3 Review(s)

Cassava is Africa's "poverty fighter" and second most important food crop. This book discusses Cassava's real role and traces research over the past 65 years. The "Cassava transformation" that is now underway in Africa has changed this traditional, reserve crop to a high-yield cash crop. However, Cassava is being neglected by governments and donor agencies because of myths and half-truths about its nutritional value and role in farm systems. This study is a synthesis of the Collaborative Study of Cassava in Africa (COSCA), that was carried out from 1989 to 1997 by gathering primary data from 281 villages in six countries: the Congo, the Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. Designed as a follow-up to William O. Jones's classic 1959 work, Manioc in Africa, this book will be of interest to African policy makers, international donor agencies and food policy analysts.