HONG KONG, 17 March 1997—Scientists with an international agricultural research
organization have announced that new high-starch varieties of cassava, a staff of life for
one-tenth of the world's population, are delivering benefits valued at hundreds of
millions of dollars to some of Southeast Asia's poorest farmers. The announcement came at
a conference on cassava held on 4-6 March in Ho Chi Minh City.In Thailand, Indonesia,
and Vietnam, the improved cassava varieties have already spread to more than 500,000
hectares. They form a vital link in a whole chain of events that has raised the incomes of
poor farmers and created employment in cassava processing. According to preliminary but
conservative estimates made by the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical
Agriculture (CIAT), the varieties have created economic benefits of nearly a half billion
dollars over the last 7 years, with most of the money received in the last 2 years.
The humble root crop covers 3.9 million hectares in Asia, even more than in Latin
America, where cassava originated. Because the crop is highly tolerant of drought and
infertile soils, it is planted mostly in marginal uplands, above the more productive
lowlands occupied by wet rice. Uplands are inhabited mainly by Southeast Asia's poorest
farmers.
"We've found that improved varieties of cassava, developed from crosses between
local and Latin American germplasm, increase farmers' crop yields by 20 to 40 percent,
said Dr. Kazuo Kawano, a CIAT cassava breeder. "The roots of the new varieties also
have much higher starch contents. Greater starch yields from the same amount of land
translate into higher income for farmers who sell cassava to starch processors." The
new varieties have resulted from Kawano's longstanding collaboration with national
research institutes in a half dozen Asian countries. The Japanese government has supported
CIAT's cassava research in Asia for more than a decade.
"In just 2 years, improved varieties developed in Thailand have spread to nearly
10 percent of Vietnam's total cassava area of 283,000 hectares, noted Dr. Hoang Kim,"
director of the Hung Loc Agricultural Research Center in Dong Nai province. "Farmers
are especially enthusiastic about the varieties in southern Vietnam, where most of our
starch processing takes place," said Kim.
Starch processing in Vietnam is performed both in rural households with traditional
methods and by large modern factories. Most of the starch goes to domestic manufacture of
processed foods (mainly monosodium glutamate, an important flavoring agent in Asia), while
some is used in the production of textiles, paper, and other products.
Until recently, the Vietnamese considered cassava a crop of last resort. "It has
helped Vietnam through at least two major famines since World War II and was a staple of
the Vietnamese army during the wars with France and the USA," said Prof. Thai Phien
of Vietnam's National Institute for Soils and Fertilizers. But now the crop is acquiring a
new image as a valuable raw material for industry.
Thailand was the first country in the region to exploit the industrial prospects of
cassava on a large scale. Since the 1970s it has exported large quantities of
dried-cassava chips and pellets to the European Union (EU), which uses them in animal
feed. More recently, the private sector in Thailand has created new cassava markets by
exploiting the crop's tremendous potential as a source of cheap starch. According to
reports from Kasetsart University in Bangkok, about 50 percent of the country's cassava
now goes to starch production. About a third of this is further processed into various
modified starches, and half of the total starch production is exported to Taiwan and
Japan.
With the benefits of the new varieties have come risks. "In 1995 cassava prices
were quite high in Thailand and Vietnam, prompting farmers to expand the area
planted," said CIAT agronomist Reinhardt Howeler. "Then, in 1996 prices dropped
considerably because of overproduction and declining starch prices in the world market. In
Thailand some growers lobbied successfully for cassava price subsidies." Another
development that should lessen the risk for farmers throughout Southeast Asia is the
private sector's continuing efforts to further diversify cassava products and markets.
"Competing demands for cassava roots should enable growers to obtain better
prices," said Howeler. "Continued adoption of improved varieties will further
increase their returns from the same amount of land."
To keep its cassava production in line with industrial demand, Thailand embarked in
1993 on a program to reduce cassava area by 20 percent and to intensify production on the
remaining area through massive dissemination of improved varieties. "By 1996 the new
cassava had spread to about 384,000 hectares or nearly a third of the country's total
cassava area," explained Wilawan Vongkasem of Thailand's Department of Agricultural
Extension.
A potential risk of the cassava boom is the fragility of upland soils on which the crop
is grown. To meet rising demand for cassava, farmers will inevitably intensify production,
raising the specter of serious soil erosion, warned Howeler. With a grant from Japan's
Nippon Foundation, he is working closely with national institutes and farmers to find ways
of making the cassava boom environmentally sustainable.
CIAT is a nonprofit, nongovernment research organization dedicated to alleviating
hunger and poverty and preserving natural resources in developing countries.
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