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Women select cassava tubers at a production site in Affery, June 18 2018 in Ivory Coast / AFP
Specialists call it "Cassava Ebola": West Africa is looking for a parade to a virus that affects this highly consumed plant on its soil and that threatens food security in the region, where the need for food is growing under demographic pressure
"The brown streak of cassava, a viral disease, which causes the loss of 90 to 100% of production in Central Africa, is in 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 funded by the Bill and Melin Foundation da Gates
This virus is spread by white flies. Men can also be vectors of transmission when carrying cassava cuttings.
Cassava is a major subsistence crop in Africa.
The continent is the world's largest producer of this plant (57% ), of which the tubers are consumed, rich in carbohydrates and starch, but also the leaves and the starch (which looks rather like a semolina), produced from the roots.
A woman cooks attiéké, a dish made from cooked manioc semolina, on June 25, 2018. Affery, Ivory Coast / AFP
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 cooked cassava semolina, is very popular with the people of Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, in particular, as well as diasporas in France and the United States where several tons are exported each month.
– The fight from the laboratory –
Also the Wave researchers are they on foot for months to stop the scourge.
"We are talking about cassava Ebola," says Dr. Pita, recalling that a famine killed more than 3,000 people in Uganda in the 1990s after the appearance of this virus. "Imagine Ivory Coast without cassava or Abidjan without attiéké, it would be a disaster!"
Dr Justin Pita, researcher for the Wave program, inspects various cassava (cassava) plants at the Bingerville laboratory, near Abidjan, on June 27 2018 in Côte d'Ivoire / AFP
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 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 gathered in Cotonou to put on the rails "a concerted action" to prevent "a cassava crisis".
They committed themselves alongside Wave, while the kings and chiefs of 12 African countries also
A woman dries at sun of the cassava semolina which will be used to prepare the attiéké, the 22 ma i 2018 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire / AFP
"We kings and traditional leaders, interfaces between the population and the government, must accompany the Wave program to curb brown streak, through a plan of safety and security. prevention at the regional level, "said Amon Tanoé, King of Grand-Bassam, President of the National Chamber of Kings and Traditional Chiefs of Côte d'Ivoire, an institution in the country of Attiéké and placali.
Concretely, the "uprooting of plants in an infested area", "the ban on traveling with cassava cuttings" and, above all, support for research "to combat 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, anti 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's thanks to the culture 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 meet another challenge: that of the low yield of cassava 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, "says Odile Attanasso, Beninese Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
" In the context of growing demographic pressure and rural poverty that characterizes our region, we will not have alternative to raising the productivity of this commodity, "warned Ms. Attanasso, whose country is a major consumer of gari and tapioca, a semolina and a starch derived from cassava.
The yawners promised to continue funding 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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