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Africa |
ECONOMY
Farmers celebrate the success of cassava
in the semi-arid zones of West
and Central Africa
Nicodem Sanou lives in Santidougou village in the Bobo-Dioulassou region of Burkina Faso. Here’s his story «This year I’ve been able to pay my children’s school fees without any problem, thanks to cassava». For 53 year-old Nicodem, this is an achievement! His wife, Rachael, and their six children have never had it so good. Before now, thoughts of how to meet the financial commitments on his children had given him sleepless nights.
This year, however, Nicodem made a fortune from the sales of cassava products from his 10-hectare farm. So far, Nicodem has made more than CFA francs 300,000. In addition, he has stacked eleven bags of cassava chips in the store waiting for the market, yet he has more than half of his cassava farm still unharvested. Nicodem now serves as the linkman between the communities and the extension agents. He is also a leading cassava grower and secretary of the cassava growers association in the area.
Burkina Faso
Nicodem’s story is typical of the approximately 1,000 inhabitants of Santidougou and the other neighbouring villages of Kimidougou and Doufiguisso, where cassava has become a cash crop for the Burkinabe peasants. The only crops previously known to the people were maize, millet, groundnuts, and sorghum. «Introducing cassava to the farmers in place of the cereals has not been that easy», says Dr Remi Dabire, an agronomist with INERA, Burkina Faso’s main agricultural research institute. «At first, the farmers accepted cassava with an element of doubt,» he emphasizes, «but with the introduction of a wide range of cassava-based foods and raw materials for industries, the farmers saw new hope in their quest for food security. The demand for improved planting materials of cassava, has increased tremendously as a result».
Chad
Burkina Faso’s success story is repeated in Njamena-Bousso village, southwestern Chad. One old farmer in the village admits he never knew that cassava could be processed into any other food items, other than eating it raw like a carrot as a snack. The farmer says: «From the age of seven, I used to eat raw cassava roots like carrots, and that was the habit in my village. The cassava varieties produced tiny tubers that looked like fingers. I never knew that cassava could provide me with better food and income».
«Using raw cassava as a snack, is a common feature in all the semi-arid countries, and this is what we want to correct», says Paul Ilona, a research associate with the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Cassava should be processed for food in order to bring more income to the farmers. In southwest Chad, thanks to the help of the organization, Catholic Help for Development (SECADEV), a non-governmental organization, local women have been trained to process cassava into various food items such as couscous, gari, and tapioca.
The same is true at Grande Sido village, further southeast, near Chad’s border with the Central African Republic. Here, farmers have formed themselves into cooperatives, planting cassava because of the positive attributes of the crop, firstly to meet their immediate food needs and secondly as a cash crop. With the new uses of cassava in the country, the crop is fast replacing cotton as a cash crop.
According to Mr Noel, president of the joint farmers’ cooperative organizations, the advantages are obvious. «We are not abandoning cotton, though. Cassava is preferred because it is a food and is improving our lives economically».
World Vision International (WVI) is involved in transferring cassava utilization technologies to farmers across the country. Also, the Chadian government has made a grant available for the multiplication of improved cassava varieties in the area, and will continue to encourage farmers to plant more cassava to fight hunger and malnutrition in the country. «Considering the efforts of the farmers in adopting improved cassava technologies, it is safe to say that cassava is fast becoming a staple food in various parts of Chad, and this is a food revolution», says Dr. Mbailao, agronomist and extension officer for root and tuber crops at l’Institut Tchadienne de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (ITRAD).
The revolution is already spreading like wildfire across the country. Recently, more than 200 women participated at a farmers’ field day organized in Deli, Central Chad, to sensitize women farmers. The women’s enthusiasm was such that exactly three months later, the machine supplied by IITA in collaboration with ITRAD and SECADEV, had been taken around all the 15 villages in the area, processing an average of ten tonnes of cassava per day, six days a week.
Food security is more than having enough to eat. It includes having a balanced diet. With millet and sorghum, it is not easy for Chadian peasants to meet this demand. However, cassava offers a balanced diet to the farmers. The roots are rich in carbohydrates, and the leaves are a good source of protein for resource-poor farmers. Recent studies have confirmed that the protein value of cassava leaves, is equal to that of eggs. In this regard, IITA has been involved in training national extension officers in all Sahelian countries of West and Central Africa, about the use of cassava leaves.
Ghana
In Cheyohi and Tingoli near Tamale, northern Ghana, farmers have adopted new names for the improved cassava varieties introduced to them by researchers of the Savanna Research Institute (SARI), working in collaboration with IITA in Ghana. Farmers describe cassava as a «God-given crop destined to end our sorrows and years of toiling. Our only regret is lack of adequate processing equipment», says Pa Alhassan, President of the farmers association of Tingoli village.
Niger
The success story of cassava in Niger is no less fascinating. At Sabo-Birnin village, some 300 km southeast of Niamey, Mallam Mahamadou Isaka, on seeing the high yield of cassava tubers harvested from his farm, remarked that «the varieties of cassava supplied by the extension officers of l’Institut Nationale de Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), are magic crops.» He said he had discarded the unimproved varieties for the new ones because of their high yields.
The adoption of the improved varieties supplied by INRAN extension officers, has equally put a price on the crop. «Nobody is willing to let go a thing of beauty,» says Mrs Zenaibou Baoua, of the Programme D’Appui au Developpement Local (PADEL), an NGO working with rural farmers in that country. She has been involved in training women on how to process cassava into food products at village level. Women in the rural areas now produce foufou, gari, starch, and other cassava products hitherto imported from Benin and Nigeria. This has helped in forcing the price of the products down, while the women now have better purchasing power for other basic needs of life.
PADEL has entered into partnership with a local entrepreneur, to produce cassava processing equipment at minimal cost. There are also arrangements to acquire these equipment for low and medium-scale processors.
Remarkable progress
Improved cassava varieties with the potential for drought resistance, were first introduced to the semi-arid areas of West and Central Africa in the early 1990s, by IITA scientists. However, with additional funds provided by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), remarkable progress has been made.
Working in collaboration with scientists and farmers in the semiarid zone of Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Niger, and Nigeria, over 40 improved varieties of cassava were identified and tested in over 125 villages with more than 25,000 farmers benefiting. Four of these varieties have been finally adopted in Chad, 2 in Niger, 3 in Burkina Faso, 2 in Ghana, and 2 in Nigeria. The adoption success is highly related to the strategic use of farmer-participatory selection in the breeding phase. The simultaneous introduction of new processing techniques and equipment, also provided a market-oriented springboard for the adoption of these new varieties.
According to Alfred Dixon, IITA cassava breeder in charge of the semi-arid cassava project, «the success story of Malawi, another drought prone country where USAID also provided funding to support the introduction of more durable root crops into the predominantly maize-based cropping system, gave us the encouragement that we shall not fail».
He is right. Cassava is about the most important food energy source in Africa, serving as a source of stable food reserve and income, especially in the drought-prone areas where other crops are susceptible to failure. It tolerates poor soils, and has the ability to survive and recover from damage from diseases, insect pests, and animals. The unique feature of the semi-arid zone of West and Central Africa, is the pitiless weather where especially in the north, the rainy season is extremely short. More often than not, the poor rainfall causes crop failures leading to food shortage, malnutrition, and poverty. That is the battle, all stakeholders in agricultural research and development have to win, if the ever-increasing populations of the semi-arid region of West and Central Africa are to be liberated from squalor and misery. The battle has started, and a quiet revolution is already underway in these regions.
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