Eastern &Southern Africa: Gates Foundation, Partners Launch Three New Initiatives to Tackle Deadly Cassava Diseases

By NewsfromAfrica

DAR-ES-SALAAM –Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have launched three new projects to support efforts to develop cassava varieties with resistance to Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) and Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and to establish more sustainable seed systems to enable smallholder farmers better access to such varieties.

The projects, with grants amounting to USD 10,618,588 were officially announced during a Cassava Value Chain event organized in Dar es Salaam.

CMD and CBSD are spreading fast in East and Central Africa. Combined, they cause losses of more than US$ 1 billion every year to the cassava industry and wreak havoc on the food security and livelihoods of growers, majority of whom are poor small-holder farmers.

Hon. Engineer Christopher Chiza, Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, noted that the projects came at an opportune time when farmers badly needed access to planting materials of new improved varieties released in the country.

“These are extremely important projects for Tanzania and the region because cassava is a very important crop not only for food security but it also has great potential as a cash crop through processing. These two diseases, especially CBSD, are a major problem to our farmers and need to be urgently addressed,” he said.

“Cassava is one of our priority crops, as it is mostly grown by resource-poor small-holder farmers and especially women. Therefore finding sustainable solutions to its production challenges provides us all an opportunity to make a difference in their lives and make progress in efforts to overcome hunger and poverty,’ said Lawrence Kent, a senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation.

The Cassava Varieties and Clean Seed to Combat CBSD and CMD (5CP) project will facilitate sharing of five of the best varieties from Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda for regional testing across the countries to speed up the development of varieties with dual resistance to the two diseases.