Maravi

Govt to list cassava as second priority crop

Govt to list cassava as second priority crop
By Joan Chirwa
Friday August 15, 2008 [03:00]

ZAMBIA and other African governments should increase investments in research and development to boost farmers’ cassava yields as a promising industrial crop, scientists have advised. And agriculture and co-operatives minister Ben Kapita said the government has noted the need to list cassava as the second priority crop from maize.

The scientists, who have formed an international network called the Global Cassava Partnership, said cassava could help protect the food and energy security of poor countries now threatened by soaring oil and food prices.

They called for a significant increase in investment in research and development needed to boost farmers’ yields and explore promising industrial uses of cassava, including production of biofuels.

“The world community cannot continue to ignore the plight of low-income tropical countries that have been hardest hit by rising oil prices and galloping food price inflation,” the scientists said.

Widely grown in tropical Africa, Asia and Latin America, cassava is the developing world’s fourth most important crop, with production in 2006 estimated at 226 million tonnes. It is the staple food of nearly a billion people in 105 countries, where the root provides as much as a third of daily calories.

One promising application is fermentation of the starch to produce ethanol used in biofuel, although the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) cautions that policies encouraging a shift to biofuel production should carefully consider its effects on food production and food security.

And Kapita said the government was trying to promote cassava as a second priority crop in Zambia.

“The Ministry of Agriculture last December sent a team of officials to Nigeria to learn how that country had developed its cassava sector,” said Kapita. “The report is out and I am happy with it. We will soon present it to Cabinet.”

Labels: BEN KAPITA, CASSAVA, MAIZE

posted by MrK @ 4:02 AM