Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resource Development Board (RAB) and researchers have urged farmers to embrace cassava varieties that will resist diseases and increase production from 10 tonnes to 40 tonnes per hectare.

Farmers were previously struggling to access improved cassava varieties resistant to the main cassava diseases, namely Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD).

The diseases have since 2014/15 affected cassava productivity, hence threatening the incomes and food security of many people in the country.

RAB officials said that they are going to distribute cassava clean cuttings in districts and sectors by the end of next week.  

Over 700,000 families grow cassava in 3,980 villages of Eastern, Western and Southern provinces which can produce 1.7 million tonnes, according to figures. 

Dr. Athanase Nduwumuremyi, the Head of the Cassava Research and Technology Transfer program at RAB said that the Government of Rwanda has been working with partners to find improved resistant varieties and ensure availability of clean cuttings to farmers.

He said that RAB and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have been implementing a four-year IFAD-funded Cassava Brown Streak Disease Control project since 2017, which implemented a dual strategy of developing resistant varieties and clean seed delivery systems to fight Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD).

"Cassava crop is among the priority crops to help cope with food insecurity. It is the third most popular crop that is cultivated on a big part of tillable land across the country and the second crop with high yields per hectare from banana crops. Farmers should embrace new varieties to increase productivity per hectare,” he said.

He said that cassava contains starch, which is used in factories that produce garments, beverages and pharmaceutical products and others adding that increasing cassava yields will help to reduce imports of starch.

"There are more companies that use cassava to produce cakes, animal feeds, beer, methanol which requires increasing yields per hectare,” he said.

He explained that since 2016, Rwanda stopped the importation of cassava seeds.

"We have been increasing cassava varieties that resist diseases. When disease broke out in 2013 and 2014, we imported varieties and multiplied them. Later, we developed more varieties and so far there are about eight varieties being used by farmers,” he explained.

Samuel Mugambi, a researcher at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture explained that the cassava production per hectare is still low as farmers are yet to embrace quality cassava seeds and fertilizers.

Currently farmers harvest between eight and ten tones of cassava per hectare yet they should be harvesting between 30 tonnes and 40 tonnes per hectare.

"In partnership with RAB, we introduced about 30 varieties that are being tried in Rwanda and so far four of them are about to be distributed to farmers. Among eight varieties that were already distributed to farmers, we developed two of them,” he said.

Francois Nsanzintwari, the cassava seed multiplier from Kamonyi district said that with the new verities, one cassava clean cutting can provide up to 21 kilogrammes.