The Triumphant Cassava Chronicled by Foresight, Political Will and Accountability

Abstract

In terms of production, area planted and more importantly, the number of dependent families, cassava is one of the most important crops in the contemporary world, probably next only to the prominent three food crops, rice, wheat and maize. The fact that cassava attained the greatest leap in production and the area harvested and one of the highest yield improvement among the world’s major food crops in the last 30 years suggests the great potential of cassava for future as well. In a worldwide comparison among the three major root crops, i.e. potato, sweet potato and cassava, cassava is now the first in total area harvested, production (calorie basis) and yield (calorie basis). In the last 30 years, the area planted with potato and sweet potato actually decreased and the yield mostly stagnated. In contrast, during the same period, cassava production more than doubled in Africa and Asia, in the former mainly due to the increase in area and in the latter, very dominantly due to the improvement in yield. The inherent strength of cassava in producing robust yields even under harsh conditions may be the main reason for cassava’s success in Africa. The introduction of new high yielding, high starch varieties may be the major driving force for the great yield improvement in Asia.Despite all these successes and the undeniable importance, cassava is only remotely recognized worldwide even nowadays. It was nearly a totally neglected commodity until recently. Yet, there were nameless pioneers who had domesticated wild plants to be a great crop of future, the cassava. There were men of scope who recognized not only the incumbent importance but also the untapped potential of this crop more than 40 years ago. There were men of determination who paved the way to bring cassava to the international research attention. It was extremely fortunate for researchers to follow cassava breeding based on excellent genetic material under a nearly ideal institutional arrangement provided by these pioneers of foresight and political will. A detailed account of the cassava development, particularly the varietal improvement and trends in area, production and productivity in the recent years, the political will and foresight of the pioneers in cassava development and the accountability of researchers are discussed in this paper.