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Experts call it "Cbadava Ebola": West Africa is looking for a virus that affects this highly consumed plant on its soil and threatens food security in the region, where the need for food is only growing under demographic pressure.
"Cbadava brown streak, a viral disease that causes the loss of 90-100% of production in Central Africa, is moving towards Africa It is a threat to be taken very seriously, "says Dr. Justin Pita, executive director of the West African Virus Epidemiology (Wave) program, which focuses on food security and is funded by the Bill Foundation. and Melinda Gates
This virus is spread by white flies. Men can also be vectors of transmission when carrying cbadava cuttings.
Cbadava is a major subsistence crop in Africa.
The continent is the world's largest producer of this crop (57% ), whose tubers are rich in carbohydrates and starch, but also the leaves and starch (which looks more like a semolina), produced from the roots.
For example, cbadava tubers enter 80% of the 180 million inhabitants of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
Attiéké, a dish made with cooked cbadava semolina, is very popular with the people of Côt Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali, in particular, as well as by the diasporas in France and the United States where several tons are exported each month.
– The fight from the laboratory –
Also the researchers of the Wave program have been hard at work for months to stem the scourge.
"We're talking about cbadava Ebola," says Dr. Pita, recalling that a famine has killed more than 3,000 people Uganda in the 1990s after the appearance of this virus. "Imagine Ivory Coast without cbadava or Abidjan without attiéké, it would be a disaster!"
The Wave program, headquartered in Bingerville, near Abidjan, was set up in seven countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo). He advocates "a regional approach" to fight the disease.
Mobilization first took place at the level of technicians, researchers and students, who together designed experimental "resistant varieties" in the laboratory.
Their effectiveness must be tested in Central Africa, where the epidemic began.
– The call to the kings –
Then, at the beginning of June, the Ministers of Research of eight West African countries are are meeting in Cotonou to put "a concerted action" on the rails to prevent "a crisis of cbadava".
They have committed themselves alongside Wave, while the kings and chiefs of 12 African countries have also
"We kings and traditional leaders, interfaces between the population and the government, must accompany the Wave program to curb the brown streak, through a security and prevention plan deployed at regional level, "said Amon Tanoé, King of Grand-Bbadam, President of the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs of Côte d'Ivoire, an institution in the country of Attiéké and placali (cbadava-based dishes)
Specifically, are envisaged "the uprooting of seedlings in an infested area", "the ban on traveling with cbadava cuttings" and, above all, support in research "to fight diseases and improve productivity"
In Afféry, a large cbadava production area, 100 km east of Abidjan, the 200 local producers are worried.
Sanguée in a multicolored loincloth, the president of their badociation Nathalie Monet Apo, anticipates the worst: "Attiéké is our cocoa (…), if the disease appears here or elsewhere, it will be a tragedy for our families and our community."
"That's thanks to the cultivation of cbadava that I can educate my four children, "adds another producer, Blandine Yapo Sopi, near a mound of cbadava tubers. Harvested from one hectare of plantation, they should bring him 450,000 FCFA (about 680 euros).
– The challenge of yield –
In addition to the threat of disease, West African countries must also meet another challenge: that of the low yield of manioc cultivation in the region
It does not exceed 10 to 12 tons per hectare, while its potential may be around 40 tons / ha, while Asia has a yield of 22 tons / ha. ha for the same culture, "said Odile Attanbado, Beninese Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
" In the context of pressure from growing population and rural poverty that characterizes our region, we will have no alternative to raising the productivity of this commodity, "warned Ms. Attanbado, whose country is a major consumer of gari and tapioca, a semolina and a starch derived from cbadava.
The yawners promised to continue financing theprogram until 2022. But researchers also hope for strong involvement of African governments, of which less than 1% of national budgets are currently devoted to scientific research.
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