Five countries that are severely affected by deadly viral diseases threatening to wipe out cassava in East, Central, and Southern Africa, have joined efforts to tackle the problem. These countries agreed to share their top five varieties that could best withst and these threats. The 25 varieties will then be evaluated in each country to identify varieties well adapted to various cassava-growing regions and acceptable to the local farming communities.
Together cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) and cassava mosaic disease (CMD) cause production losses worth more than US$1 billion every year and are a threat to food and income security for over 30 million farmers growing the crops in East and Central Africa.
During the h anding over of the tissue culture plantlets to IITA and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Dr Ochieng Joseph, Assistant Director, Food Crops at KARI, who was also the chief guest, said this marked a very important step in the efforts to control the two cassava diseases as part of efforts to ensure food security in the five countries.
He thanked all the partner organizations for their efforts in collecting, cleaning up, and multiplying the varieties that they are sharing. “The next task will be to ensure once these varieties are evaluated and the best varieties identified, and they reach the small-holder farmers by having an efficient seed distribution system in place. Without seeds, we have no varieties. And all our efforts and the breeders’ efforts will have been in vain,” he said.
“Cassava is a very important food and income security crop for over 80 million farmers in the tropics. We are also looking to it to help our farmers cope with climate change as it is able to withst and harsh conditions such as drought and poor soils. However, for this to happen we need to control the spread of these two diseases. And one of the most sustainable ways to do so is to develop varieties that have dual resistance,” said Dr Leena Tripathi, the IITA Kenya Country Representative.
This exchange of material is one of the key activities of the project “New Cassava Varieties and Clean Seed to Combat CMD and CBSD” led by IITA and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project aims to alleviate food insecurity and poverty by ensuring that farmers have access to high-quality disease-free planting material of diverse improved varieties that combine resistance to CBSD and CMD with preferred end-user characteristics.
The varieties were first sent to the Natural Resources Institute (NRI, UK) and to Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) for cleaning and then forwarded to GTIL.
“Each country will have 20 new varieties to evaluate and choose for official release and multiplication to farmers,” said Dr Edward Kanju, IITA breeder and 5CP Project Coordinator. “We have also taken steps to ensure that we are not spreading the diseases from one country to another and that the materials that we are distributing are virus free.”
Each country will receive 300 plantlets of the 25 varieties which they will multiply in bulk and test across different cassava growing regions to fast-track efforts to provide farmers with varieties that are tolerant to the two diseases.
“On behalf of the National Agricultural Research Systems from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ug anda and Kenya, I receive these tissue-culture plantlets and promise we will multiply and test them across different cassava growing regions. We will identify those that are tolerant to the diseases and suitable for different uses such as for cooking, for flour, and even for starch,” said Dr Therese Munga, the 5CP Kenya Country Coordinator and also the Head of Cassava research at KARI.
Catherine Njuguna, East and Central Africa Regional Communications Officer, c.njuguna@cgiar.org
About IITA www.iita.org
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Its award-winning research for development (R4D) approach addresses the development needs of tropical countries. IITA works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is a non-profit organization founded in 1967 in Nigeria and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA works on the following crops: cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava, and maize. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
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