Cassava

The world production is estimated at 128 million Mt/year. The plant grows as a shrub, is undemanding in terms of soil fertility and inputs, and is the second best producer of food energy per land unit after sugar cane. It can be harvested any day of the year and forms the staple food for more than 500 million people. Its importance in food security, especially for subsistence farmers and underprivileged communities, may increase further due to global warming. People in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) call cassava an “all sufficient food” because from leaves, they get “meat (protein) or sauce”, and from roots, they get “bread”. Cassava roots form one of the most important staple foods in Sub-Saharan Africa. In DRC, more than 70 % of the population consumes products of cassava roots as staple food every day. 

Both leaves and roots of cassava contain varying amounts of cyanogenic glycosides, mainly linamarin and lotaustralin, which produce cyanide and are very toxic to humans. Consumption of unprocessed bitter cassava is considered suicidal. Thus, cassava requires post-harvest processing into various safe products. Many processing methods are combinations of several methods (peeling, slicing, soaking, retting, fermenting, boiling, drying, roasting, pounding, milling, etc) that attempt to remove the poisonous principle in cassava as much as possible. Cassava is processed into various products such as gari, chikwangue, cossettes, fufu, tapioca, etc.

Incompletely detoxified cassava roots eaten regularly can lead to negative effects on human health, such as acute cassava poisoning, Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD), and Tropical Ataxic Neuropathy (TAN), Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM) and konzo. High intakes of dietary cyanogens from poorly processed cassava roots in diets deficient in protein, especially in sulfur amino acids, have been implicated in the causation of konzo.

Goals

• Improving the nutritional quality of cassava to prevent konzo
• Working out proposals for dietary improvement for cassava consumers in konzo affected areas, utilising the local potential

Partners

• Pronanut (Programme National de Nutrition) Kinshasa, DR Congo.
• School of Botany and zoology, Australian National University; Proyaka (Projet de développement dans la région Yaka) Pokokabaka, Bandundu DR Congo.

For more information, contact Delphin.DiasoluaNgudi@ugent.be