Nigeria has released two improved cassava varieties in an effort to maintain its lead as the world’s largest producer of the root crop, improve incomes of farmers and make them smile.

The varieties were developed through a collaborative effort between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Nigerian Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike. The two varieties are originally recognized as IITA developed genotypes: IITA-TMS-I982132 and IITA-TMS-I011206. But with the official release, they are to be known as UMUCASS 42 and UMUCASS 43 respectively. 

“Both varieties performed well in different cassava production regions of Nigeria with high yield, high dry matter and good disease resistance.  The roots of these varieties are yellow and contain moderate levels of pro-Vitamin A,” says Dr Peter Kulakow, IITA Cassava Breeder.

Potential maximum yield of the two varieties is between 49 and 53 tons per hectare, according to pre-varietal release trials that were conducted between 2008 and 2010. Local varieties produce less than 10 tons per hectare. The varieties are also resistant to major pests and diseases that affect cassava in the country including cassava mosaic disease, cassava bacterial blight, cassava anthracnose, cassava mealybug and cassava green mite.

Dr Chiedozie Egesi,  NRCRI Cassava Breeder, who presented the varieties before the Nigeria Varietal Release committee—the body in charge of officially releasing varieties—said the varieties have the following distinct qualities:

1.       Good for high quality cassava flour—a sought after trait by researchers for the cassava transformation agenda in Nigeria.

2.       High dry matter which is positively related to starch and crucial for cassava value chain development

3.       High leaf retention which is positively related to drought tolerance and is crucial for cassava production in the drier regions and in mitigating the impact of climate change, and

4.       Moderate levels of betacarotene for enhancing nutrition.

Over the years, cassava has transformed from being a “poor man’s” crop to now a cash crop and an industrial crop, as cassava is being processed to products such as starch, flour, glucose and ethanol. This transition has placed demand on cassava.

Researchers say developing new improved varieties is one way that will boost the steady supply of cassava roots to this ever increasing demand.

According to Dr Egesi, continuous breeding of such improved new varieties will help in stabilizing production, processing and marketing of cassava products.

“The impact of these efforts will be felt in areas such as rural employment and a virile cassava industrial sector,” he added.

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For information, please contact:

Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org

By Masimba Tafirenyika

Amid raving economic forecasts thatAfricawill be the next big emerging market, chronic food shortages remain stubbornly immune to solutions. The African Union is aware of this weak link and is working to convince its members to boost investments in agriculture.

It’s a tall order. But there are signs of progress, thanks in part to an innovative plan by the AU’s development agency, NEPAD, called the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

CAADP’s message is simple but powerful: More investments in agriculture will end hunger and lift millions out of poverty. The programme has several elements, but the best-known requires signatories to spend at least 10 per cent of their budgets on agriculture. To date, 30 countries have signed up.

CAADP’s scorecard so far is mixed. Some countries are still grappling with the teething troubles of translating its plans into action. But those that have faithfully followed the programme are seeing positive changes.

CAADP is a noble idea. Yet it suffers from two major weaknesses: It doesn’t have enough money to back its plan and it has no power to compel members to adopt its recommendations.

Take the European Union’s farm subsidy programme, the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), for instance, which was created in response to severe food shortages inEuropeback in the 1950s. CAP has money — in 2010 it was gobbling up about 40 per cent of the EU’s budget — and the power to impose conditions on members that get subsidies. True, EU subsidies hurt farmers in poor nations, but they have raised the incomes of EU farmers and produced more quality food for consumers.

In contrast, CAADP uses moral suasion to induce members to stick to their commitments. Worse still, it relies heavily on donors for investments in countries that have signed on. Equally troubling is that a big chunk of the national budgets of most CAADP signatories comes from donors, subjecting Africa to aid cuts whenever donor economies slump or priorities shift, or when domestic African political fortunes change, as events in Malawi, Rwanda and elsewhere have clearly shown.

CAADP can be effective, but only to the extent that signatories are committed to doing the necessary heavy lifting. To demonstrate its commitment to food security, the AU should move beyond platitudes and follow the EU’s example — make it mandatory for members to contribute to a common fund for agriculture. Each member’s contribution could be based on its ability to pay, perhaps using GNP per capita as a guide. Such a fund could then be used to reduce CAADP’s dependence on donors.

True, setting aside a tenth of the budget for agriculture is a big deal for poor countries often faced with competing priorities. But success in agriculture reduces the pressure to finance solutions to social problems caused by hunger and poverty. Putting money into agriculture is a smart investment.

Africa Renewal

http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2013/africa%E2%80%99s-food-policy-needs-sharper-teeth

By Masimba Tafirenyika

Once againMalawifinds itself in a tight spot. A food crisis set off by erratic rains, rising food prices and economic hardships is slowly unfolding. Sadly and unexpectedly,Malawihas lost its hard-earned status as an agricultural success story. Many are now wondering what went wrong and whether there could be lessons for other African countries.

More than 1.63 million people, or 11 per cent of the population, are facing severe food shortages, according to the World Food Programme, a UN relief agency.Malawineeds $30 million to the end of 2012 to cover the shortfall. Agriculture is the backbone of its economy: four in five people rely on it for income. Most farmers plant on small plots by hand with little irrigation, and therefore are vulnerable to recurring droughts, notes the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.Malawiis home to Africa’s third-largest freshwater lake —Lake Malawi— yet less than 3 per cent of the land is irrigated.

Malawi’s current troubles might seem surprising. Yet to those who follow events in the Southern African nation, it is less an abrupt change in fortunes than a series of self-inflicted injuries unfolding in slow motion.

Increased farm subsidies

Back in 2004, President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office in early 2012, rode into power on a promise to increase farm subsidies as part of his Farm Input Subsidy Programme. Under the plan, the government gave subsidy vouchers to “smallholders to buy a small amount of fertilizer and seed so that they could replenish the soil nutrients, take advantage of improved seed varieties and at least achieve a livable crop from their tiny farms,” says Africa Confidential, a UK-based newsletter.

The results were instant. In 2005, a year after expanded subsidies kicked in,Malawiharvested a grain surplus of half a million tonnes. In subsequent years it exported grain toLesothoandSwaziland, as well as 400,000 tonnes of maize toZimbabwe. Food experts and advocacy groups took turns at international forums extollingMalawias an example ofAfrica’s “green revolution.”

Ironically, even during the years of plenty,Malawicontinued to import large quantities of wheat, maize and other cereals, says FAO, and isolated pockets of hunger remained. In pursuing subsidies, Mutharika defied donor critics who alleged that the programme was riddled with corruption, ran counter to the principles of free markets and was unsustainable. Indeed, by 2009 the government was spending 16 per cent of its budget on subsidies.

Over time President Mutharika became autocratic, amid charges of corruption and cronyism. In 2009 he spent more than $20 million on a long-range presidential jet. Worse, he started promoting his brother Peter, then foreign minister, as his successor, further alienating donors, on whomMalawidepends. When the donors abandoned him, the economy tanked and protesters took to the streets, leading to political instability.

Leadership is key

Rhoda Tumusiime, the head of agriculture at the African Union Commission, notes that while success in agriculture does not have many drivers, leadership is crucial. “There must be a key political champion at head-of-state level to steer and champion a vision on agricultural revolution,” she told the Economic Commission forAfricain an interview.

Mr. Mutharika not only had the political will, but tried to lead by example. And his anti-poverty policies attracted many advocates. The director of the New York–based Earth Institute at ColumbiaUniversity, Jeffrey Sachs, who has worked closely with Malawian authorities to fight poverty, is among them. “We should … remember a positive legacy of the late president Mutharika, because that legacy holds a key for Africa’s future development and escape from poverty,” Sachs wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times.

“Until his final two years, Mutharika had actually engineered an agriculture-led boom inMalawi, one that pointed a way forAfricato overcome its chronic hunger, food insecurity, and periodic extreme famines,” said Sachs. He credited the late president for standing “bravely against the arrogance of an ill-informed foreign aid community back in 2005.”

Food security equals national security

Second, while foreign aid is critical in feeding the hungry and reviving agriculture inAfrica, food security requires the same seriousness and resources as national security, if not more. In fact, national security loses its legitimacy if thousands of citizens die not from enemy firepower but from starvation, or risk their lives crossing borders while fleeing from hunger.

And finally,Africaneeds a strong food policy backed by resources. One tangible African Union response has been the ComprehensiveAfricaAgriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which requires countries that sign up to it to spend at least 10 per cent of their national budgets on agriculture. CAADP itself has a very small budget, but it uses the little it has to strengthen agricultural institutions and build teams of skilled personnel who roam the continent sharing best practices with national authorities.

“There is no doubt that African agriculture needs strong local institutions to avoid the kind of bubble that we saw in Malawi, which was largely driven by external energy,” Martin Bwalya, the head of CAADP, told Africa Renewal, alluding to Malawi’s dependence on donors for its short-lived success. CAADP, which is run by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the AU’s development agency, recognizes thatAfrica needs institutions whose effectiveness and shelf life do not depend on the survival of individuals.

Mr. Mutharika tried to follow the path of subsidies and largely succeeded. Countries that have pursuedMalawi’s lead have “achieve[d] breakthroughs in farm yields and food production for the first time in their modern history,” said Professor Sachs. His successor, Joyce Banda,Africa’s third female president, now has to formulate a new food policy, woo back the donors, stabilize the economy and again get agriculture back on track.

Africa Renewal

http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2013/what-went-wrong-lessons-malawi%E2%80%99s-food-crisis

03 December 2012, Ibadan – The African Development Bank (AfDB) and researchers today launched the US$63.24 million AfDB-funded initiative that aims to raise agricultural productivity and also lift millions of Africans out of poverty.

The 5-year, multi-CGIAR center initiative known as “Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa” (SARD-SC) is a research, science, and technology development initiative aimed at enhancing the productivity and income derived from cassava, maize, rice, and wheat – four of the six commodities that African Heads of States, through the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program, have defined as strategic crops for Africa.

During the launch of the initiative in Ibadan, Nigeria, the Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga called on researchers to deliver ‘quick impact’ to justify the investments in research.

“We should begin to demonstrate impact in the next two years using available technologies already developed. Everything in SARD-SC is about impact and not only writing scientific papers,” Dr Sanginga said.

The SARD-SC Project comes at an opportune time when food security and nutrition are high on the national agenda of the AfDB Regional Member Countries (RMCs), as rising food prices push millions of people into extreme hunger and poverty. The SARD-SC allows – for the first time ever in a single project – a continental coverage of the food security challenges in Africa.

“What we intend to achieve goes beyond food security. We are looking at boosting incomes and reducing poverty in Africa,“ said Mr Ousmane Dore, Resident Representative, Nigeria Field Office of the AfDB, who launched the event on behalf of AfDB’s President, Dr Donald Kaberuka.

“Apart from supporting research with broad sectoral and/or economic-wide objectives, the social impact of this intervention is significant. This is underscored by the all-inclusive nature of the project beneficiaries: farmers’ groups, youth, private sector, policy makers, rural entrepreneurs, national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES), community based organizations, and nongovernmental organizations,” he explained.

The project, which will run until 2016, will be co-implemented by three Africa-based CGIAR centers: IITA, Africa Rice Center, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas. IITA is also the Executing Agency of the project.

Another CGIAR center – the International Food Policy Research Institute – a specialized technical agency, will support the other three centers.

Dr Kenton Dashiell, Deputy Director General (Partnerships & Capacity Development), said the distinctive nature of the project offered an opportunity to improve food security in Africa.

He also called on partners and researchers to work towards building a new and better future for Africa using the project as a tool.

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For information, please contact:

Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org

FOOD EVENT IS A PRECIOUS OPPORTUNITY TO TACKLE CAUSES OF HUNGER

Christian Aid today welcomed David Cameron’s announcement of an event next year on food and hunger, which currently afflicts some 870 million people globally.

‘The Prime Minister’s initiative is an important opportunity to attack the causes of hunger as well as its symptoms,’ said Sol Oyuela, Senior UK Political Adviser at Christian Aid.

‘The UK will be in an especially good position to influence global work against hunger next year, when it chairs the G8.

‘We are really delighted that the Government has decided to continue working on the menace of hunger, which causes needless suffering across the world.

‘We are planning to work really hard with our supporters next year to highlight the need to tackle the forces that keep people hungry, including tax dodging, climate change and land grabs – prevention is infinitely better than cure.’

The Prime Minister’s announcement of next year’s event on food and hunger came as he hosted a meeting of world leaders tasked by the United Nations with creating a new action plan on global poverty.

Ms Oyuela added that all the indicators point towards things getting worse in the months ahead for people living in poverty.

‘Widespread drought in North and South America, as well as in parts of Africa, has led to peaks in the prices of maize, wheat and soybeans. High prices impact most heavily on food-import dependent countries where the world’s poorest people live.’

ENDS

For more information and to speak to Sol Oyuela, please contact Rachel Baird on 0207 523 2446 or 07545 501 749.

Notes to Editors:

1. Christian Aid works in some of the world’s poorest communities in around some 50 countries at any one time. We act where there is great need, regardless of religion, helping people to live a full life, free from poverty. We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance in tackling the root causes of poverty as well as its effects.

2. Christian Aid has a vision, an end to global poverty, and we believe that vision can become a reality. We believe that the underlying causes of poverty were made by, and can be ended by, human action. Our strategy for building the power of us all to end poverty is embodied in a new report ‘Partnership for Change’: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/Images/2012_strategy.pdf

3. Christian Aid is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of 125 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development.  Further details at http://actalliance.org

4. Follow Christian Aid’s newswire on Twitter: http://twitter.com/caid_newswire

5. For more information about the work of Christian Aid visit http://www.christianaid.org.uk

Addressing participants at the Crawford Fund annual conference in Australia, Dr Sanginga noted that in spite of the progress made in crop improvement, low soil fertility and nutrient depletion continue to present huge obstacles to securing the needed harvests.

The Director General’s position is supported by recent studies by IITA in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa that show that majority of the soils in that region are now barren with very little fertility. The barren soils are a result of years of mining and insufficient replacement of nutrients by smallholder farmers, mostly practicing low-input agriculture.

Dr Sanginga suggested the adoption of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) which is defined as ‘the application of soil fertility management practices, and the knowledge to adapt these to local conditions, which optimize fertilizer and organic resource use efficiency and crop productivity.’ ISFM is also the topic of an ongoing international conference in Nairobi, Kenya, where the Institute’s natural resource management specialists and experts, including the DG, are attending.

Dr Sanginga said that ISFM presented a means to overcome the dilemma of low productivity, by offering farmers better returns for investment in fertilizer, through its combination with indigenous agro-minerals and available organic resources.

He, however, pointed out that disseminating the knowledge of ISFM and developing incentives for its adoption now stand as a challenge for national planners and rural development specialists, and if done efficiently would result in more productive and sustainable agriculture, improved household and regional food security, and increased incomes among small-scale farmers.

The Africa Union’s Abuja declaration on fertilizers for an African Green Revolution, which has stated that efforts to reduce hunger on the continent must begin by addressing its severely depleted soils, recommends countries to increase fertilizer use from the current 8 t/ha to at least 50 t/ha by 2015 to boost agricultural production.

Participants at this year’s Crawford Fund annual conference included the Chief Executive Officer of the CGIAR, Dr. Frank Rijsberman and the Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute IFPRI, Dr Shenggen Fan.

The annual conference is a key event in Australia’s international development calendar. It attracts development professionals, decision makers, researchers, agribusiness people, farmers, conservationists, educators, students, and other stakeholders. This year’s event with the theme, “The Scramble for Natural Resources: More Food, Less Land?” also marked the Crawford Fund’s 25th anniversary.

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For information, please contact:

Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org

About IITA

IITA (www.iita.org) is an international non-profit research-for-development organization established in 1967 and governed by a Board of Trustees. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. Our award-winning research for development is anchored on the development needs of tropical countries. IITA is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.

Washington D.C.—

The report ASTI Global Assessment of Agricultural R&D Spending, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators initiative (ASTI) and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), reveals trends in R&D spending from 1981 to 2008.

Following a decade of slow growth in the 1990s, global public spending on agricultural R&D increased by 22 percent from 2000 to 2008—from $26.1 billion to $31.7 billion.

These numbers, however, only tell part of the story.

Middle-income countries have been the main drivers of global growth in recent years. China and India accounted for nearly half the global increase, but spending also rose significantly in a number of other more advanced developing countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, and Russia.  Growth was particularly strong from 2005 to 2008.

Most notably in Brazil and China, long-term government commitment to agricultural R&D and a supportive policy environment have fueled increased agricultural productivity, as well as overall economic growth. This demonstrates the benefits of sustained government investments.

Agricultural research spending in low-income countries, on average, grew by 2 percent per year from 2000 to 2008, with spending in many countries stagnating or declining.  A large number of low-income countries, particularly in Africa south of the Sahara, are highly vulnerable to volatile research funding, often the result of the short-term, project-oriented nature of donor and development bank funding. Additionally, many R&D agencies in these countries lack the necessary human, operating, and infrastructure resources to successfully develop, adopt, and disseminate science and technology innovations.

“More attention should be given to the world’s poorest countries regarding government and donor support,” said Nienke Beintema, Head of the ASTI initiative at IFPRI. “We need to prevent them from falling further behind.”

The report is released in advance of the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD), a platform to encourage practical collaboration among all those working in agricultural research and innovation and their role in development, which opens on October 28 in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

“We are very concerned that unless spending increases dramatically, smallholder farmers in the poorer countries will continue to lack the essential knowledge, tools and technologies required to support their needs, and for production to be resilient in the face of the challenges ahead,” said Mark Holderness, Executive Secretary of GFAR and organizer of GCARD.  “This study provides a key first step in creating the robust evidence base required to demonstrate the essential value of such investments and convince governments and societies of the returns they bring.”

The full report and additional information can be found online here: http://www.ifpri.org/pressroom/briefing/global-trends-agricultural-rd-spending

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Although progress has been made ?thanks to improvements in agricultural productivity and renewed attention to agriculture ?such gains are being threatened by spiralling population growth rate coupled with degrading soils.

In an address to participants at the 21st Annual Congress of the Nigerian Rural Sociological Association (NRSA) held at the University of Ibadan, Dr Sanginga said that “challenges to food security in Africa are huge, and that the barriers to wealth creation, food security, improved nutrition, and sustainable management of natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are on several fronts.”

For instance, Africa’s population growth remains high compared to other regions in the world (2.4% in SSA) against 1.3% in non-African countries.

In addition, the urban population is rapidly growing, putting pressure on the rural areas to produce more food at affordable prices. There is also the problem of depletion of soil nutrients, which if left unchecked, could have catastrophic effects. Furthermore, destructive agricultural practices along forest margins in Africa aggravate deforestation.

“While the attainment of food security is a huge and increasing challenge, production per unit area has not increased as elsewhere in the world, and increments in total production have come at the expense of the natural resource base,” he said.

“Clearly there is much work to be done in sub-Saharan Africa,” he emphasised.

To save the situation, Dr Sanginga, who was represented by the Deputy Director General, Partnerships and Capacity Development, Dr Kenton Dashiell, said “there is a need for the adoption of sustainable intensification of agricultural production practices to conserve and recycle soil nutrients and reduce the need for clearing new lands for agricultural production.”

This approach, he said, would increase agricultural productivity. Besides agricultural productivity, food availability, and food safety; Dr Sanginga stressed that the agric sector’s overall performance must all be increased against the backdrop of a growing and larger, more urban population, uncertain effects of climate, increased demand for energy, disease pandemics, rural-to-urban migration, and, in some cases, civil strife.

He commended the renewed attention to agriculture by African leaders which is producing positive results, and urged for more commitment of resources to the sector.

The director general concluded that “IITA is poised to continue working with various partners to improve livelihoods in Africa.”

For information, please contact:

Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org

About IITA

IITA (www.iita.org) is an international non-profit research-for-development organization established in 1967 and governed by a Board of Trustees. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. Our award-winning research for development is anchored on the development needs of tropical countries. IITA is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.

For more information, please contact: Sarah Immenschuh, s.immenschuh@cgiar.org, +1 (202) 862-5679

Hunger in Times of Land, Water, and Energy Pressures

Washington, D.C.—Unsustainable use of land, water, and energy is threatening the food security of the poorest and most vulnerable around the world, according to the 2012 Global Hunger Index, released for the seventh year by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide.

According to the 2012 Index, The Challenge of Hunger: Ensuring Sustainable Food Security under Land, Water, and Energy Stresses, hunger on a global scale remains serious with 20 countries having levels of hunger that are “alarming” or “extremely alarming.”  Two of the three countries with extremely alarming levels—Burundi and Eritrea—are in Sub-Saharan Africa; the third country is Haiti. South Asia is the other region that continues to suffer from the highest levels of hunger.

Hunger is inextricably linked to growing pressure on land, water, and energy resources.

Growing scarcity and degradation of farmland, rapidly rising incomes, and changing consumption patterns have all contributed to an increasing number of international land investments or land deals.  Many of these deals have targeted Sub-Saharan Africa, where land rent is lower, regulatory systems weaker, and levels of hunger higher.

“Large-scale foreign investments in land should be closely monitored. Local organizations are needed to secure transparency and the participation of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods are impacted by land deals,” said Welthungerhilfe President Bärbel Dieckmann.

Water scarcity is exacerbated by climate change, especially in the severely water-stressed areas of the world, which are home to more than 2 billion people.  Flooding, drought, and environmental degradation all threaten agriculture in many parts of the world.

Rising global energy prices are a serious threat to food security, increasing demand for agricultural land and water for crop production which, in turn, raises food prices. Higher energy prices also increase agricultural input costs, such as the cost of fertilizer and groundwater pumping and machinery, putting further pressure on prices.

“Agricultural production must increase substantially to meet the demands of a growing and increasingly wealthy population,” said Tom Arnold, Concern Worldwide’s Chief Executive Officer. “Yet to avoid more stress on land, water, and energy resources, and to ensure that all have access to adequate food, that production must be sustainable and must prioritize the poor.”

Food security is threatened by governments’ focus on short-term economic gains; uncoordinated land, water, and energy policies; and lack of political willingness and action to design policies that increase efficiency and reduce waste of natural resources while protecting the poor.

The Index makes clear recommendations to improve food security under growing land, water, and energy stresses:

1. Secure land and water rights; support the newly adopted Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests.
2. Phase out inefficient subsidies for water, energy, and fertilizers, in particular biofuel mandates in Europe and the United States, and encourage market solutions that promote efficient use of natural resources.
3. Scale up technical solutions, particularly those that conserve natural resources, and foster more efficient and effective use of land, energy, and water from farm to plate.
4. Tame the primary drivers of natural resource scarcity, by, for example, addressing demographic change through giving women access to education and reproductive health services; raising incomes and lowering inequalities; and mitigating and adapting to climate change through agriculture.

The long-term availability of natural resources is crucial for food security and human well-being.  “If local, national, and international natural resource policies focus on sustainable, long-term gains, if policies are coordinated and tradeoffs among land, water, and energy policies are minimized, we can strengthen the global food system while preventing resource depletion,” said Claudia Ringler, IFPRI Deputy Division Director. “Such a shift to sustainable food security would benefit billions of people today and many more in future decades.”

For additional media materials including fact sheets and graphics (high resolution and low resolution), please visit: http://www.ifpri.org/pressroom/briefing/2012-global-hunger-index-press-briefing
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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries. It is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. www.ifpri.org.

Welthungerhilfe is one of the largest non-governmental aid organisations in Germany. It provides fully integrated aid from one source, ranging from rapid emergency relief to reconstruction programmes, as well as long-term projects with local partner organisations following the principle of help towards self-help. Since its foundation in 1962, more than 6,800 projects have been carried out in 70 countries with a total funding of €2.39 billion, striving for a world without hunger or poverty.  For further information, visit www.welthungerhilfe.de.

Concern Worldwide is an international non-governmental humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.  The organisation’s mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives which last and spread without ongoing support from Concern. To achieve this mission Concern engages in long term development work, responds to emergency situations, and seeks to address the root causes of poverty through development education and advocacy work.  Concern currently works in 25 of the world’s poorest countries.
The public can receive regular updates online through the Concern website, www.concern.net.

The varieties which were developed through conventional breeding by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and partners are recognized as IITA genotypes as TMS 92/0326, TMS 96/1414, TMS 96/0023, TMS 92/0057, and TMS 92/0067.

The improved varieties were formally released by the Cameroonian Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Essimi Menye; and the Permanent Secretary, Ms Ebelle Etame Rebecca, who represented the Minister of Research and Scientific Innovations.

With an estimated yield of between 20 tons and 35 tons per hectare, the improved varieties have improved nutritional qualities and are rich in caratenoids, iron and zinc.

Partners that worked in the varietal development include the Programme National de Developpement des Racines et Tubercules (PNDRT), the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), non-governmental organizations and local farmers.

The varieties will help close the yield gaps, improve yield and also put more money in farmers’ pockets, said the Director General of IITA, Dr Nteranya Sanginga.

Dr Sanginga also said the release of the varieties would help improve the fortunes of farmers who depend on the crop for their livelihoods.

According to him, IITA will continue to support farmers in Cameroon by offering improved varieties and technologies that address the constraints to development in tropical nations.

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Menye said the new improved varieties would helpCameroonto take advantage of the opportunities of cassava. He also commended IITA’s efforts in developing the varieties.

Grown by most farmers, cassava is one of the major staples inCameroonthat is contributing to food security and wealth creation.

The crop is either boiled and eaten, or processed into local delicacies such as Mitumba, Baton de manioc, Beignets de manioc, gari, and Ndas among others.

The root crop has also gained industrial importance with uses in ethanol production, High Quality Cassava Flour in bread production, and glucose syrup production.

Despite the strategic role, the root crop is challenged by poor yields, pests and diseases, decreasing soil fertility, and climate change.

IITA’s role in addressing these challenges helped Cameroonian farmers to double yields in the past decade.

Farmers who participated in the varietal release process ‘loved’ the varieties for their cooking qualities.

IITA Country Representative, Dr Rachid Hanna said the release of the varieties ‘is significant’ as it would improve the nutrition and livelihoods of farmers in Cameroon.

“We see it as a new dawn for cassava farmers,” he added.