RIU - Research Into Use

Cassava processors reap the benefits of new techniques
New processing technologies are enabling resource-poor cassava growers in sub-Saharan Africa to produce popular products for the market. They are selling high quality cassava flour and chips at a range of outlets in Tanzania, Madagascar, Zambia, Uganda and Mozambique. Processing equipment, produced locally at low cost, is reducing drudgery and credit schemes are allowing the cassava processors to get their businesses off the ground. Manuals and participatory methods are helping to spread the use of the new technology, monitor adoption and link cassava processors to markets. (Ref: CPH30)
Communities reap the benefits from new, improved cassava varieties
Locally adapted cassava varieties with resistance to cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) are promoting improved food security and livelihoods in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. Specially designed seed systems are being used to produce disease-free planting material for wide distribution. An information campaign, using radio, leaflets and posters, is helping to get the word out. The CBSD-resistant varieties are used by smallholders in semi-arid and coastal fishing communities that supply fresh cassava to urban areas. They are also used for processing to make cassava flour. Previously, CBSD damage resulted in poor yields and root quality. Over five years the improved materials have reached more than 1 million people in eastern and southern Africa, and their use is still spreading. (Ref: CPP22)
Fermentation helps meet growing urban demand for cassava products
Cassava producers are meeting growing urban demand for processed products thanks to new technologies for the manufacture of convenient, high-quality and environmentally safe foods. Private-sector partnerships are providing linkages between rural producers and urban markets, and a series of best practices and technologies are helping to match consumer preferences with the needs of rural processors, the private sector and market traders. The innovations include new specially developed dryers and fermentation vats, training centres for local businesses, professionals and post-graduate students, and a food safety manual that brings cassava processors up to speed on the new techniques. Processors and consumers validated the techniques and products in Nigeria and Ghana, where they are currently in use. (Ref: CPH41)
You name it, cassava can do it
Faced with the need to find solutions for a 30-40% surplus in cassava production in Ghana, researchers decided to get creative. They discovered that cassava-based products could provide substitutes for expensive imported raw materials in industries covering pastries to plywood. They developed processing techniques to convert fresh cassava into high-quality cassava flour, plywood and paperboard adhesive, glucose syrup and industrial and potable alcohol. Commercial processors acted as market intermediaries between farmers and end-users and a system for conflict-resolution with independent arbitration was developed to maintain good relations throughout the supply chain. Processing industries in Ghana and Nigeria are using the techniques to supply national, regional and international markets. This work meets the needs of countries with a relatively low level of development where expensive imported enzymes, adhesives and wheat flour are not affordable. (Ref: CPH21)

Root and tuber crops

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