Young farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are testing a new variety of cassava coupledwith improved agricultural techniques to improve the country’s food security
Cassava is a staple crop in many regions of the DRC where many harvests are lost due to cassava mosaic disease. As climate change is further threatening Sub-Saharan Africa’s food security, various youth organizations in DRC are making an effort to test new varieties of cassava, and to adopt new cultivation methods in order to increase yields.
The NGO “Action Jeunes Pour le Développment de Nkara” (AJDN), an farmer association of 22 young farmers in Nkara have tested the new cassava variety TME 419 which they say offers many new benefits in comparison to the previously planted variety F100.
“We produced 58 tonnes of TME 419 cassava from a two hectare field in 2011,” said 27-year-old Romain Twarita of AJDN. “That’s a yield of 29 tonnes per hectare, compared to the 10 or 12 tonnes per hectare of F100 that we harvested in 2010.”
Moreover, the adoption of the new variety has drastically increased the income of the organization which brought in more than 25,000 dollars in 2011, compared to 10,000 dollars in 2010 and 3,000 in 2009.
The farmer association has also adopted new agricultural techniques, such as “binage”. This improved method of hoeing increases the benefits of irrigation by breaking up soil surface of and therefore allowing more rainwater to be soaked up by the soil. Moreover, the soil is supplied with nutrients through the use of compost and manure.
In the Bas-Congo province, the Comité de Développement de Kakongo (CDK), a network of 264 small-scale farmers associations of which 87 were created by young farmers, is investing in the planting of trees to create windbreaks and increase soil moisture to boost production. By using intercropping, mainly with moringa trees, the association also depends less on chemical fertilizers, as trees are supplying nutrients to the soil.
These new techniques are also being adopted be the youth association Jeunes Dynamiques de Malkuku (JDM) on two hectares in the outskirts of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital which has provided them 28 tonnes from a hectare and a half in 2011.
These efforts especially by young farmers show a tremendous initiative to professionalize cassava production and to become more involved in the entire value chain from production to marketing. This is important as young farmers are improving the country’s food security while improving incomes and contributing to the development of the country.
Farmer associations hope TME 419 will soon spread across the whole country.
Source: AllAfrica: Cassava Farmers reap rewards from new methods
Picture: Leopard Capital
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