Cassava,
a rough and ready root crop that has long been the foundation of food security
in Africa is finally getting the respect it deserves.
The Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development
(DFID) are investing $25.2 million to improve the staple crop’s productivity
and build human and technical capacity for plant breeding in sub-Saharan
Africa.
The five-year
project is hosted by Cornell University with five partner institutions: the
National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in Uganda, National Root
Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) in Nigeria, International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria, Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for
Plant Research in New York, and US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute
of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California.
“Next
Generation Cassava will give breeders in Africa access to the most advanced
plant breeding technologies to deliver improved varieties to farmers more
rapidly,” said Peter Kulakow, cassava breeder and geneticist with IITA, one of
the project’s three Africa-based partner institutes.
The
project will ensure that cassava genetic research is on a par with other top
food crops such as wheat, rice, maize and potato.
“Partners
on the Next Generation Cassava Breeding project will use a state-of-the-art
plant breeding approach known as genomic selection to improve cassava
productivity for the 21st century,” said Ronnie Coffman, Cornell
professor of plant breeding and genetics, director of International Programs,
and the principal investigator on the multi-partner grant.
“Increased
support for strengthening the research capacity in Africa and harnessing novel
technologies are critical to improving overall agricultural productivity and
food security for poor people,” said Yona Baguma, project coordinator for
NaCRRI who aims to unlock the potential of cassava in Africa and mobilize a
whole new generation of cassava growers.
Dr
Chiedozie Egesi, assistant director at NRCRI and
head of cassava breeding, said "Next Generation Cassava provides a
great opportunity for us to harness the power of modern science for faster
delivery of best-bet cassava varieties for smallholder farmers.”
Cassava
breeding is typically a lengthy process; it takes almost a decade to multiply
and release a new variety. Genomic selection can shorten breeding cycles,
provide more accurate evaluation at the seedling stage, and give plant breeders
the ability to evaluate a much larger number of clones without the need to
plant them in the target environment. Using genomic selection, new releases of
cassava could be ready in as little as six years.
Africa’s
small farmers produce more than half of the world’s cassava, or about 86
million tons from over 10 million hectares.
The
tough woody plant is predicted to be one of the few crops that will benefit
from climate change. It requires few inputs and can withstand drought, marginal
soils and long-term underground storage. A cash crop as well as a subsistence
crop, the storage roots of this perennial woody shrub are processed, consumed
freshly boiled or raw, and eaten by people as well as animals as a low-cost source
of carbohydrates. No other continent depends on cassava to feed as many people
as does Africa, where 500 million people consume it daily.
The
cassava team at Cornell also includes scientific leader Jean-Luc Jannink,
research geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture and adjunct professor
in the department of plant breeding and genetics, and Tim Setter, chair of the
department of crop and soil science.
In
addition to using the latest genomic information from cassava sequencing to
improve productivity and yield, project partners will incorporate cassava
germplasm diversity from South America into African breeding programs, train
the next generation of plant breeders, and improve infrastructure at African
institutions.
They
will also hold awareness-building workshops for farmers, scholars, researchers
and policy makers.
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