Two leading cassava research Centers reinforce their collaboration to make what is one of the best crops for hard times even better in these hard times

As multiple crises — from global warming to global financial meltdown — place greater pressures on small-scale farmers in the tropics, cassava is bound to thrive. The tolerance of environmental stresses such as drought and infertile soils that is inherent in this hardy and highly productive root crop offers clear advantages in the face of growing climatic and economic uncertainty, as does its diversity of uses as a staple food, animal feed and industrial raw material.

In a heightened effort to fulfill cassava’s enormous development potential, the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical (CIAT) and Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) are moving to strengthen their longstanding collaboration in research on this crop, which contributes importantly to the livelihoods of more than 600 million people in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Cassava contributes to the livelihoods of millions in the developing world.

The collaboration of the two Centers, which are regarded as leaders in cassava research, brings together a set of unique scientific capacities and an impressive record of research achievement and impact through extensive networks of national partners.

Improved varieties developed by IITA, offering disease resistance and 50% higher yields than local materials, have been introduced throughout Africa’s cassava belt and have come to occupy about 60% of the cassava area in Nigeria, the world’s leading cassava producer.

The Institute has also made valuable contributions to Nigeria and other countries through its development of postharvest technology. IITA and its partners in Nigeria recently developed a less expensive and more efficient flash dryer that produces 300% more cassava flour than current models while using 40% less fuel. In addition to its cost savings, the new technology promises to save developing countries millions of dollars in grain imports by facilitating efforts to substitute cassava for up to 10% of wheat flour used to bake bread.

New cassava varieties from CIAT, while benefiting Latin American countries as different from one another as Brazil and Haiti, have had even more dramatic impacts in Southeast Asia, generating more than US$1 billion in economic benefits for China, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries. The Center’s many years of successful involvement with Asia’s thriving cassava sector is highly relevant to Latin America and could be of great benefit to Africa as well.

“Through stronger ties and synergies between our research teams,” says Ruben Echeverría, director general of CIAT, “we will develop improved varieties and other technologies of even greater value for reducing hunger, improving human nutrition and combating poverty in the developing world.”

CIAT, located near cassava’s center of origin in South America, safeguards the world’s largest holdings of cassava genetic resources and actively explores this collection in search of such important traits as increased protein content to improve cassava’s nutritional value, unique starch properties that could enhance its utility for industrial processing, and novel plant types that could boost productivity.

“Our capacity to screen and use cassava diversity complements IITA’s ability to deliver highly productive cassava clones that meet farmers’ needs in the most important cassava-growing countries of Africa,” explains CIAT cassava scientist Hernan Ceballos. “There is a natural flow from the prebreeding carried out at CIAT to the assembly of desirable traits through breeding at IITA.”

The new partnership functions with a clear definition of regional responsibilities. While IITA takes the lead in research for Africa, CIAT plays a similar role in Latin America and spearheads international research on cassava in Asia, relying on support from IITA in areas of India and other countries in which growing conditions are similar to those in Africa. To ensure close collaboration and a continuous flow of information between the two Centers, they are exploring opportunities to create joint research positions.

“The CIAT-IITA agreement is a sign of good things to come,” adds Geoff Hawtin, a former director general of CIAT. “We hope this sort of partnership can serve as a template for success.”

The agreement to strengthen collaboration between the two Centers was signed at the CGIAR 2008 Annual General Meeting in Maputo, Mozambique.