Cassava boom in Ghana?

25 September 1998

Cassava boom in Ghana?

A NEW strain of high-yielding strain of cassava – producing three times the existing variety – could transform the agricultural scene in Ghana.P>

Ghana was formerly Africas largest cocoa producer. The new strain of cassava, developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, is set to challenge that position and carve out a slice of exports for itself.

The new strain can give farmers up to 33 tonnes a hectare.

The Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development, a United Nations agency, is supporting the introduction of the new variety. It hopes that 750,000 of the countrys two million farmers will be using it within the next five years.

• Financial Times 25/09/98 page 32