Nigeria: 'Super Cassava' to enter field trials

An ambitious attempt to bioengineer cassava into a "complete meal" took a step forward last week with the approval of field trials for the plant by Nigeria's National Biosafety Committee. The genetically modified cassava contains 30 times as much beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, as its normal counterpart. Ultimately it is hoped the cassava will contain increased levels of iron, protein, zinc and vitamin E that will meet the minimum daily allowance in a 500 gram meal.

"This is one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in a major crop plant," said Richard Sayre of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St Louis, Missouri, who spoke at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Chicago, the United States last week (13 February).

Sayre directs the BioCassava Plus programme, which began in 2005 under the Grand Challenges for Global Health Programme. The challenge is to provide complete nutrition in a single staple crop.

Some 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa - and 800 million people globally - rely on cassava as their main source of energy. But it is low in nutrients, vulnerable to plant viruses, and it lasts only two days without processing.

As well as adding extra nutrients, the team has successfully produced varieties with increased virus resistance, decreased amounts of poisonous cyanides - which can remain in cassava if the crop is poorly processed - and a longer shelf life.

"We're transforming it into a staple that will provide complete nutrition," Sayre told SciDev.Net. Laboratory and greenhouse tests have been successful - for example, iron levels were increased ninefold, zinc fourfold and protein fourfold. The next stage is confined field trials - small-scale field trials to evaluate the performance of the crop under stringent conditions.

If those succeed, there will be nutrition trials, first in animals and then in humans. Nigeria's approval is the first it has granted for a GM confined field trial, said Sayre - though the document awaits the signature of the country's environment minister. The Nigerian National Root Crops Research Initiative will oversee the trials.

So far the traits have been introduced individually into plants. The first product with multiple traits is likely to contain just elevated vitamin A, iron and protein as well as virus resistance. "To add the other four is going to be technologically more challenging," said Sayre. The team also hopes to begin confined field trials in Kenya, to be overseen by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, before the end of 2009.

"We are now in the process of training African scientists in our labs. They are going to learn the technology to make a transgenic cassava plant. They will return and make the final products themselves," said Sayre.


Source: allafrica.com

Publication date: 2/24/2009

Rwanda: Cassava growers urged on quality

The Minister for Trade and Investment, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, has called upon cassava farmers to improve the crop's quality, while pledging government's full support to put up processing factories that will add value to the produce meant for export.

Nsanzabaganwa made the appeal last week, while meeting cassava growers in Ruhango district on a three-day working tour to assess how the ministry was supporting local investors in the province to stimulate development.

"The supply for cassava is promising locally but the demand both here and abroad is very high because Rwandan cassava is very delicious," Nsanzabaganwa told the Ruhango district local investors.

In the words of Nsanzabaganwa, "to sustain the interest of potential stakeholders, the cassava industry needs champions willing to improve the sub-sector's performance, including the setting up of the necessary processing sector to back up the increased production".

She urged farmers and would-be farmers to take advantage of the country's comparative advantage in cassava cultivation to increase its international market share.

"We (government) are planning to support locals put up factories that will process and add value onto the cassava into quality flour but the farmers need to first improve on their production quality levels".

According to the Minister, cassava production has been "promising only that farmers have to be supported to improve on the quality of what they produce."

Today a huge portion of the produce is exported to DRC and Burundi which necessitates the private sector to carry out a systematic campaign to do business in a well coordinated manner with its neighbouring countries.

Cassava production is still carried out on a small scale despite the high demand.


Source: allafrica.com

Publication date: 2/11/2009

Nigeria: Cassava growers association gets American support

In an effort geared towards achieving food security in Nigeria, the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association [NCGA] at the weekend disclosed that it is presently collaborating with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, (IITA), Ibadan in accessing aid from the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) to assist cassava growers in the country boost their output this year.

In a statement signed by the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association's National President Chief Moses Ayinmodu, the farmers' group stated that it strict the deal with the United States based organization as a way to make a positive and significant contribution to president Umaru Musa Yar'adua' 7-Point Agenda which includes Food Security for Nigerians.

The Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) also disclosed that it is at the moment disbursing a N200 million [two hundred million Naira] loan facility it secured for its members across the country from the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank in Kaduna.

The group stated thus; "Nigeria Cassava Growers Association is presently collaborating with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan in accessing aid from the USAID for cassava growers in various parts of the country. Under the programme, five thousand (5,000) good cassava growers are being selected in each of the ten states specially selected for this purpose. Each participating farmer will be given planting materials of improved and high yielding varieties of cassava and assisted to plant one hectare successfully. The programme is expected to commence at the beginning of the coming rainy season".

The main aim of the programme according to it, is to make planting materials of improved and high yielding varieties of cassava readily available to the ordinary farming families in the rural areas.

"In the first year, the high yielding varieties of cassava will be multiplied on 50,000 hectare of farmers' farmland. It is expected that by next year, there will be enough planting materials of these high yielding varieties throughout the country. Presently, the average cassava farmer in the country is obtaining only about 12-15 tons per hectare. Whereas smaller countries like Thailand are obtaining over 40-50 tons per hectare. This programme being sponsored by USAID aims at making Nigeria a country where the average cassava farmer will be producing 40-50 tons of cassava per hectare. The implications of this programme are clear", it stated.

The group stated that prior to the introduction of this USAID Assisted Programme, Nigeria Cassava Growers Association had been distributing planting materials of some improved varieties of cassava to cassava farmers in Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Taraba, FCT, Kogi, Plateau, Ebonyi, Kwara, Enugu, Zamfara, Anambra, Niger, Kebbi and Nasarawa States, from RTEP cassava multiplication farm in Nasarawa State, with the financial assistance of Raw Materials Research and Development Council. Additional assistance promised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources is still being awaited.

Lamenting that one of the factors constituting a bottle-neck in cassava farmers' attempt to increase their production is the inadequacy of agricultural credit facility and the difficulty in accessing the limited credit available, Nigeria Cassava Growers Association said it has therefore been making concerted efforts to assist members of the Association in various parts of the country to access agricultural credit from various sources.

"A part from the paltry amounts of loans obtained with great difficulties from the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank in Kaduna, some credit facilities have been obtained for the cassava farmers", it said.

Chief Ayinmodu who is a national award winner of the officer of the order of the Niger (OON) further stated that; "these include, among others, N60 million interest free loan from UNDP for cassava farmers in Osun State, N100 million loan from the Flour Millers Association of Nigeria, (FMAN) in 2007 for over 1,000 cassava farmers in various parts of the Country, N160 million loan from UBA Bank for cassava farmers in Osun State with guaranty from Osun State Government. Efforts made at getting NDDC to assist cassava farmers in the Delta States have not yielded any positive result. However, fresh attempts are being made to get the new Federal Ministry of Niger Delta, to come to the aid of cassava farmers in the region. Similarly pressures are being put on some State Governors who have shown some interest in cassava production, (e.g. Ekiti State), and some Micro-Finance Banks to provide cassava farmers in their States and area of coverage with adequate micro-credit. In 2008, NCGA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank in Kaduna for the provision of N200 million loan to members of the Association in the various States of the country. The loan is still being disbursed but rather too slowly".

The group further announced the introduction of innovative farmers' market information Global System of Telecommunication, (GSM) in collaboration with service providers in the country.

Chief Ayinmodu said thus; "one of the problems facing Nigeria Cassava Growers Association is the difficulty in marketing members' cassava and cassava products, mainly as a result of poor Market Information System (MIS) in the country. Some months ago, the Presidency through NEPAD Nigeria Office organized a series of workshops on Food Security at the end of which a National Plan of Action on Food Security was drawn up. The development of a Market Information System is a priority item of the National Action Plan. Nigeria Cassava Growers Association, working with other Commodity Associations, such as Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Cotton Grower Association of Nigeria, Sesame Farmers Association of Nigeria, Messrs Farms to Market Synergies Limited and Zain Nigeria took up this challenge and developed a Farmers Network to fill the gap. The Farmers Network is a Close User Group (CUG) that will offer a wide range of discounted services to subscribers who are stakeholders in the Agricultural Sector".


Source: allafrica.com

Publication date: 2/9/2009