Cassava Productivity Improvement in Africa

Cassava is a staple crop for over 180 million people in West and Central Africa and represent sources of employment, industrial raw materials, animal feeds, and thus an income to the farmers. Africa produces more cassava than the rest of the world combined. This is largely due to increased cultivated area rather than increased root yield. Although cassava has a potential fresh root yield of up to 90 t ha^-1, average yield in Nigeria’s (and African at large) farmers’ field is less than 12 t ha^-1, which indicate a substantial yield gap. Our group is involved in the African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) project led by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture. The project has as overall goal to reduce the existing cassava yield gap by developing site specific management recommendations according to soil types and climatic conditions that will ensure improved and sustainable cassava production in Africa, thus improving the livelihoods of small holder cassava farmers.

More specifically, we are evaluating the potential of intercropping and best planting practices to partly close the yield gap. For the intercropping, we focus on developing economically viable and site specific nutrient management recommendations for improved cassava-maize intercropping system productivity in six contrasting environments in three agroecologies in Nigeria using inorganic mineral fertilizer nutrients (NPK) while ensuring minimal loss of these nutrients to the environments.