Inter Press Service (Johannesburg): "Cassava Combating Rural Hunger"
http://allafrica.com/stories/201101040722.html
After nearly 20 years of research and development scientists in Zambia have finally announced an important breakthrough which has the potential to dramatically improve the vitality of rural communities. Through the country’s domestic “Root and Tuber Improvement Programme (RTIP)” local scientists have generated “four new, early-maturing and high-yielding cassava cultivars.” These plants mature in half the time of the traditional cassava. This initiative targets the rural areas of Zambia which have particular difficulties with poverty and hunger. By generating a more durable but indigenous plant rural communities are able to meet their nutritional needs on their own, more quickly and without environmental degradation. Many believe that this could turn the tide for poor rural communities and even “significantly transform Zambia's slippery socio-economic landscape.”
The researchers from RTIP are so positive about this development particularly because of the widespread usefulness of the cassava plant. Dr. Chiona, the lead researcher for the project, explains that “with this crop, you throw away literally nothing at all,” and can be used as “floor polish, hair chemicals, animal and fish feed from the leaves, firewood and seeds from the stems and fodder from the peels.” In addition to the plant’s usefulness, it is a resource that directly targets rural regions where the bulk of Zambia’s poor reside. For one rural woman, Elias Mwila, the new strain of cassava has made a major difference her live and the ones she supports. She explains, “I have been using the old variety of cassava since 1992 only for meeting my family's basic food needs. But things have changed and now I am even planning to start selling the surplus.” Many Zambian organizations are focusing on agricultural development to help alleviate poverty in the rural areas. The development of stronger, faster yielding cassava is a major step in this development goal.
The hope is that this homegrown agricultural development boosts Zambia’s economy at all levels. For subsistence farmers faster yielding cassava leads to more opportunities for harvest and less fear of drought and floods. Some may even be able to turn a profit through selling access food or producing goods from the plant. An increased number of families or individuals with disposable income are highly beneficial to the economy as a while. Donors and government authorities hope that this will also create greater security and in turn even greater economic growth.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
An article from ‘Africa Renewal’ Magazine about Cassava in Africa: http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol20no2/202-cassava.html
An article from USAID on a Cassava ‘Mega Project’: http://eastafrica.usaid.gov/en/Article.1154.aspx
A video on a Cassava growing project in Uganda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr4IGKA7B3M
An article from the International Food Policy Research Institute on ‘Recent Growth in Africa Cassava’: http://www.aec.msu.edu/fs2/cassava/focus12_03.pdf
DISCUSSION QUESTION
1. Do you think something as simple as a vegetable can begin to transform a developing economy?
2. What else must be put in place to make sure that cassava yields are brought to market and produce an income for the farmers?
