Cassava threatened in West Africa

– Researchers from halfa-dozen states in West Africa have joined together in a battle against what one expert calls a root crop “ebola” – a viral disease that could wreck the region’s staple food and condemn millions to hunger.

Their enemy: cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), a virus that strikes cassava, also called manioc, which in some of the region’s countries is consumed by as many as 80% of the population.

The root-rotting disease was discovered in Tanzania 80 years ago and is moving westward.

The West African Virus Epide- miology (Wave) project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to shield the region from the advancing peril.

Headquartered at Bingerville, on the edges of Abidjan, it gathers six countries from West Africa – Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Togo – as well as the DRC.

The virus is believed to be propagated by the silverleaf whitefly insect, and also through cuttings taken from infected plants.

“The current average yield from cassava (in West Africa) is 10 to 12 tons per hectare, but it has the potential to reach 40 tons a hectare,” said Odile Attanasso, Benin’s minister of higher education and scientific research.

Ivory Coast is a huge consumer of cassava – the starchy root is typically pulped and fermented and served in a side dish called attieke.

“They have to find a cure for this disease – it’s thanks to growing cassava that I am able to provide an education for my four children,” said Blandine Yapo Sopi, eyeing harvested manioc that she hoped would bring in nearly €700 (around R10 000). – AFP