FAO Calls for Increased Investment in Cassava Research

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for more research into the tropical root crop cassava as a way to help poor countries threatened by spiraling food and oil prices. Cassava is a staple food for millions of poverty stricken people in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia where it provides as much as a third of daily calories. At a conference in Belgium, members of the FAO-facilitated Global Cassava Partnership for Genetic Improvement (GCP21) reviewed the current state of cassava production worldwide and future prospects.

At present, the average cassava yields are barely 20 percent of those obtained under optimum conditions. Despite growing demand and its production potential, the crop is grown mainly in areas that have little or no access to improved varieties, fertilizer and other production inputs, by small scale farmers often cut off from marketing channels and agro-processing industries.

Members of GCP21 agreed on a number of new projects to realize the crop’s full potential in addressing the global food and energy crisis. The projects include establishment of a cassava chain delivery system to channel technical advances to poor farmers, improvement in soil fertility, enhancement of basic scientific knowledge of the crop, including genomics, and training for the next generation of cassava researchers in developing countries.

The media release is available at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000899/index.html For information on the GCP21, visit http://danforthcenter.org/gcp21/