Five countries join forces to tackle cassava diseases

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Kenya have joined hands to fight Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) in the region.

The countries have joined efforts to tackle the problem by sharing their top five varieties with tolerance to the two diseases.

The 25 varieties in total will be evaluated in each country to identify those that are well adaptable to the various cassava-growing regions and acceptable to the local farming communities.

Together, Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) are responsible for production losses worth more than US $1 billion every year and are a threat to food and income security for over 30 million farmers.

The first consignments of 19 varieties, as tissue culture virus-tested plantlets, were recently handed over to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) that received them on behalf of the national agricultural research systems of the five countries.

The handover was held at the Genetics Technologies International Limited (GTIL) – a tissue culture-based laboratory based in Nairobi, Kenya. The remaining varieties are still undergoing multiplication and will be sent out later.

Dr. Joseph Ochieng, the Assistant Director, Food Crops at KARI, said this marked a very important step in the efforts to control the two diseases. He thanked all the partner organizations for their effort in collecting, cleaning up, and multiplying the varieties.

“The next task will be to ensure that the varieties reach small-holder farmers by having an efficient seed distribution system in place. Without seeds, we have no varieties. And all these efforts will have been in vain,” he said.

Cassava is a very important food and income security crop for over 80 million farmers in the tropics.

Dr. Leena Tripathi, IITA Kenya Country Representative said: “We are also looking at this initiative to help farmers cope with climate change as it is able to withstand harsh conditions such as drought and poor soils.”

He said for this to happen we need to control the spread of these two diseases. And one of the most sustainable ways is to develop varieties that have dual resistance.

Tripathi said: “This takes a long time, therefore this sharing of varieties that have been released or are near release from and across the five countries will considerably reduce this time.”

This exchange of material is one of the key activities of the project which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The project aims to alleviate food insecurity and poverty by ensuring that farmers have access to high-quality disease-free planting material of diverse improved varieties that combine resistance to CBSD and CMD, and with preferred end-user characteristics.

The varieties were first sent to the Natural Resources Institute (NRI, UK) and to Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) for cleaning to ensure their safe transfer to all five participating countries and reduce any chance of spreading the diseases further. They were then forwarded to GTIL.

Dr. Edward Kanju, IITA breeder and 5CP Project Coordinator said: “Today marks a very important step in the fight against CBSD, with the five countries coming together to freely share their best materials that are tolerant to the disease. Each country will have 20 new varieties to evaluate and choose for official release and multiplication to farmers.”

He said the project has taken steps to ensure that the diseases are not spreading from one country to another and that the materials being distributed are virus free.

Each country will receive 300 plantlets of the 25 varieties which they will multiply in bulk and test across different cassava-growing regions in their respective countries to fast-track efforts to provide farmers with varieties that are tolerant to the two diseases.

“On behalf of the national agricultural research systems from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, I receive these tissue-culture plantlets and promise we will multiply and test them across different cassava-growing regions,” said Dr Therese Munga, 5CP Kenya Country Coordinator and Head of cassava research at KARI.

She said: “We will identify those that are tolerant to the diseases and suitable for different uses such as for cooking, for flour, and even for starch.”

She noted that currently the cassava yield in the five countries was very low averaging 8 – 9 t/ha but with these new varieties, yield could go up to 20 t/ha.

“This will give our farmers enough cassava to meet their food needs and the surplus for processing into for flour and starch. This will not only contribute to food security but also income and job creation in the rural areas,” she said.

To date, despite all the breeding efforts, no country has developed varieties with resistance to the two diseases and they therefore continue to spread in the region.

However, varieties that are tolerant—showing mild symptoms but still giving acceptable yields—have been officially released and many more are in the final stages of official release in project target countries.

By Leonard Magomba, Monday, March 31st, 2014


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