A research collaboration between The University of Warwick, the Smithsonian Institution and Embrapa (Brazilian agricultural research), has shown that thousands of years of farming myths and cultural traditions have been key ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 7, 2025
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30
Across the tropics, farming communities—an estimated 800 million people—rely on cassava for food and income. However, in recent decades, harvests have been decimated by rapidly spreading diseases. But there is good news ...
Agriculture
Jan 16, 2025
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0
A research team has proposed inbred-parent–based hybrid cassava breeding to overcome the challenges of heterozygous parent use, aiming to transform cassava breeding by purging deleterious mutations and utilizing heterosis. ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 29, 2024
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1
The three staple crops dominating modern diets—corn, rice and wheat—are familiar to Americans. However, fourth place is held by a dark horse: cassava.
Agriculture
May 2, 2024
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78
A research team reviewed the advancements in managing cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), highlighting the integration of new plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) with traditional breeding to enhance resistance. These efforts ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 25, 2024
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4
A team of archaeologists affiliated with several institutions in Chile reports evidence that early settlers on the island of Rapa Nui sailed to South America, interacted with people living there and then returned. In their ...
Whiteflies, particularly the African cassava whitefly (Bemisia tabaci, SSA1-SG1), pose a significant threat to agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa by transmitting viruses that cause cassava brown streak disease ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 23, 2024
0
1
In a recent breakthrough, DNA sequencing technology has uncovered the culprit behind cassava witches' broom disease: the fungus genus Ceratobasidium. The cutting-edge nanopore technology used for this discovery was first ...
Biotechnology
Feb 5, 2024
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1
Cassava is one of the most important crops in the tropics, feeding half a billion people in more than 80 countries. Cassava bacterial blight (CBB) is a devastating disease that causes crop losses worldwide.
Biotechnology
Feb 7, 2023
0
47
The discovery of a gene resistant to the virus that causes the devastating cassava mosaic disease could aid the development of disease-resistant cassava varieties and boost food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, scientists ...
Agriculture
Aug 23, 2022
0
36
Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. It differs from the similarly-spelled yucca, an unrelated fruit-bearing plant.
Cassava is the third largest source of food carbohydrates in the world. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava. It is classified as sweet or bitter, depending on the level of toxic cyanogenic glucosides. (However, bitter taste is not always a reliable measure.) Improper preparation of cassava can leave enough residual cyanide to cause acute cyanide intoxication and goiters, and has been linked to ataxia or partial paralysis. Nevertheless, farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, and thieves. In some locations the more toxic varieties serve as a fall-back resource (a "food security crop") in times of famine.
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