NAIROBI, 25 July 2008 (IRIN) - Prompted by FAO's latest media briefing on cassava and the role it could play in food and energy security, here are some facts, but first some pictures.

Cassava thrives better in poor soils than any other major food plant.

Cassava is a heat-loving plant that requires a minimum temperature of 26.7 degrees centigrade to grow. Cassava can survive even during the dry season.

According to FAO, widely grown in tropical Africa, Asia and Latin America, cassava is the developing world's fourth most important crop, with production in 2006 estimated at 226 million tonnes. It is the staple food of nearly a billion people in 105 countries, where the root provides as much as a third of daily calorie intake. And it has enormous potential - at present, average cassava yields are barely 20 percent of those obtained under optimum conditions.

FAO reports that despite increasing demand and its production potential, however, cassava remains an "orphan crop". It is grown mainly in areas that have little or no access to improved varieties, fertilizer and other production inputs, by small-scale farmers often cut off from marketing channels and agro-processing industries. Governments have not yet made the needed investments that would make cassava products competitive on the international market.

Cassava, the cheapest known source of starch, is used in over 300 industrial products. One possible application is ethanol production for the now controversial biofuel industry.

Cassava resources

FAO

Cassava Improvement Network

Global Cassava Strategy

Cassava, New Crop Fact sheet from Purdue University

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