Malawi: Small Farmers Benefit from Cassava Project

A project to produce high-yielding cassava for processing into industrial starch is raising the income of small scale farmers of the Masinda Club Factory, while also benefiting farmers from neighboring villages from their sales of raw cassava roots for processing. Farmers were trained, among other things, in cassava production, processing, factory management, and environmental sanitation.

Established in 2003 with an initial capacity to produce four tons of industrial starch monthly, the factory now produces 20 tons, and it has facilitated an increase of about 38.42% in cassava production after two years of operations. Following the example of the Masinda Club Factory, several companies are establishing similar cassava treatment factories in the country.

The initiative, a public- public partnership, is lead by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with the Southern African Root Crops Research Network (IITA/SARRNET), with funding from USAID.

Read more at: http://www.iita.org/cms/details/news_feature_details.aspx?articleid=986&zoneid=342