Cassava diversity

CIAT conserves the world’s largest and most diverse collection of cassava (Manihot esculenta).

To people who don’t eat cassava, or who only know it as starchy tapioca, it can come as a surprise that roughly half a billion people in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean depend on this root crop for food, and millions of Asian farmers grow it for industrial markets.

Cassava can withstand harsh conditions, making it a reliable crop in difficult environments and enabling smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change. In sub-Saharan Africa, the rugged root crop will brush off expected temperature rises of up to 2 degrees Celsius by 2030 – and could be even more productive thanks to climate change. Despite being able to produce its starch-rich roots in poor soils and with little water, investment in cassava research has been dwarfed by decades of research into better-known cereal staples.

Pests and disease – cassava’s Achilles’ heel – have been the principal focus of research attempting to capture useful traits from genebank accessions, although provitaminA and dry-matter content of roots have also received considerable attention.