Agricultural Organisations Collaborate to Promote Cassava Seed System

 The Sasakawa Africa Association, SAA, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, to support cassava seed system across Africa.

A statement released by the IITA says the MoU, which is in the framework of the project named: Building and Economically Sustainable Cassava Seed System, phase II (6
BASICS-II), would allow SAA to establish and incubate cassava seed entrepreneurs in Benue and Nasarawa states of North Central Nigeria.

The Country Director for SAA, Dr Godwin Atser, disclosed that the partnership would create at least 100 cassava seed entrepreneurs that would make a decent living from the sales of cassava stems and form the foundation of a cassava revolution in Nigeria.

The IITA said although “Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava, the country is yet to maximally exploit the benefits of the ‘rambo crop’ due to low productivity caused primarily by poor planting materials (seeds) that are often diseased.”

The statement reveals that according to official data, average cassava yield in Nigeria is below 10 tons per ha as opposed to Thailand with more than 20 tons per ha where cassava seed system is much advanced, a trend which it said had limited the competitiveness of Nigerian farmers and their ability to tap into the export market.

On his part, the Project Leader of BASICS-II, Prof. Lateef Sanni, however, stated that farmers can more than double their yield with the use of the BASICS-II approach, which emphasises the use of improved-certified cassava seeds.

Sanni stated: “We are excited to partner with SAA in this project as they will bring to the table their expertise in agricultural extension delivery and help us to scale the BASICS Model to new geographies.”

According to IITA, limited access to quality seeds and propagation materials for well-adapted varieties hinders efforts to transform cassava systems, resulting in African farmers planting old, often diseased stems, noting that on the flip side, breeders had developed a suite of improved varieties but have struggled to deliver stems that serve as seeds to farmers.

The Institute revealed that governments and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) had occasionally launched campaigns to multiply and distribute cassava stems, saying the efforts had, however, been sporadic, unreliable, and unsustainable.

The statement says in the last four years, the BASICS-II project had demonstrated that the use of improved cassava stems could change the narrative of low yield per hectare and provide multiple streams of incomes for farmers, as they trade stems and roots all together, explaining that the seed system also creates jobs (commercial seed entrepreneurs), and wealth across the value chain.

Shakirat Sadiq