processors and farmers who use sun-drying. However, we stopped after a year as supply was irregular and the quality inconsistent.” Adebayo Abass, IITA cassava value chain specialist and the project’s regional coordinator, explained that the project is introducing appropriate and low cost mechanical drying systems that will solve the problems associated with sun drying. The project will involve about 9000 small-scale farmers and processors in the three countries to sustainably produce and market HQCF. Nicholas Cromme, CFC project manager, added that the project intends to attract the private sector to take over the commercial production of HQCF and make it competitive, sustainable, and beneficial to resource-poor farmers. Aside from providing farmers with improved high-yielding cassava varieties, the project will also train them on modern agricultural practices and processing technologies. Watson Mwale, former Director of the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), says that “in many countries, cassava is perceived as a subsistence crop. This project hopes to change this by maximizing its income-generating potential.” “Cassava is a highly dependable food security crop that can help ease future turmoil in world food supply as it is thinly traded in the global markets. It can also foster economic development through processing,” said Adam Prakash from the FAO. According to the regional project coordinator, ‘The project is a follow-up to a similar one that we implemented from 2003 to 2007. During that phase, we introduced to smallholder farmers and farmer groups simple, market-oriented technologies to transform the highly-perishable fresh cassava into stable, high value products such as chips and HQCF’. In this current project, we would be partnering with ZARI, the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre, and Madagascar’s National Center for Applied Research on Rural Development.
...to mechanized methods that are safer, hygienic, and more efficient. Photos by IITA.
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