A climate-smart innovation is set to transform cassava farming in Kenya.
Scientists at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro) have developed an autotrophic hydroponic system producing clean cassava seeds at an extraordinary scale. Clean means they don’t carry disease.
Cassava is also known as manioc and yuca.
An autotrophic hydroponic system combines tissue culture with hydroponic principles to promote rapid, high-ratio multiplication of plants without soil, only water and nutrients.
With this technology, a single node can yield as many as a million seedlings in just one year, compared to the conventional methods that produce about 40,000 seedlings from the same node.
Kalro research scientist John Ndung’u said the innovation can end seed shortages, curb the spread of devastating cassava diseases and boost yields for smallholder farmers.
Researchers at Kalro-Njoro are applying autotrophic hydroponic technology to multiply propagation.
Ndung’u said conventional cassava seed production relies on exchanging sticks of cassava from farmer to farmer, which often spreads diseases such as cassava mosaic and cassava brown streak. They significantly reduce yields.
“Conventionally, when you use sticks, you end up with diseased plants and low volumes,” he said.
“In one acre, the best you can manage in seed stick production is about 40,000,” he said.
Tissue culture was once seen as an alternative, but proved expensive and slow, producing only about 20,000 seedlings from a single node. The new hydroponic technology is a game changer.
“This method addresses seed shortage at the farmer level and supports the growing cassava market, especially with the flour-blending initiative requiring millers to mix 10 per cent cassava with maize,” he said.
The system also ensures disease-free planting material, boosting productivity. “Planting clean varieties without mosaic disease ensures optimal yields per acre,” Ndung’u said.
The innovation is designed to cascade to farmers through cassava seed entrepreneurs.
Seedlings produced in Kalro greenhouses are handed to entrepreneurs across cassava-growing regions, including Kisumu, Homa Bay, Kilifi, Kwale and Njoro in Nakuru.
Entrepreneurs harden the plantlets for six months before selling as sticks to farmers.
“This technology will soon be widely available through trained cassava seed entrepreneurs, ensuring farmers access clean, high-yielding planting material,” the scientist said.
Kalro says cassava is the world’s most widely grown starch storage root crop, providing dietary energy to more than 500 million people in tropical and subtropical regions. It is the third-most important root crop in Kenya.
In Kenya, it thrives in marginal and drought-prone areas, more than 80 per cent of the country, but production has declined due to diseases and lack of improved varieties.
However, between 2012 and 2016, national production fell by 44 per cent due to lack of high-yielding varieties and cassava brown streak disease and mosaic disease. That has changed.
Self Help Africa said the continent’s demand for cassava reached three million tonnes in 2022.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture shows Kenya produced 945,827 tonnes in 2018, rising to about one million tonnes annually. Despite this growth, the country has the potential to produce more than three million tonnes each year.
The crop is mainly grown in the western region (60 per cent), coastal areas (30 per cent), and Central Kenya (10 per cent).
“With hydroponic seed production, however, we believe cassava can reclaim its place as a reliable, climate-smart food security crop while opening new entrepreneurial opportunities along the value chain,” Ndung’u said.
Cassava is mainly cultivated for its tuberous roots, which are boiled or processed.
The roots are often peeled, sun-dried and milled into flour for longer storage. The flour is used to prepare porridge, ugali, local brews, or blended with wheat flour for home baking.
Cassava leaves are a popular vegetable in many African communities and are also used as animal feed. The crop also is raw material for starch production, brewing, pharmaceuticals, animal feed, and the textile and paper industries.
Cassava can be poisonous because its roots and leaves contain cyanogenic glycosides, which the body converts to hydrogen cyanide, a potent poison that can cause acute cyanide poisoning.
To remove the poison and make cassava safe to eat, various processing methods are employed, including peeling, chopping, grating, soaking, drying, boiling and fermentation. They help to reduce the cyanide through leaching and the release of hydrogen cyanide gas
Instant analysis
Cassava is the third most important root crop in Kenya, supporting more than 2.5 million people. A new technology can end the seed shortage and produce clean, disease-free seeds, as many as one million from a single node. The innovation involves hydroponics and growing in water, plus other technology.
