Nweke, F.I. 2004 New challenges in the cassava transformation in Nigeria and Ghana.. EPTD Discussion Paper -- Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute 118.

Notes: The cassava transformation involves a shift from production as a low-yielding, famine-reserve crop to a high-yielding cash crop increasingly prepared and consumed as gari. This paper documents the four key factors that are driving the cassava transformation in Nigeria and Ghana. First, the IITA's new high-yielding Tropical Manioc Selection (TMS) varieties boosted cassava yield by 40% without fertilizer application. Second, high consumer demand for cassava by rural and urban households fuelled the producer incentive to plant more land with cassava. Third, the use of the mechanical grater to prepare gari released labour, especially female labour, from processing for planting more cassava. Fourth, the Africa-wide biological control programme averted the devastating cassava mealybug epidemic (Phenacoccus manihoti). Challenges to enhancing the value of cassava as a powerful poverty-alleviating crop in Africa are identified.