Cassava or tapioca, that had saved millions from starvation in Asia and Africa in the past, is being rediscovered by international organisations as a dependable source of nutrition and fuel, when world food and oil prices are on the rise and inflation erodes the purchasing power of marginalised people across the globe.
In 2006, about 226 million tonne of cassava was produced in the world. It was staple food in over 105 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Cassava is also a source of starch and is used as an industrial feed stock. It is also being used to produce ethanol and biofuel.
“Despite growing demand and its production potential, cassava remains an ‘orphan crop’. It is grown mainly in areas that have little or no access to improved varieties, fertiliser and other production inputs, by small-scale farmers often cut off from marketing channels and agro-processing industries. Governments have not yet made the needed investments in value-added research that would make cassava starch products competitive on an international scale,” UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has noted.
However, the world food crisis is bringing cassava to the global limelight. At a recent conference of FAO in Belgium, cassava scientists from international organisations, donor nations and non-governmental organisations with a global reach have formed an international network called the ‘Global Cassava Partnership’. They said the world community could not continue to ignore the plight of low-income tropical countries that have been hardest hit by rising oil prices and galloping food price inflation.
They reasserted that “the tropical root crop cassava could help protect the food and energy security of poor countries now threatened by soaring food and oil prices.” They have called for a significant increase in investment in research and development needed to boost farmers’ yields and explore promising industrial uses of cassava, including production of biofuels.