About 500,000 farmers in four African countries are to directly benefit from new research programme aimed at improving the productivity of cassava.
A statement by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture obtained on Friday said researchers and key partners, working under the Support for Agricultural Research and Development for Strategic Crops, had unveiled the programme aimed at improving the productivity of cassava by at least 20 per cent in project sites.
It would also increase household incomes and food security, and make the root crop work for the poor, it stated.
It said that four countries – DR Congo, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia – were the main beneficiaries of the cassava component but added that the project allowed neighboring countries to tap from technologies that would be generated.
“About 500,000 farmers are to directly benefit from the crop with more than two million indirect beneficiaries,” the Project Coordinator for the SARD-SC, Dr. Chrys Akem, said at the unveiling of the cassava component of the project in DR Congo.
Consumed by more than 600 million people in the developing countries, cassava is now competing with crops such as maize and rice as Africa’s major staple, according to the statement.
But the potential of the crop is still stymied by myriad challenges including pests and diseases, poor adoption of improved varieties by farmers, and low use of improved best practices.
It said, yields across most regions from local varieties were below 10 tonnes per hectare as opposed to over 30 tonnes per hectare obtained from improved varieties.
“The SARD-SC project intends to tackle most of the bottlenecks confronting cassava by disseminating improved varieties and unlocking the power of the crop along the value chain,” Akem added.
Participating countries welcomed the project, saying that it would help to alleviate hunger and poverty, and improve food security in Africa.
The DR Congo’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jean-Chrysostome Vahanwiti, was quoted in the statement as saying that cassava had been a food security crop and that research to improve the fortunes of cassava was a welcome development for the country and the region.
The minister, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Dr. Alexis Makumyaviri, said cassava was important to DR Congo as the major source of calorie and protein in the country.