Cassava thrives in semi-arid areas of Africa

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Date Issued
1993
Language
en
Type
News Item
Accessibility
Open Access
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Citation
CTA. 1993. Cassava thrives in semi-arid areas of Africa . Spore 45. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/49142
External link to download this item: http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta45e/
Abstract/Description
High yielding and drought-resistant cassava varieties are now giving fresh hopes of food self-sufficiency ecological zones of Africa which are so often prone to crop failure as a result of drought and poor soils. Cassava is being introduced in the...
Notes
High yielding and drought-resistant cassava varieties are now giving fresh hopes of food self-sufficiency ecological zones of Africa which are so often prone to crop failure as a result of drought and poor soils. Cassava is being introduced in the Sahelian region not only for food security but also gradually to replace maize for industrial starch production, and sugar cane for industrial alcohol production, thereby releasing these crops for human consumption. Areas of Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger northern Nigeria and Senegal that currently have an annual rainfall of 500mm or less, can now successfully produce large quantities of the newly-developed drought-resistant cassava varieties. Farmers in the region have already expressed enthusiasm at the introduction of cassava to their farming systems. At Minjibir village, 30 minutes drive north-east of Kano in Nigeria, drought-resistant cassava varieties were the only crops with green leaves which were found to flourish during the dry season. When harvested after 12 months the yields were comparable to those obtained in the rainforest zones of southern Nigeria. IITA PMB 5320 Ibadan NIGERIA
Subjects
CROPS;
Regions
Sahel; Africa
Organizations Affiliated to the Authors
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
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