CGIAR launches new project on sustainable cassava seed system
The Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a consortium of International Agricultural Research Centre has launched a four-year project to develop commercially sustainable cassava seed system in Nigeria.
The new project titled ‘Building a Sustainable, Integrated Seed System for Cassava in Nigeria (BASICS)’ is worth about $11.6 million and is being funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and led by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas(RTB).
The project aim is to help cassava seed producers reach their potentials through developing a commercially sustainable cassava seed value chain, which is based on the purchase of quality seed by farmers provided by vibrant and profitable village seed entrepreneurs.
“Our vision is that by 2019 smallholder cassava growers are buying high quality stems of their preferred varieties and planting them with improved agronomic practices. As a result yields have jumped by at least 40 percent and farmers have more secure markets for expanded production,” said Graham Thiele, RTB program director.
“Novel rapid multiplication technologies have lowered the cost of producing seed and accelerated the introduction of new varieties. Vibrant new businesses have been created all along the cassava seed value chain creating employment especially for women and youth,” Thiele said.
The seed business will provide healthy seed of more productive cassava varieties leading to adoption of new varieties to improve productivity and food security, increase incomes of cassava growers and village seed entrepreneurs and enhance gender equity.
Despite Nigeria being the largest cassava producer in Africa, the country’s average yields of 14 tons per hectare are less than half of what may be realistically attainable.
Doyin Awe, representing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development noted that exciting new opportunities were opening for cassava, but planting materials for cassava present special challenges as they are bulky and perishable. She committed the full support of the Ministry to the new project and thanked the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for providing the funding.
“I am excited to get back to BASICS so that we could move forward for a food secure Nigeria,” said, Yemi Akinbamijo, executive director of the forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). He underscored the need to work on the entire innovation to make an impact.
Following the launch the project partners including National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC), the National Root Crops and Research Institute (NRCRI), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Context Network, and FERA (UK) took part in a participatory workshop to finalize work plans and move ahead with the project.
Nteranya Sanginga, director general, IITA, explained that the key to industrializing cassava is to increase productivity, and this means addressing the problem with weeds, improving agronomy and providing quality seed.
Josephine Okojie