Cassava - A Crop for Now and the Future

International teams are working to bring cassava genetics into the 21st century and help food-insecure countries.

Cassava plant drawings

Cassava is a starchy, tuberous root first domesticated about 10,000 years ago in South America. Also dubbed manioc, cassava may be more familiar to many as tapioca—tiny pearls of starch used to thicken pies and jams.

For about 800 million people in the tropics, however, it is a staple, not a baking aid.

Now, concerted efforts at crossbreeding and genomic selection have created novel versions of cassava that could dramatically boost yields, ward off malnutrition and grow in a wide range of conditions.

The typical cassava shrub produces unassuming brown roots with snowy white or creamy coloured interiors. 

A cassava crop is perennial—after maturing for at least eight months roots can be harvested for a few years. New plants grow easily from cuttings. The root is carbohydrate-rich, protein-poor and must be boiled, roasted, fermented or otherwise processed to tame compounds that can produce toxic hydrogen cyanide during digestion.  In Africa, 500 million depend on the root as their main staple.

Because many cassava consumers live in developing countries, the plant has not received the intense breeding that has benefited crops more familiar to the Western world such as corn, wheat and rice. In the past decade, however, cassava has started to garner attention. China and Thailand use it to make high-quality starch, and some countries see the crop as a potential biofuel. What’s more, cassava will likely do well in the world’s changing climate; it survives drought when other crops have failed and flourishes in warmer temperatures.  For many years Thailand has exported cassava chips to Europe to use in poultry feeds.

Big boost in yield
Among the latest and most impressive breeding successes comes from Nagib Nassar, a cassava breeder and professor emeritus of genetics at the University of Brasilia. He has developed a new variety that could dramatically boost yields. Each of his plants produces about 14 kilograms of edible roots after one year whereas traditional varieties yield just two to three kilograms.

These are not the only new cassava varieties out there, with others including a cassava high in vitamin A, which turns the root orange, and one with extra protein.  Work is also advancing on varieties resistant to other problems including brown streak disease, green mites that devastate leaves, cassava bacterial blight that browns stems and defoliates the plants and cassava mosaic virus that yellows leaves and stunts plant growth.

Cassava crop showing tubers with growing crop in background

Getting to the next generation

These promising varieties could be just the beginning in a cassava revolution. “There is a growing recognition for the importance of food security in the most food-insecure areas," says Jim Lorenzen, a senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major supporter of cassava research. The foundation aided researchers in the sequencing of the cassava genome and awarded $25 million in late 2012 to a massive international effort called the Next Generation Cassava Breeding (NEXTGEN) project, which aims to jump-start genetic improvement of cassava. "It’s a very good time for cassava research," Lorenzen says.

He notes that this attitude is reflected in more researchers focusing on cassava and intense interest from African leaders, including Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina.

Millions of small famers and their families stand to benefit from cassava researchers’ efforts.

By the end of 2014, more than 9,000 farmers are scheduled to grow Nassar’s chimeras in Brazil. Expect to hear more about the starchy root in the future, as new varieties help feed the tropical world

Aid Works - Ask Bill Gates!

Each year Bill Gates [ you know the guy - the Microsoft man!] writes a lengthy letter on work within the Foundation he and his wife now chair.

His predictions for 2035 are illuminating, and somewhat uplifting.  Read the full letter here - it is worthwhile - http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/#section=home .

Basically, he has strong hopes that aid is working and that more and more of the world's poor are moving out of abject poverty.  And that health, disease control, water and sanitation are improving and quite significantly.  It is these community efforts that are making a difference, and the plight of the less fortunate in the world IS improving.

The naysayers of the world are regularly opposed to aid and support, and even Australia is reducing the aid monies available.  While governments are not the only donors around the world, they do tend to be among the more significant, although some philanthropic and charitable organisations are now doing more, and contributing more money and support.

Money is not everything, but it sure helps.

The basics we take for granted are often optional extras for many in the world.  Clean water, sanitation and access to health resources are not available to all.............yet.  But it is getting better.

If you believe someone like Bill Gates who is close to the scene........ do not give up hope, nor abandon support.

Sustainable Intensification 'Can Work for African Farmers'

Smallholder farmers in Africa must participate in research to ensure higher crop yields and to fend off hunger as the continent's population grows, according to a report published on 18 April.

A combination of traditional knowledge and modern science will be key to achieving higher productivity at lower ecological cost — known as 'sustainable intensification' — the report says.

'Sustainable Intensification: A New Paradigm for African Agriculture' was written by the Montpellier Panel, a group of international experts from the fields of agriculture, sustainable development, trade, policy and global development.

SPEED READ

• A conjunction of traditional knowledge and modern science is key to African food security
• 'Sustainable intensification' of farming is not just for big agriculture, it can work for smallholders, too
• Innovation and technology diffusion are essential for ensuring food security in Africa

The group first met in Montpellier, France, in March 2010, with the aim of helping European policymakers make better decisions in support of food security and agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The new report is a reaction to the growing politicisation of the term 'sustainable intensification', which some now see to be promoting the interests of big, industrial agriculture. Taking a different view, the report claims the sustainable intensification approach can help smallholder farmers grow more crops and protect the environment.

In Sub-Saharan Africa food demand is growing rapidly, while supply is still insufficient. It is estimated that by 2050 the African food production system will be able to meet no more than 13 per cent of the population's needs.

A possible approach to tackling the problem is to reduce food waste by improving supply chains and facilitating access to healthy food. However, the Montpellier Panel maintains that for 80 per cent of the chronically hungry African smallholders, low productivity remains a major issue.

Camilla Toulmin, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and a Montpellier Panel member, believes that a bottom-up approach is "absolutely essential" for sustainable intensification.

"We need to get farmers involved in the process, testing out new crop varieties and new ways to use soil and water," she tells SciDev.Net.

Toulmin adds that, to engage the farmers, "there's no need for a formal meeting platform — you just need to encourage a different way of working".

Along with the other members of the Montpellier Panel, she believes that to improve communication between international researchers and local smallholders, the best solution is to visit affected communities, spend time in villages and fields, and to listen and learn.

"Scientific knowledge can be obtained anywhere — globally or locally," says Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, chief executive of the South African Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) and fellow panel member. "But any science must be adapted to local conditions, and policies must be put in place to support implementation."

Majele Sibanda cites the water pockets technique known as zai, pioneered by farmers in Burkina Faso, as an example of a traditional practice recognised by modern science. Farmers dig holes — or zais — across the fields during the dry season, and fill them with manure to attract termites. The termites then create an extensive network of underground tunnels beneath the holes and bring up nutrients from the deeper soils.

Rainwater is captured in the zais, and water loss through drainage is limited by the manure. Thus even in drought-prone environments, sufficient water capture to sustain crop yields is ensured.

In the northeast of Burkina Faso, where the zai technique has been practised since the early 1980s, grain yield has increased by 120 per cent, equating to around 80,000 tonnes of extra grain per year.

"The labour in the first year is high, but farmers may reuse the holes or dig more between the existing ones," says Majele Sibanda.
Unai Pascual, a senior lecturer in land economy at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and a professor at the Basque Foundation for Science in Bilbao, Spain, who was not involved in the study, agrees with the panel's calls for the greater involvement of African farmers in research processes.

"Any intervention has to be legitimised by the people it is going to affect or it won't last in the long term," Pascual tells SciDev.Net. He believes that farmers should join scientists in designing new measures, because they are familiar with the complexities of local systems.

"What I would have liked to see in the report is more attention to the time frame of any intervention," he says.

"Interventions need to be carefully balanced," because the relationship between agriculture and local environments is dynamic and changes over time, he explains. "Some funding approaches can work in the short period, but afterwards socio-ecological conditions will change as a consequence."

The report also recommends a range of actions aimed at governments in developed countries and Africa, to act upon sustainable intensification, in partnerships with the private sector, civil society organisations and NGOs.

These include providing support for research and innovation to help identify suitable technologies and processes; the scaling up and out of such technologies and processes; providing financial investments and markets that support sustainable intensification; and making required inputs and credits accessible to smallholder farmers in Africa.

While there are some interesting developments, it seems as if earlier work by various organisations including IITA, ILCA [ or alternate names for the essentially same organisation] seem to have been omitted from much of the report.

Is it a case of ignorance, or person turnover, so that they need to reinvent the wheel, again and again?

The full report [ a slim volume of 36pp] is a decent read.  But words are getting a bit passe........it is well past the time for some action. 

The link is here -
https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/africanagriculturaldevelopment/Public/Montpellier%20Panel%20Report%202013%20-%20Sustainable%20Intensification%20-%20A%20New%20Paradigm%20for%20African%20Agriculture.pdf

 
[ photo of zai farming systems as used in Burkina Faso to improve crop production; more here -
http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/iknt80.htm ]

Yes, some parts of Africa have made enormous strides in agricultural productivity, crop yields and "smart" and innovative production systems, but many others have not.  Climate variability does not help - with serious uncertainities unresolved about commencement of the rainy season.
African agriculture has been a laggard generally, in comparison to some other tropical regions, in terms of productivity, yet there are areas of great improvement - and across quite a range of crops.  Getting that translated into a wider area is critical, particularly in light of climate variability and uncertainity.

In northern tropical Australia, some better understanding of the monsoonal rain patterns is helping - not just for agriculture either but industry as well, including the oil and gas industries.

Resilient Agriculture that is Productive and Sustainable

Agriculture in Africa has long been considered as a real basket case. Production unable to meet societal needs, low productivity of crops, ravaged by pests and diseases, constant drought, flood or pestilence.

That can be changed, and is changing for the better in a number of African countries. Ghana has halved hunger in 2011, well before the goal of 2015, through a postive environment within government as well as adoption of innovation and newer technologies.

In Zambia, conservation technology and use of no-till for cropping has reduced crop water use and yields for maize are now five times the sub-saharan average.

Genetic engineering to improve bananas by developing plant disease resistance in Uganda also seems to offer a path towards major yield improvements and longer life of banana plantations, mostly owned by small land holders.

Also importantly, creation of new and effective grain storage and grain trading systems are leading to better grain trading across Africa and reducing food price volatility.

Improvements in the tropics of the world are critical to improving food security, and better food security also reduces tensions and conflicts.

A lot is founded on agricultural science, some on enabling conditions.........but it is happening.

Resilience in agriculture is critical..........and the gains in productivity need to be sustainable. Some of the system enhancements are making a real improvement, and improvement that will slowly translate into better fed, healthier people. Particularly when you also factor in some of the other improvements across other fields eg into malaria management, control and maybe eradication that can greatly improve the health and working productivity of people.

But the agricultural development is real, and a monster driver of better conditions.

The article below covers this in more detail, but the majority of people in the western countries still think agriculture is a dead end in many parts of the developing world. Not so!

Read more - http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/opinions/how-to-create-resilient-agriculture-1.html