Boost for Cassava Production

By Tommy Ekpe [The Business Analyst]

Four improved varieties of cassava with the potential to increase productivity by 30 to 40 per cent have been released in the country are currently being disseminated to farmers by extension services and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) funded Roots and Tuber projects.

Seedlings were distributed to farmers in 10 districts for seed multiplication in 2010 and an action plan to scale up dissemination is underway. In addition, two new varieties of cocoyam and 1 variety of sweet potatoes are being processed for released by the end of this year.

This is under the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP), whose development objective is to generate and disseminate improved technologies in the participating countries' top priority areas, as identified by the Conference of African and French leaders of agricultural research institutes (CORAF).

These include roots and tubers in Ghana; rice in Mali; and cereals in Senegal. The region's consumers, particularly those affected by extreme poverty, are the ultimate beneficiaries of the WAAPP. Agricultural producers and agribusinesses, as users of the improved technology, are the primary beneficiaries of the program. These are also the key participants, along with researchers, extension agencies and universities (in adhering to the agricultural knowledge information system (AKIS) conceptual framework), in the generation and dissemination of technology that is directly supported by the program.

According to the World Bank, a comprehensive strategy for scaling up on-farm demonstration activities and seed multiplication has been implemented by the national extension services in the areas where the root and tuber projects from IFAD RTIMP and CAVA are not operating.

In its Implementation Status Results of World Bank Assisted Regional Projects released last week, the Bank said the construction of the Biotechnology Laboratory is progressing satisfactorily while the Monitoring and Evaluation ( M&E) system has been significantly improved and should lead to a better tracking of results.

“About 75% of the recommendations of the last supervision mission were implemented and the disbursement level was about 60% in September”, the report stated, adding that the supervision mission evaluates that the overall progress towards the achievement of the project development objectives (PDO) is satisfactory and the implementation of the project is also satisfactory.

It however said that efforts towards tracking and documenting results from other national partners involved in scaling-up the dissemination of developed improved technologies and regional networking need to be further strengthened.

Out of the $45 million earmarked for the project, $32.7 million has so far been disbursed.

Describing the overall implementation progress and the progress towards achievement of PDO as satisfactory, the report said the mission confirmed that overall WAAPP-1A is continuing satisfactorily to progress towards achieving its development objectives.