KALRO New Cassava Varieties

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), is the world’s most widely grown starch storage root crop and accounts for a third of the total production of staple food crops in sub Saharan Africa. It is a major food security and an income-generating crop for millions of smallholder farmers. In Kenya, Cassava has high potential to alleviate food shortages and energy deficiencies. The crop produces good yields on infertile soils with poor rainfall, where other crops often fail. Some of its production constraints are lack of high yielding varieties, susceptibility to cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), and cassava mosaic disease (CMD), as well as low dry matter (DM) content and high cyanide content. However, lack of clean and timely planting materials has emerged as the main constraint to production of the crop in the semi-arid areas of Kenya.