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The need to increase cassava production in Africa has been said to be urgent as it is a vital step towards preventing a major food crisis by 2050.
Claude Fauquet, director for the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century (GCP21), said this at a world press conference in Lagos heralding the forth-coming International Cassava Conference scheduled to hold in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, from June 11 to 15, 2018.
Fauquet explained that the low root yields of cassava in Africa was deplorable and called on member nations to adequately invest in the crop to change the current yield per hectare.
Though accounting for 55 percent of global cassava root production, Africa’s yield per hectare is the lowest in the world with about 10 tons per ha as opposed to Asia where average yield is 21 tons per hectare or double the yield in Africa.
He maintained that if nothing is done urgently to boost cassava production it would hurt the continent as it would have to contend with more people to feed, and changes in climate that would become more unpredictable.
According to him, to reverse the current trajectory would demand deliberate steps including greater investment in research and innovations, provisions of a favourable policy framework, accessibility of loans to farmers at single digit rates, and mechanisation across the value chain.
He further said that Africa needed to scale out proven technologies including the recommendations on weed control being developed by the Cassava Weed Management Project, improved cassava varieties, and best-bet agronomic practices such as appropriate fertilizer application.
“If we do these, then to double cassava yield will not be a dream but a possibility,” he said.
Fauquet said while technologies existed to transform cassava, not many policy makers were aware of such technologies, adding that the forthcoming Global Conference on Cassava with the theme ‘Cassava Transformation in Africa’ was a unique opportunity that would create an environment for exchange of technical, scientific, agricultural, industrial and economic information about cassava among strategic stakeholders like scientists, farmers, processors, end-users, researchers, the private sector, and donor agencies.
300 participants including policymakers, scientists, farmers, processors, end-users, researchers, the private sector, and donor agencies would be participating in the conference.
Malachy Akoroda, a professor and director designate of GCP21, said that the conference would provide an opportunity for African countries to tap the best current, and most innovative technologies that would transform cassava value chain across Africa.
“This Conference is a shining opportunity for Africa. It will also fill gaps in cassava research and development towards unlocking the potential of cassava for food security and wealth creation for farmers, processors, transporters, marketers, and packaging enterprises,” he added.
Ngozi Okpalakunne
