The Cassava Transformation: Africa's Best-Kept Secret

Chapter 13. The Cassava Transformation: Synthesis

CHAPTER 13 The cassava Transformation: Synthesis Cassava and Africa's Food Crisis Africa's food crisis is a stubborn problem. Africa became a net food importer in the early 1970s, and food production grew at half of the population growth rate from 1970 to 1985. Africa's population is expected to double to 1.2 billion by 2020, and its urban population will grow at a faster rate. The average per capita GNP in Africa in the year 2000 was US$480 (World Bank 2000). Many countries have been destabilized by civil strife, authoritarian regimes, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Yet the African food crisis is rooted in the mass poverty of Africans and the low and unstable crop yields throughout the nation. Raising per capita incomes and increasing food production represent two sides of the same coin (Eicher 1982). The dramatic cassava transformation that is under way in some African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana is Africa's best-kept secret. This book describes how the new TMS varieties have transformed cassava from a low-yielding famine-reserve crop to a high-yielding cash crop that is prepared and consumed as a dry cereal (gan). We focus on the cassava transformation for two important reasons. First, cassava is Africa's 185 The Cassava Transformation second-most important food staple in terms of per capita calories consumed . Cassava is a major source of calories for roughly two out of every five Africans. In some countries, cassava is consumed daily, and sometimes more than once a day. In the Congo, cassava contributes more than one thousand calories per person per day to the average diet, and many families eat cassava for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Cassava is consumed with a sauce made with ingredients rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals . In the Congo and Tanzania, cassava leaves are consumed as a vegetable . Cassava leaves are rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals. The second reason to focus on cassava is to tell the story of the cassava production revolution that has been fueled by the introduction of the high-yielding TMS varieties, starting in Nigeria in 1977. The TMS varieties have boosted farm-level yields by 40 percent (from 13.41 tons to 19.44 tons per hectare) without fertilizer application. With the aid of mechanical graters to prepare gari, cassava is increasingly being produced and processed as a cash crop for urban consumption in Nigeria and Ghana. This book points out the potential of cassava in helping to close Africa's food production gap and helping the rural and urban poor by reducing the price of cassava. Yet the underlying data base on cassava in Africa is woefully inadequate. Only two books have been published on cassava in Africa in the past forty years: Manioc in Africa by W. o. Jones (1959) and Cassava in Shifting Cultivation by L. O. Fresco (1986). To address the lack of information on Africa's second-most important food crop, a Collaborative Study of Cassava in Africa (COSCA) was initiated by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1989 and based at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). During aneight-year period (from 1989 to 1997), COSCA researchers collected information from 1,686 households in 281 villages in six countries: the Congo, the C6te d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. In early 2001, COSCA researchers collected information from cassava starch industries and from industries that use cassava as a raw material in Nigeria. The findings of the six-country COSCA study are the primary source of information for this book. Without question, cassava is a much-maligned crop. Many critics of cassava have pointed out that: 186 The Cassava Transformation: Synthesis • cassava is consumed by poor rural households and by animals; • cassava impoverishes the soil; • cassava is a "women's crop" that requires female extension agents and special cassava projects for women; • cassava often kills people because it contains lethal quantities of cyanogens (prussic acid); and • cassava is deficient in protein. These myths and half-truths constitute a great deal of misinformation which has discouraged African governments and donors from investing in speeding up the cassava transformation. The COSCA findings presented in this book can help African policy makers and scientists update their overall knowledge about cassava and its role as an important component of anti-poverty and food security programs. Cassava is a food staple in low-, middle-, and upper-income households...