Cassava is widely consumed in many areas of Africa, including Ghana, and is a major part of most household diets. These areas are characterized by rampant malnutrition, because the tuberous roots are low in nutritional value. Provitamin A biofortified cassava varieties have been developed by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, but adoption of these varieties in Ghana will largely depend on their agronomic performance, including fresh root yield, dry matter content, resistance to major pests and diseases, mealiness, starch content and the stability of these traits. Eight provitamin A varieties with two white checks were planted in three environments for two seasons to determine stability and variability among the varieties for important traits. There were significant variations in performance between varieties and between environments for cassava mosaic disease, root number, fresh root yield and starch content. High broad-sense heritability and genetic advance were observed in all traits, except for storage root number, and could be exploited through improvement programs. This study identified the best performing enhanced provitamin A varieties for traits that are key drivers of variety adoption in Ghana. In view of this, some varieties can be recommended for varietal release after on-farm testing. The study also showed the possibility of tapping heterosis after careful selection of parents.

Biofortified yellow-fleshed cassava is important in countries with high cassava consumption, to improve the vitamin A status of their populations. Yellow- and white-fleshed cassava were evaluated over three locations for proximate composition and cyanide content as well as retention of carotenoids after boiling. There was significant variation in the crude fiber, fat, protein and ash content of the genotypes. All but one of the yellow-fleshed cassava genotypes recorded higher protein values than the white-fleshed local genotypes across locations. The cyanide content of the genotypes varied between locations but was within the range of sweet cassava genotypes, but above the maximum acceptable recommended limit. Micronutrient retention is important in biofortified crops because a loss of micronutrients during processing and cooking reduces the nutritional value of biofortified foods. Total carotenoid content (TCC) ranged from 1.18–18.81 μg.g−1 and 1.01–13.36 μg.g−1 (fresh weight basis) for fresh and boiled cassava, respectively. All the yellow-fleshed cassava genotypes recorded higher TCC values in both the fresh and boiled state than the white-fleshed genotypes used as checks.

In Ghana, cassava is a marginalized crop in food policies due to low research attention given it. However, high starch in cassava root is an important characteristic that makes the crop a potential industrial cash crop. In light of this, the Government of Ghana in 2001 introduced the Presidential Special Initiative (PSI) on Cassava, which aimed at industrializing the cassava sector for job creation and livelihood improvement through starch extraction. One of the import industrial products from cassava starch is ethanol. Ethanol is reported as the largest opportunity for cassava industrialization in Ghana followed by food-grade starch. However, the local ethanol consuming industry, Kasapreko, operates by importing over 25 million litres of ethanol every year due to inadequate supply of ethanol from local starch factories. This situation exists because of lack of cassava varieties that can yield more starch (75% or more) per total dry weight to feed the starch factories for sustainable production. Therefore, this review explores the relevance of developing high starch yielding cassava to the industrialization of the cassava sector in Ghana and lessons to learn from the success story of Thailand, the country with the world’s most industrialized cassava sector.