Sustainable Agriculture May 2009
Cassava - for income as well as food
Paul Ilona: International cassava trials manager, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria
Summary:
Cassava used to be thought of as a 'poor man's crop', a necessary option for those farming in areas to dry to grow other staples, such as maize. But modern cassava breeding has produced varieties that are high yielding - up to 30 tonnes per hectare -which are the raw material for a number of booming industries. A cassava trials manager explains how this turn around in fortunes has been achieved.
Suggested introduction:
Sustainable agriculture, to many people, is about making sure that natural resources are cared for. But to many farmers sustainability means money - having a sustainable - or reliable - income from what they grow. Which is where plant breeders such as Paul Ilona, a cassava breeder based at IITA, an agricultural research centre in Nigeria.
A key aim is to breed crops that are more productive. The hope is that with better yields - or harvests - farmers will be better able to afford to spend time - and money - on good soil and water management, caring for the natural resources on which they rely.
Standing with Paul Ilona amongst his new and high-yielding cassava varieties, Emeka Ikegwuonu asks how economically sustainable it is to be a cassava farmer today in Nigeria and whether the status of cassava as a crop is changing.
Tape in:
Cassava is no longer a crop...
Tape out:
...rural poor to be a lot richer.
Closing Announcement:
Paul Ilona, cassava breeder, with an optimistic vision for how high-yielding, pest-resistant cassava varieties can help to reduce poverty as well as hunger.
Making the most of it:
Find out what advances there have been in plant breeding for the major crops in your country.
Do better yields result in better farming as well as better incomes?
Further information:
Paul Ilona,
International cassava trials manager,
IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Email@ p.ilona@cgiar.org
Transcript
Ilona
Cassava is no longer a crop for the resource poor, primarily for food security. Today, cassava is a major cash crop. In Nigeria today we have a number of large-scale industries that depend on cassava as raw material. Let's take the case of Nigerian Starch Mills, which is based at Ihiala. Nigerian Starch Mills, Ihiala, requires 400 metric tonnes of cassava per day to process into starch. And when you look at 400 metric tonnes a day, it is not what you can supply if your target is food security. And so, in our breeding work the need is for varieties to be resistant to prevalent pests and diseases and to give a very high return to unit area.
Ikegwuonu
Can you describe to us in what way are these new varieties improved more than the previous varieties?
Ilona
In the early 1970s, our farmers never harvested more than 3 tonnes per hectare. Now at 3 tonnes per hectare, they were barely able to provide food for themselves. As far as a farmer growing cassava today in Nigeria is concerned, any yield below 20 tonnes is uneconomical. If you compute the cost of land clearing, tillage, planting, weeding and harvesting, it tells you up to 16 tonnes per hectare you are marginally able to take care of your costs of production. And so research must ensure that a new variety is one that gives yield that is significantly above the 16 tonnes level which barely covers your production costs. A variety that is very susceptible to major pests and diseases will not give you 30 tonnes per hectare. And so in our breeding programme we must ensure that we address the need for varieties to show, or to have multiple pest resistance.
Ikegwuonu
Can you give us examples of how farmers react to these varieties?
Ilona
Well I must confess to you that farmers' responses to our varieties have been very, very positive. And if I go by my records, for this year alone, the requests for improved planting materials that we have received at IITA go above the 100,000 bundle mark already. If the varieties are not meeting the farmers' needs, I don't think anyone will bother to come to IITA to seek for improved planting materials. Although we know we have got our limitations. There is no way we can supply planting materials to all the farmers in the country and outside the country, and so today there is a very big market targeting stem production, such that, if somebody wants to grow 100 hectares, he doesn't necessarily have to come to IITA. We can simply link him to stem merchants in the country.
Ikegwuonu
Mr Ilona, you will agree with me that farmers were the first plant breeders. Can you describe to us how you involve farmers in the development of these different varieties?
Ilona
This is a very beautiful question. All that science is doing today is to build on what our forefathers did. We are simply trying to fast-track evolution. We have, over the years, integrated farmers very intimately in our breeding programme. We have what you call farmer participatory selection. The varieties I've just shown you were not selected by researchers themselves.
We can do a preliminary selection, but the final selection always needs to be done by farmers themselves.
Ikegwuonu
In five years, what difference will these varieties have on the livelihood of the rural poor?
Ilona
The rural poor will be a lot more food secure. But today, food security does not just mean food in the mouth. It means also money in the pocket, and so we expect the rural poor to be a lot richer. End of track.
