Cassava is Africa's second most important food crop. The cassava transformation that is now underway in West Africa is fueled by new high yielding TMS varieties that have transformed cassava from a low-yielding, famine-reserve crop to a high-yielding cash crop for both rural and urban consumers. The book highlights the role of cassava as a "poverty fighter" by increasing cassava productivity and driving down the cost of cassava in rural and urban diets.

The objective of this book is to provide information to be used as a basis for evaluating the fragile, shaky structure of global food production. The volume analyses the data by region and by intensity of cultivation; and furnishes information about the yield response, giving some indication of the health of the plants. It will be invaluable to all plant and crop scientists as well as to agriculturalists.

Intended as both an instructional and a reference tool, the volume covers the production and postharvest treatment of cassava. The first part describes production constraints including pests , diseases, weeds, soils agronomic factors, and socioeconomic considerations. In part two, plant morphology, plant physiology and plant breeding are related to yields and diseases resistance. Part three covers postharvest treatment and part four describes cassava research. A bibliography of recommended reading is included.

Cassava is the most importan root and tuber crop grown in the tropical developing regions of the world. While the greater part of cassava production is destined for human food uses, the potential for the use of cassava and cassava products in animal feeding has increased considerably over the pest 20 years. The interest in the use of cassava as a carbohydrate source to replace, partially or totally, feed grains in rations for swine, poultry, ruminants, and other amimals has generated a vast amount of information on the subject. With the objective of systematizing this information and of making it more widely available to researchers, producers, and agroindustrialists, CIAT produced the bibliography "Cassava utilization in animal feed" in 1985 which contained 578 references.