The discovery of a gene resistant to the virus that causes the devastating cassava mosaic disease could aid the development of disease-resistant cassava varieties and boost food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, scientists ...
Agriculture
Aug 23, 2022
0
36
Crop breeders are always looking for ways to improve a crop. They know that even small differences in quality and quantity can mean big differences in profits for farmers. So, making the breeding process faster and cheaper ...
Biotechnology
Jul 26, 2022
0
10
The root vegetable cassava is a major food staple in dozens of countries across the world. Drought-resistant, nutritious, and tasty, it has also become a major source of income for small-scale, rural farmers in places like ...
Biotechnology
Jul 25, 2022
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10
Research led by Rebecca Bart, Ph.D., associate member, and Nigel Taylor, Ph.D., associate member and Dorothy King distinguished investigator, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and their collaborators at ETH Zurich, University ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 13, 2022
0
38
As wheat prices are driven upwards by the war in Ukraine, bakers in the West African state of Ivory Coast are starting to use locally produced cassava flour to bake bread.
Agriculture
Jul 05, 2022
0
10
Inadequate and imbalanced fertilizer application is a well understood root cause of stagnating and inconsistent yields across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). What is required is the effective delivery of more made-to-measure approaches ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 30, 2022
0
7
Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have recently created a healthier form of starch in the cassava plant. Published in the scientific journal Plant Molecular Biology, the study ...
Agriculture
Dec 16, 2021
0
13
Cassava is a vital source of calories for close to a billion people across the world. The plant is a woody, perennial shrub with edible roots. Cassava roots are rich in carbohydrates, potassium, calcium, vitamins B and C, ...
Agriculture
Dec 06, 2021
0
6
Wasps have a reputation for being jerks because of their perceived aggressiveness and ability to sting repeatedly. They're often negatively compared with the honey production and agricultural pollination of bees.
Plants & Animals
Oct 29, 2021
0
569
Two new publications examining cassava flowering reveal insights into the genetic and environmental factors underpinning one of the world's most critical food security crops.
Plants & Animals
Jul 30, 2021
0
195
Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. It differs from the similarly-spelled yucca, an unrelated fruit-bearing plant.
Cassava is the third largest source of food carbohydrates in the world. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava. It is classified as sweet or bitter, depending on the level of toxic cyanogenic glucosides. (However, bitter taste is not always a reliable measure.) Improper preparation of cassava can leave enough residual cyanide to cause acute cyanide intoxication and goiters, and has been linked to ataxia or partial paralysis. Nevertheless, farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, and thieves. In some locations the more toxic varieties serve as a fall-back resource (a "food security crop") in times of famine.
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