49 million tonnes/annum) and consuming country. For many years there have been discussions about why the country couldn't grow even more (current average yields are 10-11 tonnes/hectare) of this resilient, drought-tolerant tuber than it does, and why there hasn't been more of a cassava value-chain established, given the huge potential.

One effort to address these issues was the Cassava Flour Initiative, which required bakeries to use a 20% cassava/80% wheat mix in their breading-baking mixes, in order to kick start a higher-value chain for it than currently exists. The initiative stalled for a whole host of reasons, including simple inertia from an industry used to 100% wheat bread, some consumer resistance ("It tastes different," some consumers said, not in a flattering way), claims of a shortage of baking-quality cassava flour and others. Noble as the idea was, it clearly needed a learning curve and many interventions over a period of time to actualise it.

A former regional business representative has blamed lack of enabling legislation and other support from the government as one reason the aims of the initiative have not been achieved.

Sakirudeen Labode, ex-president of the Ogun State Council of Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture said, "People acquired land and bought machinery for the ideas as part of the input into the production of bread, unfortunately government is not sincere because there was no law to back the policy that will make it mandatory for the flour millers to use. Many people rushed into the cassava ideas as they rushed and obtained loans from Bank Of Industry, and other banks, while the business is yet to take off. These are huge national losses. Government needed to make a law that will make it binding for consumption,” he said.

African Agriculture 

Virus-resistant gene-modified cassava developed

A Swiss team has developed a strain of cassava resistant to cassava mosaic disease and cassava brown streak virus.

The gene-modification technology involved to accomplish is being shared with laboratories in several African countries. It is hoped that this 'localization' of the techniques will help to overcome some of the resistance that many African countries have shown to gene modification.

It is not yet clear when the GM cassava will be available for cultivation.

full article...Scidev.net

Why figures of purported agricultural investments into Africa can be so misleading

Chido Makunike 

Even if you're not particularly interested in farming news and developments, you cannot fail to be impressed by chancing across a headline like 'U.S. to Invest U.S.$6 Billion in Nigeria's Agric Sector.'


U.S.$6 billion is a huge chunk of money. Such an investment over a relatively short period is/would be a very significant development for all involved. One would expect to begin to see huge results from such a  massive injection of money into an economy in fairly short order, even if the pay-off time for the investment is much more long term.

But over the years of hearing about all kinds of billions purportedly spent from local and foreign sources on Africa's agriculture, it has become clear that such loosely touted figures can hide as much as they reveal, and can sometimes even be almost meaningless.

Excerpts from the article:

'Foreign investors from the United State of America (USA) would invest $6 billion into Nigeria's agricultural sector, the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources Akinwunmi Adeshina has said. '

'The Minister said the funds would be invested on sugar-cane plantation in the north and cassava plantation in the southern part of the country. (He) said the funds would be invested on sugar-cane plantation in the north and cassava plantation in the southern part of the country.'

How was the valuation of the investments at $6billion arrived at? Who did the calculating - the investors or the government of the destination country? What is the break down of that valuation? Does the $6 billion refer to new capital/cash to be invested, or does it include many none-cash factors as well? Over what period of time is the  $6 billion to be injected into the Nigerian economy? How much of it will be new capital from outside Nigeria, and how much of it is in locally-sourced money or the contribution to the 'investment' of the host government (tax credits, free or subsidized land, etc, etc)?   

Does the phrase '$6 billion into Nigeria' mean the total value of the two investments cited, or just that part of them that will actually, directly be spent/invested in Nigeria? For instance, if $500 million of those $6 billion are to be spent on importing machinery from the U.S., it is misleading to account for that $500 million as going 'into Nigeria.'

In the case of this example, Nigeria would still certainly benefit from the $500 million portion of the $6 billion that actually 'goes into (or remains in) the U.S.' But how to value this benefit to Nigeria is far from straightfoward.

Is part of that $6 billion valuation composed of aid from the U.S. government, or is it strictly commercially sourced funds? If a big chunk of the $6 billion is in aid (not at all unusual in such big deals), is that portion of it going to be spent in Nigeria, or actually to pay suppliers, consultants and others mainly in the aid-originating country, in this case the U.S? Again, this would be far from unusual, but vastly changes the meaning of what a mere dollar figure represents in actual economic terms.

For example, suppose country A donates $100 million worth of tractors to poor country Z. Country A would stimulate its tractor manufacturing sector by paying them to supply the machines to be donated to country Z. But over the years country Z may have to try to fork out that much or more in spare parts, repairs, etc to keep the tractors running, particularly if the choice of machines (obviously dictated by donor country A) was inappropriate for the conditions of country Z.

Either a lot more than $100 million goes back out of poor country Z to rich donor country A for those spare parts (further stimulating the tractor industry of country A while having declining cost-benefits for country Z), or the tractors soon simply rot because the cost of maintaining them is beyond what country Z can afford. Both scenarios are part of the long, sorry annals of 'development cooperation.'   

Another example of why context, detail and explanation are so important in a story headlined this way: Job-creation is one of the most hoped for investment benefits in a high unemployment country like Nigeria, or any other.

$100 million spent on tractor imports and maintenance over X years would have a much smaller social and economic footprint than a similar $100 million in the same X years spent on wages and salaries. The money spent on wages would have a tremendously bigger multiplication effect than the money spent on equipment imports, so in terms of overall value/benefits to the Nigerian/target economy cannot be calculated the same way. So throwing out a phrase like '$100 million investment' without providing these details and nuances may be thinly, narrowly and arithmetically correct but yet still tell very little.

Shallow and misleading as the heading and article were, they were picked up and re-distributed without question by hundreds of news outlets around the world. And that's how so much of the figures about inward investment and aid to Africa that are thrown about often have very little connection to how much actual,  correct, while at the same time revealing very little about how much actual, real-world meaning and impact they will result in. Unfortunately, sometimes the more you read and hear, the less you know.

African Agriculture
   

Cassava's climate change benefits provide an opportunity to reduce African maize dependence

by Chido Makunike

The predictions of the likely effects of climate change on agriculture in Africa have been negative, with already yearly increasing evidence that maize cultivation is becoming more difficult. Given the importance of maize as the maize staple food of many Africans, the implications for an already precarious food security may be dire.

But now comes the news that another important but neglected staple starch food, cassava, may actually thrive in the climatic conditions that are predicted for the Africa of the future. 

In tests of various climate change models by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia, cassava did better than potatoes, maize, beans, bananas, millet and sorghum.

Andy Jarvis, the lead author of the report of the research, said, “It deals with almost anything the climate throws at it. It thrives in high temperatures, and if drought hits it simply shuts down until the rains come again. There’s no other staple out there with this level of toughness.”

African farmers are well acquanted with cassava's toughness, as evidence by its cultivation in even almost desert-like conditions where many other crops struggle to survive. It's secondary role to maize in the diets of many Africans is partly because of its longer preparation times and its even more bland taste.

Yet the slavish dependence on a crop, maize, which all the evidence suggests is no longer as well-suited to cultivation in large parts of Africa as it once was is a grave danger to the continent's food security.

Perhaps the new study's confirmation of cassava's particular resilience to cultivation in harsh climates could be used as a wedge to open a littler wider the door to making the point that Africa needs to put serious and urgent attention into developing alternatives to maize.

African Agriculture   
    

Nigeria's cassava conundrum

Eager to promote self-sufficiency, Nigeria's government wants to clamp down on rice and wheat imports and promote the use of cassava. The plan seems sound, but farmers remain sceptical

Daily, on the outskirts of Abuja, Nourou Salisu produces nearly 10,000 loaves of bread in his traditional clay ovens. Nigeria's buzzing capital provides a ready-made market for his output, but that could be about to change following the government's announcement of policies designed to wean one fifth of Africa's population off its addiction to wheat.

Africa's most populous nation, once seen as the regional breakbasket, wants to curb chronic dependence on foreign food by clamping down on rice and wheat imports and introducing a raft of financial incentives ahead of next year's budget. The aim is to kick the sluggish agriculture sector into life.

Salisu, however, is sceptical about the plans, even if they are aimed at lifting millions like himself out of hunger and poverty. "Nobody will chop [eat] cassava bread. The cassava starch will not allow the bread be soft," he said, when told of policies that will compel bakeries to begin substituting wheat flour for cassava flour.

"We don't have the science [technology] to grind the cassava, to make the bread soft. Our customers will not buy it and it will spoil," he added, gesturing towards the dozens of bags of flour stored in the sweltering bakery.

Last month, President Goodluck Jonathan – eager to persuade his people to patronise locally-grown products –publicly shared a loaf of unsweetened cassava bread with his vice-president and ministers. However, his attempt to open an internal market for the world's largest cassava grower isn't new; almost a decade ago, former head of state Olusegun Obasanjo tried and failed to force bakers to use at least 10% of the tuber in breadmaking.

Billed as a central part of the new administration's "transformation" agenda – a sign of how badly Nigeria's agriculture sector needs fixing – proposals in a preliminary budget to slash a $68bn import bill include a 100% levy on rice and wheat imports next year. Wheat costs the government a staggering $3.9bn annually, while Nigeria is the world's largest rice importer – at a cost of $6.25m a day – even though its climate is ideal for rice growing.

Cassava is being touted as a potential source of food self-sufficiency for Nigeria. By banning its import from next year, and offering tax rebates for millers who use at least 40% of cassava flour in breadmaking, the government hopes to encourage production and spur businesses to buy it.

With the continent still reeling from food riots over the past two years, agriculture and water resources minster Akin Adesina believes these policies could spark the kind of "green revolution" which has largely bypassed Africa.

"We have a situation where we are dealing with large numbers of unemployed people and high levels of poverty, and these are the priorities of the government," he said. "We must create jobs locally through import substitution."

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, Africa has more than doubled cereal imports over the past three decades, a trend some countries have begun trying to reverse through proactive policies. In Uganda, for instance, rice output more than doubled in the space of four years after a 75% tax was imposed on imports. The duty also spurred the construction of new mills, lowering the price of locally refined rice. Malawi, meanwhile, one of Africa's poorest countries, reversed its food deficit in just two years through a targeted subsidy programme that helped finance fertiliser for farmers.

Brushing off critcisms of protectionism amid a global downturn, Adesina argued Nigeria could follow suit: "Every nation in the world protects its markets and farmers. Nigeria's farming population is made up of more than 70% of smallholder farmers. Our policies are directed at creating new market opportunities for them."

Plans are underway to replicate a 2009 government-funded scheme that resulted in maize yields rising from 1.5 tons to 4.2 tons per hectare in participating farms. But experts say a lack of funding will make it difficult to produce 2.5 million metric tons of rice – enough to feed the country and leave an excess of 500,000 tons – by 2015.

Nigeria was once a net food exporter, but poor infrastructure, lack of finance and misguided policies meant agriculture was progressively shunted aside as the focus shifted to oil. But the country's vast oilfields have enriched only a tiny minority, leaving many of the country's 150 million farmers poor and hungry.

Past form has left many doubtful that the government has the capability or political will to implement effective change. "The problem we have is that some of the financial institutions and most of the infrastructure is weak," said Kamar Hamza, a Nigeria-based financial consultant. "On paper, the policies are very good. But when it comes to implementation, we have a parasitic civil service whose main interest is making money from government policies. They can easily hijack the plan."

Another factor is the government's financial commitment to agriculture. It has only allocated 2% of the budget (around $500m) to agriculture, making it one of eight countries that have failed to assign at least 10% of annual budget to agriculture, as agreed under the terms of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme adopted at the African Union summit in Maputo in 2003.

A string of failed agricultural policies has bred scepticism among farmers. Many complain that microcredit funds allocated to them routinely disappear into the country's labyrinthine political system. "And anyway, there are no roads. There is a fuel shortage. Are we to carry everything we grow on our backs to market?" muses Sunday Alachi, a subsistence cassava farmer.

His fears perhaps echo those holding back potential private-sector investors, who are needed if government policies are to bear fruit.

The Guardian

Nigeria to release Vitamin A-rich, yellow-fleshed cassava

In December 2011, Nigeria's National Variety Release Committee announced three winning varieties in a 12 year contest between thousands of entrants. The contest, in reality a joint breeding programme of IITA* and Nigeria's National Root Crops Research Institute, had just one goal: to identify high yielding, disease resistant cassava varieties that could help to tackle one of Nigeria's most serious forms of malnutrition.

Vitamin A deficiency, which lowers immunity to disease and causes impaired vision or even blindness, affects almost 20 per cent of pregnant women and nearly one third of children under five in Nigeria. Standard white-fleshed cassava is eaten by more than 70 million Nigerians every day, but contains virtually no beta-carotene, a substance converted by the body into Vitamin A. In contrast, the newly released varieties, which have yellow roots, contain around six micro-grams of beta-carotene per gram, enough to provide up to 25 per cent of daily needs.
Screening, selecting and testing

The breeding work, which has used conventional methods and has been funded for the last eight years by the HarvestPlus programme, screened up to 100,000 cassava seedlings a year for high beta-carotene content and other desirable traits. Hundreds of the most promising plants were then investigated further in multi-locational trials in 13 states, covering Nigeria's major agro-ecologies from rainforest belt to northern guinea savannah. Farmers have been key participants, both in the early stages of selection, in order to ensure that yellow-rooted varieties perform well against the full spectrum of farmer preferences, and in on-farm trials of the most promising candidates.

Measuring the beta-carotene levels in cassava poses its own challenges. The roots deteriorate quickly once harvested, restricting the number of samples that can be tested; this has prompted research into long-term storage strategies. But the breeding process has grown significantly faster over the life of the programme, with greater gene frequency achieved for Vitamin A and improved selection and screening. As a result, while the three new varieties took 12 years from first being crossed to being ready for release, a second group of varieties has reached almost the same point in just six years and contains nearly double the quantity of beta-carotene. Even higher pro-vitamin levels are currently being pursued, with the breeding programme aiming to achieve a target concentration of 15 micrograms per gram by 2015.
Decentralised and demand-driven

Changing the colour of a staple food is normally risky, since it can prejudice adoption by consumers. In the case of cassava, however, local processors often add palm oil to white cassava flour when producing the most popular cassava-based food, gari, giving it a golden hue. As a result, the yellow colour of the new varieties was no deterrent, and was even preferred by some processors. Farmers involved in evaluation trials were also impressed, the new varieties yielding up to 20 tonnes per hectare, comparable with popular white varieties, and having similar starch levels and processing characteristics.

Cassava stems are bulky and quickly lose quality when transported, so multiplying and distributing the new cassava varieties in significant quantities requires a localised approach. The programme is initially focussing on four key states, with ten local governments per state each cultivating a one hectare plot to provide planting material for village level multiplication. By 2013, the plan is to produce enough stems to supply 25,000 households, which will be available at no cost, on condition that recipients supply stems to two other households in the following year.

Providing financial incentives is part of the scaling-up strategy. Private sector companies and NGOs have been enrolled to train farmers in multiplication techniques and encourage young farmers to enter a potentially rewarding business. "It's a win-win situation," says Samson Odedino of Envoy Consultancy Services, which has worked with farmers to establish multiplication plots. "Farmers selling stems will make money, rural people will enjoy better health and everyone will be happy."

For HarvestPlus, which supports conventional crop breeding to address a range of nutritional deficits, the work in Nigeria is a pilot. The programme currently has similar work underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but beyond this looks to promote policies and institutional supports that encourage acceptance of biofortification as a strategy and yellow cassava in particular, across many more countries, including Benin, Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda.

New Agriculturalist

Danforth Center is partnering in combating lethal cassava disease

A November 16 press release by FAO calls for an urgent increase in funding, research, training, surveillance and other measures to help African farmers and breeders. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 200 million people derive 25 percent of their daily calorie intake from the starchy tuberous roots. In the East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi, 63 percent of households also sell cassava products to earn income for their families.

CBSD is particularly challenging because its visual symptoms on leaves and stems are subtle and hard to detect. This often means unexpected losses for farmers at harvest, having a devastating impact on families that are dependent on the crop for food security. Since farmers save cassava cuttings for the next crop, the disease is frequently passed on to the next growing season. Around the Lake Victoria region in Uganda, many farmers have been forced to abandon the cultivation of cassava where the disease is severe.

Roots infected with Cassava Brown Streak Disease

“I commend FAO for raising awareness of this critical problem. The need for increased research is clearly necessary if we are to combat this problem in a timely fashion,” said Dr. Claude Fauquet, principal investigator and director of ILTAB at The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO.

Researchers at the Danforth Center and two respected partner institutions in Africa, The National Crops Resources Research Institute in Uganda (NaCRRI) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), are working to solve this problem for African farmers under the umbrella of a collaborative project called Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa (‘VIRCA’). The VIRCA project has been developing cassava varieties with enhanced resistance to Cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) and Cassava mosaic disease (CMD). “The collaboration with African researchers is showing progress toward helping smallholder farmers combat these devastating diseases,” Dr. Fauquet said.

Researchers recently made progress toward protecting cassava against these diseases in a confined field trial in Uganda using an experimental model cultivar. The field trial was planted in 2010 following approval by the Ugandan National Biosafety Committee. The trial was harvested recently and the data are still being compiled, but initial observations by experienced cassava researchers have made the team optimistic that a virus resistant cassava line can be achieved. Once analyzed, the trial results will point researchers in the right direction for future development of virus-resistant lines of cultivars preferred by East African farmers.

VIRCA researchers are already working to increase resistance in two cultivars that farmers prefer. The first goal is to impart CBSD resistance to a variety called TME 204. This variety is very popular in Uganda and Western Kenya and has good natural resistance to CMD, but is very susceptible to CBSD. “Delivery of CBSD resistant TME 204 is the fastest route to address the CBSD epidemic,” said Dr. Anton Bua, the Ugandan Cassava Research Team Leader in charge of VIRCA field trials and communication in East Africa. The researchers are also working to impart resistance to both CBSD and CMD into Ebwanateraka, a variety called the “Queen of Cassava.”

The VIRCA project is a humanitarian partnership, and when a virus-resistant line has been developed and approved for release, African farmers will be able to freely multiply, save and share their planting materials without royalty costs or technology fees.

“We are grateful for the support of our many partners for this important project. I have witnessed the devastation caused by CMD and CBSD, wiping out entire harvests, leaving many people on the verge of starvation,” said Dr. Fauquet. “Our team is confident that the cassava we develop will improve the lives of millions of people allowing them to not only grow adequate food, but also to increase productivity so they might have enough money left over to educate their children and afford good medical care for malaria and other diseases they face.”

Danforth Center

Cassava virus on verge of epidemic in East Africa

A new variant of a cassava disease is affecting large parts of East Africa, especially in the area's Great Lakes Region, putting a crucial source of food and income at risk, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

FAO experts say Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) is on the verge of becoming an epidemic, and have called for an urgent increase in funding, research, training, surveillance and other measures to help farmers and breeders.

The appearance of the disease in previously unaffected areas, and the lack of continued funding for research and development work to address CBSD in the region, have added to the threat already presented by Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD).

In Rwanda, a surveillance analysis conducted by the National Agricultural Research Institute in 2010 showed a 15.7 percent rate of infection on local varieties and 36.9 percent in improved varieties.

"None of the cassava varieties currently being distributed to farmers seem to be tolerant to the effects of CBSD. We urgently need to get information on the extent and severity of the outbreak, and to support investments to identify disease-tolerant varieties and coping strategies for farmers," said Jan Helsen, leader of FAO's European Union-funded Regional Cassava Initiative in Eastern and Central Africa.

One of the challenges facing those who are trying to stem the spread of CBSD is timely detection of the disease.

"The disease manifests itself in different ways depending on local conditions. In some cases it shows symptoms only on the roots. An apparently healthy plant may be found to have spoiled roots only when harvested, with obvious consequences for food security," Helsen explained.

Cassava can account for as much as a third of the total calorie intake for people in countries such as Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda or DRC.

"Thanks to the foresight of, and the scientific support from, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), efforts are underway to understand the epidemiology of the disease, but more support will be needed for this work, and to select and bring on CBSD-tolerant varieties," Helsen added.

Short-term measures needed to tackle CBSD include stepping up disease surveillance and conducting regular inspections; increasing the sensitization of communities to the threat of CBSD; and using hands-on training for farmers, like FAO's farmer field schools, to introduce community-based practices to prevent the introduction or spread of the disease, such as the removal of infected plants.

Recommended measures also include banning the distribution of infected plants between districts and zones, and, in the event of infection, using coping strategies such as the early harvest of cassava, before symptoms appear and significant damage can be done.

Since around 2006, FAO and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have implemented two regional cassava projects, funded respectively by the European Union and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to support vulnerable farmers affected first by CMD and now by CBSD. The projects have provided access to clean, or virus-free, planting material. The projects aim to develop capacity in disease preparedness and strengthen the resilience of farmers to outbreaks of both diseases.




"Fortunately, there are now eight varieties under development by IITA and its national partners in the region which are resistant to Cassava Mosaic Disease and which show some level of tolerance to CBSD. Under existing programme arrangements, these varieties could be made widely available in the next 18-24 months, assuming that resources can be identified to support multiplication and distribution activities," said Helsen.

Helsen says National Cassava Steering Committees have been set up to manage the response to the disease, but they need more time and funds to ensure that some of the CBSD-tolerant varieties in the pipeline can be multiplied and made available across the region.

More extensive surveillance will be carried out in Rwanda again this year, along with Burundi and the DRC, which will give a more complete picture of the occurrence and spread of the disease. To help raise awareness of the impact of the disease, FAO and CRS are currently undertaking a rapid survey on the impact of CBSD on household food security across the region.

FAO

Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa research project gets additional funding

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced on September 6 that it has received additional funding totaling $11.9 million for the Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa (VIRCA) project. Funds will be used to develop and deliver farmer-preferred cassava varieties enhanced to resist serious plant virus diseases that are greatly reducing crop yield.

The additional funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ($5.6 million), The Monsanto Fund ($5.4 million) and the Howard Buffett Foundation ($860,000). VIRCA is also supported by USAID from the American people ($2.5 million).

Two products will be developed. The first product will incorporate virus resistance in a popular cultivar which is favored by farmers in Uganda and the Lake Victoria region. A second product will be developed in the traditional Ebwanateraka cultivar, in which virus sequences will be stacked to impart resistance to two viruses. Known as the “Queen” of cassava for its taste and texture as well as its flexibility in harvesting time, Ebwanateraka has been virtually wiped out in the Uganda region due to the two viral diseases.

VIRCA-II is a collaboration between researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St Louis, MO, the NaCRRI, and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). The team will build on achievements made in VIRCA-I, during which gene silencing demonstrated success in controlling both diseases in transgenic cassava plants. Control of CMD associated with several-fold improvement in storage root yields was recently demonstrated in early field trials in Uganda.

Cassava is one of the most important staple food crops for more than 200 million sub-Saharan Africans who derive 25 percent of their daily calorie intake from the starchy tuberous roots. In the East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi, approximately 130 million people depend on the crop and produce nearly 30 metric tons of cassava annually. Cassava also contributes more than any other single crop to household income, with 63 percent of households selling cassava products.

Despite its natural drought tolerance and ability to grow well on marginal lands, cassava is susceptible to various pathogens. At least one third of the continental harvest is lost each year to Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) alone. Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), another viral cassava disease, is considered to be among the most dangerous plant diseases in the world for the threat it poses to food and economic security throughout Africa.

In East Africa CBSD is considered a more immediate threat to cassava production than CMD because of the significant increase in geographical distribution in recent years and the dramatic effect this virus has on both yield and quality of cassava storage roots. CBSD symptoms are more subtle than CMD and may be hard to detect on leaves and stems, while causing severe necrosis in the edible storage roots and to the stems that are used to produce the next crop.

Root necrosis, which can remain unnoticed until harvest, has a substantial impact on families that are dependent on the crop. Furthermore, stem cuttings produced from infected plants grow poorly or not at all, increasing chances that farmers will abandon the cultivation of cassava in severely affected regions, such as around Lake Victoria.

The enhanced cassava cultivars created by the VIRCA project will be readily available to farmers in the same way traditional cassava is being offered today and will have no royalty fees. This means farmers will be able to freely multiply, save and share their planting materials.

www.danforthcenter.org

Swiss scientist 's insect-control innovation prevents cassava disease

by Isobel Leybold

Insect expert Hans Rudolf Herren’s work in tackling the devastating cassava mealybug crop pest in Africa saved millions of lives and won him the 1995 World Food Prize.

Herren, the subject of a new biography, tells swissinfo.ch how he managed to naturally control the bug using a method that involved shooting the insect’s natural enemy, a type of wasp, from aeroplanes across huge swathes of Africa.

The scientist was only 31 when he took a job in the middle of a crisis: the mealybug was decimating Africa’s staple crop, cassava. After ten years, his radical, non-chemical solution had turned the situation around and averted a famine. He is so far the only Swiss to receive the World Food Prize.

Herren has since continued his research into insects and natural pest control in plants, animals and humans.

In 1998 he set up the Zurich-based Biovision foundation with friends, using money from his various prizes, to promote sustainable organic agriculture in Africa. He is also president of the non-profit Millennium Institute in Washington, which promotes sustainable development.

swissinfo.ch: The biography’s title is: How Hans Rudolf Herren saved 20 million people. How did you do this?

Hans Rudolf Herren: We knew that the mealybug was not of African origin. That’s actually one of the reasons it spread like wildfire after its introduction, because it had no natural enemies. Specialists decided it was a species from the New World and also from somewhere where cassava or any of its wild relatives would occur.

Cassava comes from the Amazon region so it was quite clear that somebody must have transported cuttings or plant material to Africa and brought the pest in. So the plan was to find where this mealybug had come from, check if there was anything useful you could connect to it and then bring this information back to Africa.

swissinfo.ch: So it was a lot of detective work.


H.R.H.: It was. What was interesting was that in all the many years scientists had studied cassava in Latin America, no one had seen the mealybug.

This seemed very strange to me. I thought it may actually be on one of the wild relatives of the crop. Eventually it was found in the border area of Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia, interestingly on cultivated cassava.




But no one had seen it there because it was a very low population. In the Americas there are very few mealybugs which meant something was keeping it under control.

swissinfo.ch: You found out that it was a type of wasp.

H.R.H.: Yes, it was a parasitoid wasp [which lays eggs into the bug, eventually killing it]. We had a big factory to produce hundreds and thousands of them and they were packaged in a way that they could be shot out of an airplane travelling at 300 kilometres per hour or more across Africa, from Senegal on one side to Mozambique on the other.

We were careful that it was specific to the cassava mealybug. Thirty years later, no problem has been created and the mealybug is still under control.

swissinfo.ch: Agriculture today still involves the use of many chemicals and even genetic technology. How does your vision of using nature’s tools fit in?


H.R.H.: The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development IAASTD report [published in 2008], of which I was co-chair, made clear that we needed a radical change to agriculture for both developed and developing countries.

The authors decided that we needed to change from this industrial, energy intensive agriculture and from the very traditional agriculture that has a low input and productivity towards a multifunctional, agro-ecological, organic type of agriculture which is self-regenerating.

Biovision was almost ahead of that report by promoting an ecologically-based agriculture, which is in harmony with the system, which doesn’t fight the environment but works with it, and which will produce enough to nourish everybody by 2050. I’m convinced we can do it. The question is can we actually implement it now?

Swiss Info

New Rwanda cassava factory nears completion

by Daniel Sabiiti

A new cassava processing plant in Rwanda's Ruhango district, worth Rwf5billion, is expected to boost economic activity, once complete in September.

The plant will have the capacity to process 250 tonnes of raw cassava and produce 60 tonnes of cassava flour on a daily basis.

Rwanda Development Bank (BRD) is funding the project.

According to Jack Kayonga, the BRD Managing Director, the state-of the-art facility will benefit both the residents and the country’s economy.

“The factory will increase the residents’ incomes and provide market for the local cassava farmers,” Kayonga said. “This is a step towards development and will enable Rwanda to compete in the regional market and reduce dependence on imported cassava products,” he added.

The Local leaders noted that the plant will buy cassava from farmers in other districts, including Ruhango, Kamonyi, Bugesera and Nyanza.

The cassava plant will create 68 full time jobs and many other temporary ones.

The New Times

Malawi urged to tackle deadly cassava disease urgently

A team of international and Malawian researchers and agriculturalists gathered in Lilongwe, Malawi recently, have called upon the government of Malawi and other development partners to put in place measures to control the deadly Cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) in the country before it reaches a crisis level.

This disease, causing a dry rot in the crop’s roots and making them economically useless-they are inedible and also cannot be milled into flour, Kondowole, has drastically affected cassava production and food security in neighbouring countries where it is rapidly spreading to new areas.

Although CBSD has been in Malawi for more than five decades, in the areas around Lake Malawi, little has done to control it due to a low awareness of the disease. Urgent action must now be taken to protect the crop, which is the second most important staple in the country and plays a key role in assuring food security.

The team identified priority actions to stop the spread of the disease and reduce its impact. The breeding of cassava varieties that are tolerant or resistant to the disease must be intensified to give farmers more options. Furthermore, breeding is a time consuming exercise that calls for a long-term commitment to its implementation.

The level of awareness on the disease, how it spreads, its symptoms and the measures to be taken to halt its spread needs to be greatly strengthened particularly among the Ministry of Agriculture staff, extension workers and farmers. This calls for an intensive awareness campaign using all mediums such as local meetings, radio, mobile vans, leaflets, and posters to reach these target groups.

The disease is spread by sharing of infected planting materials and by a vector, the whitefly. New research work by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in East Africa has shown that CBSD does not spread well over long distances. Disease-free fields can therefore be protected from infection by isolating them from infected cassava fields.

Another key component of a comprehensive CBSD management strategy is establishing effective systems for producing, maintaining and distributing disease-free planting material.

Major new outbreaks of the rot disease have been reported in recent years from the Great Lakes region of East Africa. Worryingly, this is the first time that CBSD has been shown to spread at mid- to high-altitudes (above 1,000 metres above sea level).

If a similar switch happens in Malawi, cassava in the entire country will be threatened. This therefore highlights the importance of doing frequent intensive pest and disease surveys to monitor its spread so as to start mitigation quickly in the case of any new outbreaks.

The next vital next step for the group will be to secure funding support for the priority activities identified.

The meeting was organized by scientists from the IITA, and the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College who are implementing a USAID funded project on ‘Addressing Cassava Brown Streak Disease in Malawi.’
It brought together a diverse group of participants, sharing a common interest in the development of cassava in Malawi.

CGIAR

New disease-tolerant cassava variety released in Nigeria

Combining genetic traits from two continents, a new cassava variety developed through biotechnology is being multiplied and released to farmers in Nigeria.

The new variety, CR41-10, which is resistant to cassava mosaic disease (CMD), was developed by crossing a Nigerian cassava variety with natural resistance to CMD with varieties from Latin America, where the disease is not found. Conserved in CIAT's gene bank in Colombia, the Latin American wild relatives were chosen using molecular markers linked to CMD resistance.

"This variety is the first example of a product involving biotechnology that directly reaches cassava farmers," says senior cassava breeder, Herman Ceballos. Chiedoze Egesi, from Nigeria's National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), concurs: "This is proof that the excellent cassava germplasm developed at CIAT can directly add value to cassava in Africa. We hope many new varieties will follow in its footsteps."

CR41-10 was released in December 2010 after a decade of collaboration involving CIAT, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the NRCRI, and several years of trials in Nigeria. "Over the years there has been a huge amount of work to identify molecular markers for improving food crops," says Ceballos. "Now we're showing that this work can be applied to improve food production in developing countries where it is most needed."


New Agriculturalist

Mozambique cassava crop infected by mosaic virus

At least 20 percent of cassava plantations in the southern Mozambican district of Panda have been destroyed by mosaic virus, local media reported on January 14 without citing sources.

The virus infected about 9,000 hectares (22,239 acres) of the 47,000 hectares of crops in the area, the media said.

The loss of the cassava, a staple in the region, may result in pockets of hunger in the district, which is located about 800 kilometers (497 miles) north of Maputo.

The mosaic virus is transmitted by white flies and cuttings from infected plants and can reduce yields by as much as 40 percent, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute’s website.

The disease can cause leaves to turn yellow, shrink in size and become misshapen and twisted, according to the Food and Agricultural organization’s website.

Afrique Avenir

Progress with disease resistant cassava in East Africa

East Africa scientists have announced a near break-through in the development of new cassava varieties that are resistance to cassava brown streak disease and cassava mosaic disease.
The announcements come at a time when a new initiative to commercialize cassava processing has been started across East Africa through creation of what is known as Cassava Villages, where the crop is semi processed and then sold to livestock feed manufacturers.

Dr. Edward Kanju, a cassava breeder with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and one of the scientists behind the work said the new varieties had not only shown very mild symptoms of the diseases but were also very productive.

"The varieties offer hope to millions of poor cassava farmers in the mid-altitude areas of eastern and central Africa whose morale – and livelihoods – have been severely dampened by the two diseases," he said.

The new varieties, if successfully developed will be a major win for the cassava commercialization project because the semi processed crop has ready market in the animal feeds industry which is avoiding use of maize to make animal feed because of rising prices.

Cassava can also be processed into other products including industrial starch, flour and ethanol.

Ms Mumbi Kimathi, the director of Farm Concern International, the nonprofit group that is steering the Cassava Villages project said the project involves "setting up 120 processing units across East Africa."

Scientists said they are readying to move the varieties from on- station experimental plots to the fields to test their tolerance and productivity under actual farm conditions before they can be officially released to the farmers.

Dr. Kanju said the three were selected from among 14 breeding lines that showed resistance to the diseases from last year’s growing season.


"The three showed mild symptoms, mostly only on the leaves. The roots – the most economically important part of cassava—remained untouched. They also produced up to 35 tonnes of the crop per hectare, which is more than triple East Africa’s average of 10 tonnes per hectare," he said.

The scientists said they will start another breeding cycle soon, crossing the varieties with locally adapted ones to transfer the tolerant genes. They would also try to identify other sources of resistance to complement the breeding work.


"We will also provide the promising varieties to our partners in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, and the DRC – countries already suffering from or immediately threatened by the diseases – so they could carry out their own breeding trials adapted to local conditions," he said.

The trials are going on in Uganda.

The scientists however said it might take a few more years before cassava farmers get hold of varieties that are truly resistant to both diseases.


"Truly resistant varieties that have internal mechanisms that either stop the virus from spreading within the plant or keep its population so low that it cannot easily infect nearby plants, are the most sustainable and cost-effective solution to these deadly diseases," said Dr Kanju.

.Coastweek

Biological control of cassava pests tried in Thailand

by Ker Than

A huge swarm of parasitic wasps has been unleashed in Thailand as a last-ditch effort to control a devastating pest outbreak, scientists say.

More than a quarter million wasps filled the skies of the northeastern province of Khon Kaen recently. The hope is that the wasps will attack mealybugs, which have been infesting the country's valuable cassava crop.

The pill-shaped mealybugs suck sap from the crops—a main ingredient of tapioca—causing them to shrivel and die.


A Phenacoccus manihoti mealybug crawls on the end of a cassava stem on a Thai plantation last year. Photograph courtesy Neil Palmer, CIAT

But that's nothing compared with the killing technique of female Anagyrus lopezi wasps, which inject their eggs directly into the mealybugs' bodies. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat their way out of their hosts, killing them.





An Anagyrus lopezi wasp. Photograph courtesy Georg Goergen, IITA.



Like the wasp and cassava, the Phenacoccus manihoti mealybug is native to the South American country of Paraguay. But the mealybugs "got into Thailand without their natural enemies, and the population has increased very rapidly over the past couple of years," said Tony Bellotti, an entomologist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a Colombia-based nonprofit research institute that is helping organize the effort. The Thai Department of Agriculture and the Thai Tapioca Development Institute are also involved in the project.

Mealybugs were probably accidentally imported to Thailand from stem cuttings from Africa sometime during the past few years, Bellotti said.


In 2009 mealybugs had spread to more than 700 square miles (200,000 hectares) of eastern and northeastern Thailand, where the pests are known to kill up to half of the plants in a given field, experts say.

Past experience shows the Thai wasp army should work, Bellotti said: The parasites were used to great effect throughout Africa in the 1980s to help control mealybug infestations of cassava.

Scientists consider the parasitic wasps a classic example of "biological control," in which the natural enemies of a pest are imported from its native country to curb the pest's spread.

In Africa "yield losses were estimated at the time to be as high as 80 percent ... I doubt it's even 10 percent now," Bellotti said.

Anthony Shelton, an entomologist at Cornell University in New York State, said the Thai wasp attack is "very logical."

Not all biological-control experiments work out as scientists intend, but those that do—such as the 1980s African intervention—tend to be "spectacular successes," said Shelton, who was not involved in the project. If the wasps work well in Thailand, they should not negatively impact other species, he said.

Unlike most predators—which often feed on many types of prey—some parasites, such as the Anagyrus lopezi wasp, attack only one or a few species, Shelton added. "As the pests spread around, it's also important to spread around their natural enemies"—the wasps, he said.

In time, the wasp and the mealybug should reach an equilibrium in Thailand, CIAT's Bellotti said. "The parasite can't eliminate the pest [completely] because it would eliminate itself," he said. "But you hope that the equilibrium will be at a low enough level that it's no longer damaging to the crops."


CIAT's Bellotti said it shouldn't take long for scientists to know whether unleashing the wasp swarm was a good idea.

"The big test will come during December, January, and February, which is Thailand's dry season," Bellotti said. "The mealybug is a dry-season pest."

If the Thai experiment works, CIAT may deploy the wasps in Cambodia, Laos, and other Southeast Asian countries where the cassava mealybug has been reported."We don't see this as just a Thai problem," Bellotti said. "We see it as a regional problem in Southeast Asia."

National Geographic

Cassava turns into source of cash for small-scale farmers in Kenya

by Steve Mbogo



Nicholas Olum has been running a fabricating business for many years but it is only recently that his patience paid off— he was contracted to fabricate cassava-processing machines by two organisations that plan to change the fortunes of cassava farmers.


At Sh60,000 for every machine, not many cassava farmers could afford it.


Cassava is almost exclusively grown by small-scale farmers in Kenya with little disposable income.


In areas where it grows, the cooperative movement is weak, dashing the possibilities of group-owned small processing machines.


But Mr Olum’s change in fortunes has come from a new initiative that is helping farmers to grow cassava exclusively for semi-processing.


It is funded and co-ordinated by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Kenya Agriculture Research Institute and Farm Concern International.


The semi-processed cassava is sold to cattle feed manufacturers. The aim is to use the dried chips as a raw material, together with maize, to make cattle feeds. Feed manufacturers said their main raw material, maize, has become scarce and expensive, raising the cost of the animal feeds.


Maize is Kenya’s staple food so there is competition from humans for the same grain.


Connecting cassava farmers to feed manufacturers will provide a reliable source of raw materials to the feed industry since the crop is available throughout the year. Feed manufacturers need consistent quality supply to maintain the feed formula and stabilise prices.


“Our members have been looking for reliable quality and consistent supply of alternative carbohydrate sources. Pressure on maize is forcing us to think of partial substitutes cassava chips will fill this gap,” said Martin Kinoti, Secretary General of the Association of Kenya Feeds Manufacturers.


Most recently, Kenya has suffered poor weather conditions that have resulted in below average production of maize, opting for imports. While imports are cheaper, the cost of transport, especially from the port of Mombasa makes the imported maize even more expensive than the locally grown variety.


Mumbi Kimathi, the director of Farm Concern International said the project is modeled around having cassava villages whose main economic activity is to grow the crop for semi processing. The villages are to be set up in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Farmers will be trained on better cassava farming husbandry, supported to buy the semi-processing machines and facilitated to access a ready market.


“We are initially aiming to set up 120 processing units across East Africa,” said Ms Kimathi.


Farmers will be given new cassava varieties developed by local scientists that are higher yielding, are resistant to the Cassava Mosaic virus that has been a major challenge in the region. The varieties also are resistant to drought and have low cyanide (poison) levels.


In Kenya, cassava processing villages are being set up in Makueni, Mbeere, Bungoma, Webuye, Teso, and Busia.


One of the greatest advantages of cassava is that it is a drought tolerant crop, which means climate change patterns projected to make Kenya agriculture highlands warmer will not affect its yield. Other crops in this category include sorghum and millet.


This explains partly why even institutions like KARI have put more focus to the so called “orphan crops.”


For instance, researchers at KARI Katumani Research Centre in Machakos have already come up with a new variety of cassava that matures in eight months compared to the traditional variety that matures in 13 months.


Evelyne Oswati has been growing cassava for many years in Teso South District. Her village is among those being empowered to become semi-processing zones.


“What I plan now is to increase the area under cassava to 40 hectares from the current 10 hectares to fully take advantage of this ready market,” she said.


Cassava farmers are a highly exploited in Kenya because the crop is mainly consumed at the farm level without any form of processing.


Cassava rots in 48 hours after harvesting. When it is processed, its shelf-live increases to nine months.

So villagers without processing machines have to dispose of their harvest as soon as possible and the middle men take this advantage to buy the crop at rock-bottom prices.


The three-year programme will help 30,000 small holder farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to increase cassava for food and industrial use by processing it at village level.


“It will unlock potential for increased incomes for small holder farmers beyond food usage by means of a model where out of each land portion under cassava cultivation, an estimated quarter of the produce will be dedicated to home consumption while the rest will go to industrial use,” said AGRA.


Although cassava is a drought resistant crop and can grow in soils of low fertility, its high perishability and bulkiness limits transportation and mass market utilisation, confining it to markets around the villages where it is produced.


Village-based value addition will address this challenge by drastically improving supply chain management, post harvest management and prolonged storage.


“We feel that this will be a turnaround for our villages where we will earn some money from selling cassava” said Everlyne Oswat, chairlady, Moyo Safi Women Group in Busia.


“This project will begin the first step of progressively expanding the role of cassava from being just a staple food for human consumption in this region, to an efficient industrial crop like it is in developing economies of Asia, Latin America, and other African countries” said Mrs Anne Mbaabu, Markets Director, AGRA.


Although the use of cassava in the feed industry is relatively new in this region, research has shown that the use of cassava as a substitute for maize can reduce the cost of feed by 20-30 per cent, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation.


Under this project, “commercial villages’ will be mobilised to manage village saving schemes.


Farmers will also be linked to financial institutions that offer credit for purchase of improved seeds.


AGRA has already partnered with Equity Bank in Kenya, Standard Bank in both Tanzania and Uganda and National Micro-finance Bank in Tanzania to unlock credit for small holder farmers and agribusinesses working along staple food value chains.


In developing countries like Brazil, cassava is the main driving force for the dairy and beef industry and the energy sector; in Thailand, cassava is the main foreign cash earner — the country exports all the cassava required for animal feed in the European Union.


The country also takes the African export quota because none of the African countries exports significant volumes.


Business Daily Africa

Cassava in East Africa under attack by brown streak disease

About eight hundred million people in Africa, Asia and South America eat cassava. The plant is a major source of food energy and a major food security crop. It can survive in poor soil and without much water. Also, the root can stay in the ground for as long as three years, so it can be harvested as needed.

But in East Africa the plant is under attack. Cassava brown streak disease is a more destructive form of cassava mosaic. The mosaic has been active in East Africa for about one hundred years. It limits plant growth. But brown streak can destroy a crop. The virus was identified in Uganda in two thousand four and has spread fast in areas extending from Lake Victoria.

So far, brown streak has not jumped to Nigeria, the world's largest producer of cassava. But it threatens more than thirty million tons a year of production in East Africa. In some areas of Uganda, rates of brown streak reached more than eighty-five percent in two thousand five and two thousand eight.

Claude Fauquet is a scientist at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Saint Louis, Missouri. He says a few varieties of cassava can resist brown streak, but these are not the kinds Africans like. He is working to develop disease-resistant plants, but he says it will probably take five years.

Loss of cassava crops could lead to hunger. And hunger can lead to migration and conflict. About fifty million dollars is coming from the Gates Foundation, the Monsanto Fund and the United States Agency for International Development. But Claude Fauquet says much more is needed to fight the disease.

Brown streak can be hard to identify in the field. Irregular yellow spots may appear on lower leaves. But farmers sometimes do not find the disease until they cut open a cassava. If there is only a small amount of rot, the dead material can be cut away. But if the disease has progressed, the whole root is ruined.

Scientists partly blame whiteflies for spreading the disease from plant to plant. Brown streak also spreads if farmers sell or give away cuttings of infected plants.

Cassava has many food uses but the plant is not safe to eat unless it is specially prepared. It must be processed through methods like boiling, grinding or fermenting. A substance that can produce deadly levels of cyanide when eaten must be removed.



VOA