This study demonstrates a method of providing ex-ante estimates of the distributional welfare effects of yield-increasing technology. We apply this approach to estimate the impact of a 10% increase in cassava yields in Nigeria. Using data from the 2012-13 Nigeria General Household Survey, we simulate the effect of the technology on each household in the sample (micro-simulation), taking into account both the yield increase and the resulting price reduction. The results suggest that the higher cassava yield would increase average household income by 0.2 percent, generate aggregate benefits of US$ 219 million per year, and reduce poverty by 0.2 percentage points, lifting 385 thousand people from poverty. Cassava growers who have net sales (11 percent of Nigerian households) would experience a reduction in income and an uptick in poverty due to the lower price. However, net-buying growers (10 percent) and consumers (47 percent) would benefit both in terms of income and poverty reduction. Smaller farms gain since many are net buyers who benefit from the lower price. Larger farms lose because many of them are net sellers who are adversely affected by the lower price. As most of the benefits of technology change are transferred to consumers (including many rural consumers), the cassava consumption patterns are at least as important as grower characteristics in determining the distributional impact of the technology. Applying this approach to all major crops in a country would help policy makers prioritize agricultural research across commodities to increase the poverty-reducing impact.

Some agricultural investments are commodity-specific, meaning that they increase the productivity of production, processing, or marketing of a single agricultural commodity or a set of closely-related commodities. Examples include investment in cassava breeding, expanding cotton ginning capacity, irrigation for rice production, expansion of cold storage capacity for horticultural exports, or road investment to a region whose main product is maize. Traditional cost-benefit analysis estimates the effect of in-vestments on net income assuming that the investment is not large enough to influence market prices. However, a different approach is needed when the investment affects market prices and/or there is an interest in other outcomes such as poverty reduction. This report describes an approach to estimating the impact of commodity-specific agricultural investments on income, poverty, and other measures of welfare. This approach can be extended to identify the optimal allocation of an investment budget across commodities subject to a given objective function. For example, it could be used to allocate agricultural research funds across commodities to maximize income, poverty reduction, or a weighted average of the two.

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.

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 a major tropical tuber crop found throughout the tropics (India, Oceania, Africa and Latin America). Hitherto, there has been no single text covering all aspects of cassava biology, production and utilization. This book fills that gap, representing the first comprehensive research level overview of this main staple crop. Chapters are written by leading experts in this field from all continents. The book is suitable for those working and researching in cassava, in both developed and developing countries, as well as advanced students.

Food Outlook analyses trends and developments in the markets for cereals, the oilseeds complex, sugar, meat, dairy and fish products. The November edition also offers a detailed analysis of the cassava markets and the protracted decline in international coffee prices. An additional feature article analyses the recent conditions in the global markets for bananas and major tropical fruits, where world trade is foreseen to surge by 18 percent from last year. The outlook for global supplies of agricultural commodities in the 2018/19 marketing season remains broadly in line with earlier expectations. While the weather had some impact on crop prospects, the overall production at global level did not change significantly from the forecasts published in the July issue of Food Outlook. Beyond weather-induced revisions, the latest FAO revisions take into consideration the mounting uncertainties regarding trade policies, as well as the changes in exchange rates and rising energy prices.