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.

This paper examines the drivers of Africa's rapidly increasing cassava output using panel data for 37 African countries from 1961 to 2020 and the random effects regression. It analyses the influence of average yields per hectare and area harvested on annual cassava production. Since the 1960s, Africa's average cassava yields per hectare have been below the world's average and those of frontline cassava-producing continents like Asia and the Americas. Nevertheless, Africa's total cassava output has grown at an increasing rate eclipsing output gains in the other continents in the past decades. This paper finds that 95.6% of the increases in output were driven by increases in the area harvested and changes in yields per hectare accounted for only 2% of the output variation. A one-tonne increase in yields per hectare is expected to boost production by 188,952 tonnes, and a one-hectare increase in area harvested area improves production by 8.5 tonnes.This indicates a gap in translating gains made via the eradication of major cassava diseases and the introduction of new high-yield, disease, and pest-resistant varieties into smallholder cassava farming. The increasing allocation of new lands to cassava production in Africa is unsustainable in the long run. It promotes deforestation, aggravates climate change, and leads to soil erosion, flooding, droughts, soil nutrients, and biodiversity loss. Sustainable intensification of cassava production offers a pathway to boost absolute and per hectare yields and farmers' income within current cassava lands while reducing cassava cultivation-related deforestation.

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 important of the root crops in the tropics and ranks fourth after rice, sugarcane and maize as a source of calorie for human needs. Since its introduction into Africa in the 16th century, cassava has spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa to become one of the dominant starchy staples in the diet of the people. Cassava is a major staple for about half of the Nigerian population and nearly 50 million tonnes of fresh cassava is produced annually in the country. This quantity is enough to meet the calorie requirement of 50 million people at about 200 calories per day. Cassava is important not just as a subsistence or food security crop, but also as a main source of cash income for producing households. Its production and processing provide employment and income for the rural poor, especially women and children. This book discusses the environmental impact cassava may have; the functional and nutritional characterization of cassava flour; cassava bread; other food products developed from using cassava roots and its derivatives; and cassava varieties and their breeding status.