About Cassava
Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a vital crop for farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), playing a crucial role in food security and economic sustainability. Its adaptability to diverse climates and poor soils makes it a reliable staple crop, particularly in areas facing unpredictable rainfall and harsh conditions. Cassava’s resilience to drought and its ability to produce high yields with minimal inputs ensures consistent production, even in marginal environments where other crops may likely fail. Millions of smallholder farmers (typically less than 2 acers of land) in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on cassava storage roots as a food source (Figure 1).
It provides a year-round source of calories and carbohydrates for rural households, helping to reduce hunger and malnutrition. Additionally, its long harvest window allows farmers to manage food supply and income throughout the year. Economically, cassava’s versatility extends beyond its consumption as fresh roots. Farmers and rural processors produce a variety of value-added products such as gari, flour, and starch, which are sold in local and regional markets. Cassava is by far the most important crop for farmers income on the African continent (Figure 2).
Africa produces nearly 60% of the world’s cassava, with Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Tanzania being the largest producers on the continent. Despite being the largest producer, Africa’s average yield per hectare is relatively low, typically ranging from 8 to 12 tons per hectare. By contrast, countries in Southeast Asia achieve much higher yields, averaging between 20 to 25 tons per hectare, with some regions recording yields of up to 30 tons per hectare.
Doubling cassava yields for African farmers would have transformative benefits. It would significantly enhance food security, providing more food to feed rural households and reducing hunger. Economically, increased yields would boost farm incomes by allowing farmers to sell surplus cassava in local and regional markets. Higher productivity could also lower production costs per unit, making cassava more competitive in global markets. Additionally, it would open up more opportunities for value-added processing, such as producing flour, starch, and bioethanol, thus stimulating rural economies and creating jobs across the value chain. Overall, it would strengthen resilience against climate and economic shocks.
Several initiatives are underway to boost cassava productivity in Africa. This includes the introduction of improved varieties that are more resistant to diseases and have higher yields, training of farmers in improved agronomic practices, including the proper use of fertilizers and pest control measures, efforts to mechanize cassava production, which can reduce labor intensity and improve yields and the development of value chains to process cassava into value-added products like starch, flour, and animal feed, which can help increase demand and improve farm incomes.
About the Project
The Cassava Source-Sink project is an international consortium of plant scientists focused on cassava yield improvement. The project aims to utilize biotechnology to alter cassava´s source-sink balance in a favorable manner in order to achieve higher storage root yields without requiring additional farming inputs. The project is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Uwe Sonnewald (CASS director) and Dr. Wolfgang Zierer (CASS project manager) at the Division of Biochemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander- University Erlangen-Nürnberg and partners with 10 universities or institutions in 7 different countries. The project now enters its third funding phase and will be focusing on the development of yield-improved cassava prototypes and the development of key technologies for further product development. In the previous funding phases, the project established a full workflow for the generation and testing of transgenic cassava plants, a molecular toolbox for cassava gene expression, and identified promising concepts for yield improvements. Many learnings about cassava biochemistry and physiology were obtained and several papers were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. CASS previously received support from the Bill- and Melinda Gates Foundation and currently receives support from Gates Agricultural Innovations. Feel free to visit the “What We Do” section of the website to learn more about cassava and the CASS project!
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