Cassava: constraints to production and the transfer of biotechnology to African laboratories

Abstract

Knowledge and technology transfer to African institutes is an important objective to help achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Plant biotechnology in particular enables innovative advances in agriculture and industry, offering new prospects to promote the integration and dissemination of improved crops and their derivatives from developing countries into local markets and the global economy. There is also the need to broaden our knowledge and understanding of cassava as a staple food crop. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a vital source of calories for approximately 500 million people living in developing countries. Unfortunately, it is subject to numerous biotic and abiotic stresses that impact on production, consumption, marketability and also local and country economics. To date, improvements to cassava have been led via conventional plant breeding programmes, but with advances in molecular-assisted breeding and plant biotechnology new tools are being developed to hasten the generation of improved farmer-preferred cultivars. In this review, we report on the current constraints to cassava production and knowledge acquisition in Africa, including a case study discussing the opportunities and challenges of a technology transfer programme established between the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute in Tanzania and Europe-based researchers. The establishment of cassava biotechnology platform(s) should promote research capabilities in African institutions and allow scientists autonomy to adapt cassava to suit local agro-ecosystems, ultimately serving to develop a sustainable biotechnology infrastructure in African countries.

Occurrence and Distribution of Begomoviruses Infecting Cassava in Western Kenya

“…EACMV was the most predominant virus followed by the strain EACMV-Ug. This slightly differs with earlier findings [16][17][18] that none of disease surveys conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa have reported the incidence of the EACMV virus suggesting that this 'wild-type' EACMV has been overtaken in nature by the more fit recombinant strains. Furthermore, since EACMV-Ug was first reported in Uganda in late 1980s, it has spread to affect nine countries in East and Central Africa [19,20]).…”

Development of retrotransposon-based markers IRAP and REMAP for cassava (Manihot esculenta)

“…Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is native to South America and was domesticated about 8000 years ago (Bull et al, 2011). The tuberous roots of cassava have high starch content and are an important source of carbohydrate (Mejía-Agüero et al, 2012).…”

Plant biotechnology in support of the Millennium Goals II

“…A timely review by Bull et al (2011) discusses the biotechnology of cassava and the transfer of that technology to Africa and illustrates the potential and the limits of this approach. Quite outside of the realm of increasing crop yields but still with the hope of greatly improving human health and well-being in developing countries is a review of progress in plant-made edible vaccines (Penney et al 2011).…”