World Congress on Root and Tuber crops
Plenary Session Monday January 18, 2016
Speaker 1 PS01 Pamela Anderson 30mn
Roots and Tubers: Serving People, the Planet, and Prosperity
Pamela Anderson
Email:
In September 2015, Heads of State from around the world, endorsed a new, global framework for development. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were approved as a plan of action for people, the planet, and prosperity. The world has committed to end poverty and hunger for people everywhere; to protect the planet; and to ensure that all human beings enjoy fulfilling and prosperous lives.
Given the central role played by root and tuber crops in diets and farming systems globally, and particularly in the developing world, improvements in their productivity will play an important role in achieving these goals. By linking productivity gains with opportunities to add value through processing and marketing, we can move beyond food security to leverage these crops for increased incomes that contribute to ending poverty – Goal 1 of the SDGs. Innovations in genetics, mechanization, processing and marketing offer us the opportunity to make root and tuber crops engines of inclusive economic growth, if they are developed and deployed in ways that balance supply and demand and sensitivity to the preferences of the poor, particularly women.
It seems fitting that we recognize the creation and celebration of this first World Congress on Root and Tuber Crops by challenging our community to take up this call to action, as active and intentional players in the revitalized partnership for global development.
Speaker 2 PS02 Kaimian Li 30mn
Progress in Research and Development of Cassava in China
Kaimian Li
Email:
Institute of Tropical Biosciences and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou 571101, China
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is used as a staple food in the tropical area in the world. In China it mainly provides the raw materials to starch and biofuel processing factories, and also as a potential food crop. Since 2008, Chinese Government has set up a Chinese Cassava Agro-Technology Research System (CCARS) to fully organize and coordinate the development of the whole Chinese cassava industry, and implement the industrial plans regarding cassava sciences and technologies, arrange cassava research at laboratories, and technological demonstration and transfer in experimental stations. Through using CCARS as a platform, the great achievement in cassava research and development in China has been made to benefit to the smallholders and cassava-based product producers, particularly for sharing much useful information involved in cassava varieties, cultivation, processing and multiple cassava-based products, and then improve their product quality against the vicious competition based on their advantage. In the present study the progress in research and development will be emphasized in China, such as, the whole cassava genome sequencing and testing have been made, the cassava mechanism for planting and harvesting were partly implemented, the cassava flour cleanliness processing has been firstly established, and the wasters from cassava producing starch and ethanol were recycled. All activities described about were for increasing cassava value chain in China. In the prospect, the present study provided five aspects including bioenergy, staple food, livestock and silkworm feeding, efficiency and internationalization for cassava in China will be strengthened.
Key words: Cassava, CCARS, Research and Development, Value chain
Speaker 3 PS03 Martin Fregene 30mn
Industrialization of Cassava in Africa
Fregene M., Egba A., Dalevedove M., Burger L., Okechukwu R., Adesina A.
Advisor to the President of the African Development Bank on Feed Africa Initiative.
Immeuble CCIA – Plateau, Avenue Jean-Paul II
01 P. O. Box 1387 – Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire
Email:
Increased productivity and market outlets are the twin drivers of sustained growth of the cassava sector in South East Asia. Between 1990 and 2014, doubling of cassava yields and more than 1,000% expansion of starch, ethanol, sweetener, and dried chips processing capacity in SE Asia created a vibrant cassava industry worth more than US$8billion annually in SE Asia. As part of its Agricultural Transformation Agenda, Nigeria set out in 2011 to expand industrial cassava processing capacity and raise cassava productivity. The Cassava Transformation Agenda (CTA) set out to create additional market outlets for cassava in Nigeria, especially in the strong growth High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) – for partial replacement of imported wheat, starch, and sweeteners markets.
Between 2011 and 2014 and as a result of CTA, cassava processing capacity expanded 620%, in new or upgraded starch, HQCF, and ethanol processing plants. Four new industrial scale plants (20-60MT/day) – three for starch and one for ethanol were commissioned during the period, while forty small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) producing HQCF were upgraded from 1 MT/day to 3 MT/day capacity. Another eight plants (60-100MT/day) – five HQCF, two starch, and one glucose have been ordered or close to being ordered. More than 80,000 farmers mostly within the vicinity of these processing plants received 130.59 million stems of improved varieties (at 100% subsidy) and over 160,000 fifty-kilogram bags of fertilizer (at 50% subsidy). A total of 1,300 hectares of medium-sized mechanized farms were also established at locations of existing or new industrial scale plants.
Speaker 4 PS04 Jan Low 30mn
Delivering Biofortified Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato through Nutrition and Income-Focused Value Chains
Jan W. Low
International Potato Center, Box 25171, Nairobi, Kenya 00603
Email:
Strong evidence exists demonstrating that when pro-vitamin A rich orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) is introduced in rural sub-Saharan African communities using an integrated agriculture-nutrition-marketing approach that includes nutrition education at the community level, significant impacts can be made in vitamin A intakes for both children under five years of age and their mothers as well as on vitamin A status of the young children.
From 2010-2014, two additional proof-of-concept action research studies, led by the International Potato Center, were carried out that focused on alternative delivery systems to effectively introduce OFSP. The first, Mama SASHA, linked access to OFSP to strengthened nutrition counseling by nurses at ante-natal care clinics in Bungoma County, Western Kenya, an integrated agriculture-nutrition-health intervention. The intervention focused on improved nutrition outcomes among pregnant women and their subsequent off-spring under two years of age and improved ante-natal care service utilization. The second, Rwanda Super Foods, focused on exploiting income earning opportunities for smallholder sweetpotato producers through improved sweetpotato productivity and linkages to a large agro-processor, Urwibutso Enterprises. The focus was on developing an economically viable OFSP-based processed product, as sweetpotato is consumed boiled or steamed in Rwanda. In addition, explicit targets were set to ensure sufficient participation of women as OFSP commercialized. Gender-disaggregated benefits were explored for farmers linked to the agro-processor as individuals or through participating in organized groups backstopped by local non-governmental organizations.
Both studies collected and analyzed baseline and endline data and, in addition, Mama SASHA gathered detailed cost data. Key findings will be presented.
Speaker 5 PS05 Jonathan Newby 30mn
Cassava in Asia: Exposing the drivers and trajectories of the hidden ingredient in global supply chains
Jonathan C. Newby
CIAT, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Email:
Throughout Southeast Asia, cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) has become an increasingly important crop in terms of both rural livelihoods and regional economic development. While it remains an important food crop in some specific locations within the region, cassava production in Southeast Asia is predominately a commercial oriented activity with smallholders producing the crop to meet the rapidly growing regional demand for animal feed, starch based products, and biofuel. As such, the market outlook for cassava, and hence the prospects for millions of smallholder producers, is strongly linked to market and policy developments in global starch, grain, and energy markets. In the past decade the cassava market has become strongly oriented towards East Asia, with the global trade in cassava (fresh and dried) and cassava starch reaching around $3.8 billion USD (2013).
Despite the growth in importance and economic value of cassava, the sector has struggled to shake off several stigmas and continues to attract relatively limited policy support or private sector investment. The long-term outlook of the crop will be influenced by its ability to maintain competiveness against substitutes along the value chain. There are considerable opportunities to increase the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of the cassava sector through better value-chain linkages between smallholders, industry actors, policy makers, and other support services. New business models and partnerships will be essential for the cassava sector to maintain its position as an attractive smallholder crop and ingredient in global supply chains.
Speaker 6 PS06 Le Hui Ham 30mn
The Cassava Revolution in Vietnam
Le Huy Ham1, Hoang Kim2, Nguyen Thi Truc Mai3, Nguyen Bach Mai4, Reihardt Howeler5
Email:
1. Director General, Institute of Agricultural Genetics, Tuliem, Hanoi, Vietnam.
2. Nong Lam University - Thu Duc district - Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam.
3. Hue University of Agricukture and Forestry, 102 Phung Hung street, Hue City, Vietnam.
4. Tay Nguyen University, 567 Le Duan - Buon Ma Thuot - Dak Lak, Vietnam. 5. CIAT, Cali, Colombia.
Cassava has become the third most important export crop in 20 years in Vietnam. In Vietnam cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) has been converted from food crop to industrial crop with high speed in recent years. Thank to wide adaptability cassava can be grown in all ecological regions in Vietnam, even in poor sloppy soil regions, contributing significantly to income of poor farmers. For the last decades cassava production has been changed dramatically: Between 1975 and 2000, cassava yields in the country ranged from 6 to 8 t/ha, and the crop was grown mainly for human food and animal feeding. This situation changed remarkably with the introduction by CIAT scientists in 1988 of high-yielding breeding lines and new varieties from Thailand. Area under cassava has been raised from 237,600 ha in 2000 to 560,000 ha in 2014, productivity has been raised from 6-8 ton/ha to 18.3 ton/ha in 2014. Export value of cassava is about 1.3-1.5 billion USD/year, ranging this crop in third importance among export crop, after only rice and coffee.
Vietnam Cassava Conservation and Sustainable Development has been very successful, as indicated by the results of trials and demonstrations conducted in Tay Ninh, Dak Lak, Phu Yen and Dong Nai provinces, where farmers using the improved technologies and practices boosted cassava yields from 8.5 t/ha to 36 t/ha - a more than four fold increase. The Vietnam National Cassava Program (VNCP) has introduced various methodologies, named “6M” and “10T”, as well as Farmer Participatory Research (FPR), as collaborative experiences that helped to bring advanced technologies into production for millions of poor farmers. This included the selection of high-yielding varieties and the testing and selection by farmers of locally appropriate technologies.
Cassava in Vietnam: Trends, Challenges and Direction. Cassava is now considered to be most suitable crop for biofuel production in Vietnam because of its excess and low cost of production compare to other potential biofuel crop, like maize or sugarcane. Cassava in Vietnam has great potential but also big challenges. To make cassava production profitable and sustainable there are high needs for varietal improvement for diseases resistance and starch content, as well as cultivation technology. Modern methods of biotechnology for plant improvement, like genetic engineering, marker assisted selection and other methods of modern biotechnology should be involved in cassava breeding. A Joint laboratory between CIAT-RIKEN (Japan) and Agricultural Genetics Institute (AGI-Vietnam) “Cassava Molecular Breeding” has been established in AGI as an opened platform for cassava research and breeding in Vietnam and the region.
Speaker 7 PS07 Prof Uthai Kam 30mn
Benefits of Cassava in Animal Nutrition
Uthai Kanto
Associate Professor Kasetsar University
Thai Tapioca Development Institute, Thailand
Email:
Cassava or tapioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important tropical perennial root crop which is widely grown in Southeast Asia, Africa and Central America. The high adaptability to wide varieties of soil types, resistant to drought, and the requirement of minimum attention to obtain an acceptable yield makes cassava a common crop grown by farmers in the tropical region. But, the high content of HCN in cassava tuber have retarded the utilization of cassava for human food and animal feeds. However, the research and the practical experiences in using cassava as animal feeds in Thailand has revealed that cassava is a basal feed ingredient that can be totally substituted for cereals in every kind of animal diets including pigs, poultry, ruminants and aquaculture animals. Cassava has specific properties including soft-starch, contamination of lactic acid bacteria and yeast, more acidic pH (4-6) and a low but non-toxic content of HCN, which possess the antioxidant activity and has direct effect on immunity development of the animals. Animals on cassava diets always have an improved health status, more resistance to diseases, require less to no antibiotic in the diet, low mortality rate while maintaining performance, productivity and carcass quality similar to those on the cereal diets. Cassava is truly the functional feed ingredient for animal health improvement of and for antibiotic-free animal production. However, the successful uses of cassava as animal feeds requires a thorough understanding in quality control of cassava, feed formulation and feed processing of cassava diets to provide the appropriate diets for the animals.
Speaker 8 PS08 Hernan Ceballos 30mn
A Road Map for Cassava Genetic Improvement
Cassava Breeding: Today and Tomorrow
Hernán Ceballos* and Clair Hershey
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Palmira, Colombia
* , Registrant ID# 3357
Cassava productivity increased considerably during the first 20-30 years of breeding after the creation of IITA, CIAT and many national agriculture research systems (e.g. the venerable KU50 was released in Thailand in the 1990s). Further progress, however, has been difficult and yield gains slowed down over the last 20 years. Molecular techniques have been developed and have had great impact for understanding diversity in cassava and its main biotic problems, but so far had minimal impact increasing productivity. Quantitative genetic information provided insights on the problems for increasing productivity in cassava. Non-additive genetic effects and within family genetic variation complicate both conventional and molecular breeding considerably. Even the implementation of new, improved approaches for molecular breeding (e.g. genomic selection) faces these problems as theoretical and empirical results demonstrate. Current gains in cassava contrast sharply with those of maize, a crop with which it competes for key markets worldwide (e.g. starch, animal feed and ethanol). Drastic changes in cassava´s genetic enhancement, along with improved agronomy, are needed for the crop to remain competitive and meet the increasing demands to nourish Africa in the next decades. Three strategies are critical for the future breeding of the crop: a) induction of flowering; b) alternative approach(es) to breed for heterosis through reciprocal recurrent selection; and c) the use of inbred progenitors. For high-value/single gene traits, exploration of the germplasm collection through TILLING, gene editing and genetic transformation are promising approaches. The integration of all these different approaches, however, is most critical.