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Abidjan.-Specialists call it the "Cassava Ebola" a virus that affects this plant widely consumed in Africa of the West, which threatens the food security of the region, where the needs of food are only growing due to population pressure.
The brown cassava striatum, a viral disease that causes the loss of 90% to 100% of production in Central Africa, is moving towards West Africa. This is a threat that must be taken very seriously, told AFP Dr. Justin Pita, executive director of the West Africa Virus Epidemiology Program (WAVE), Head of Food Security, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The virus is spread by white flies. Men can also be vectors of transmission by transporting cassava cuttings, which are vital for subsistence farming in Africa.
The mainland is the world's largest producer of this plant (57%), from which tubers are eaten, high in carbohydrates and starch, but also leaves and starch, produced from the roots.
The yucca tuber is found on the table of 80% of the 180 million inhabitants of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
The attieke, a dish made from cooked yucca semolina, is also very popular in Côte d 'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Mali, mainly, and in the diasporas of these countries in France and in the United States, where they are exported several tons per month.
For their part, Wave researchers have been trying to manage this plague for months.
We are talking about yucca ebola, says Dr. Pita, recalling that a famine made more than 3,000 deaths in Uganda in the 1990s after the onset of this virus. Imagine Côte d'Ivoire without cassava or Abidjan without attieke, it would be a disaster!
The Wave program, based in Bingerville, near Abidjan, was launched in seven countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo) and defends "regional approach" to fight the disease.
At the present time, technicians, researchers and students have created experimental "resistant varieties" in the laboratory that will have to be tested in Central Africa, from where the epidemic originated .
On the other hand, in early June, the research ministers of eight West African countries came together to launch a "concerted action" and avoid "a cassava crisis ".
They pledged to Wave, while leaders from 12 African countries were also solicited, a scoop.
It was proposed to "uproot plants in infested areas", "prohibit moving with cassava cuttings" and support research "to fight diseases and improve productivity".
In Afféry, a large cassava producing region east of Abidjan, the 200 local producers are concerned.
Attieke is our cocoa […] If the disease appears here or elsewhere, it will be a tragedy for our families and our community ", explains Nathalie Monet Apo, president of her association.
" Thanks to the culture of cassava, my four children go to school, "says another producer, Blandine Yapo Sopi, with a stack of cassava tubers. On one hectare of the plantation, they should bring back 450 000 FCFA (about 680 euros, 800 dollars)
On the other hand, the countries of West Africa also have to cope with the low yield of cassava crops in the region.
It does not exceed 10 or 12 tonnes per hectare, while its potential may be about 40 tonnes per hectare. In Asia, the yield is 22 tonnes per hectare for the same crop, said Odile Attanasso, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
In the context of the growing population pressure and rural poverty that characterize our region, we will have no choice but to increase the productivity of this product, said Attanasso, whose the country is a major consumer of gari and tapioca, a semolina and a starch derived from cassava.
Investors promised to continue to participate in the program until 2022. But researchers expect greater involvement from local governments, which spend less than 1% of national budgets on scientific research .
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