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Experts call it "Cassava 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.
"The brown streak of cassava, a viral disease that causes the loss of 90-100% of production in Central Africa, is moving towards West Africa. It's 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 and Melinda Gates Foundation. 19659003] This virus is spread by white flies. Men can also be vectors of transmission when carrying cassava cuttings. But cassava is a vital subsistence crop in Africa. The continent is the world's largest producer of this plant (57%), which is consumed by tubers, rich in carbohydrates and starch, but also leaves and starch (which has the appearance of a semolina), produced from the roots.
Cassava tubers enter, for example, the bowl of 80% of the 180 million inhabitants of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
Attiéké, a dish made from of cooked cassava semolina, is highly prized by the populations of Côte d'Ivoire, 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. [19659006] The fight from the laboratory
Wave researchers have been working for months to stem the scourge. "We are talking about cassava Ebola," says Dr. Pita, recalling that a famine caused more than 3,000 deaths in Uganda in the 1990s after the outbreak of the virus. "Imagine Ivory Coast without cassava or Abidjan without attiéké, it would be a disaster! The Wave program, headquartered in Bingerville, near Abidjan, has been established in seven countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo). He advocated "a regional approach" to fight the disease
Mobilization first took place at the level of technicians, researchers and students, who jointly 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 met in Cotonou to put on the rails "a concerted action" to prevent "a crisis of cassava". They have joined with Wave, while the kings and leaders of 12 African countries have also been solicited for the first time.
"We, kings and traditional leaders, interfaces between the people and the government, must accompany the Wave program to curb the brown streak, through a regional safety and prevention plan, "said Amon Tanoé, King of Grand-Bassam, President of the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs of Côte d'Ivoire Ivory, an institution in the country of Attiéké and placali (cassava-based dishes).
Specifically, are envisaged "the uprooting of plants in an infested area", "the ban on traveling with cuttings of cassava "and, above all, support for research" to fight diseases and improve productivity ". In Afféry, a large cassava production area, 100 km east of Abidjan, the 200 local producers are worried. Sanglée in a multicolored loincloth, the president of their association, 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"
"It is thanks to the cultivation of cassava that I can educate my four children," adds another producer, Blandine Yapo Sopi, near a mound of cassava tubers. Harvested on 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 raise another challenge is the low yield of cassava growing in the region. It does not exceed 10 to 12 tonnes per hectare, while its potential may be around 40 tonnes / ha. Asia has a yield of 22 tonnes / ha for the same crop, "says Odile Attanasso, Benin's Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
" Against the backdrop of pressure from growing demographics and rural poverty which characterizes our region, we will have no choice but to raise the productivity of this commodity, "warned Ms. Attanasso, whose country is a major consumer of gari and tapioca, a semolina and starch derived from cassava. [19659003Theyawnerspromisedtocontinuefundingtheprogramuntil2022ButtheresearchersalsohopeforstronginvolvementofAfricangovernmentsofwhichlessthan1%ofnationalbudgetsarecurrentlydevotedtoscientificresearch
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