Cassava disease hits Kibaale

Kibaale production staff inspect an infected cassava garden in Kagadi

CASSAVANEWS. to follow Ismael Kasooha on New Vision - Kampala,Uganda Sunday, 28th June, 2009 OVER 100 acres of cassava have been destroyed by disease in more than five sub-counties in Kibaale district.

Peter Sentayi, the officer in charge of disease control, said he suspected the disease to be brown streak disease, for which he had no immediate remedy.

When it occurs in a garden, it can damage over 95% of the crops, Sentayi explained.

“The disease covers the leaves of the plants and cuts off light so photosynthesis cannot take place. This leads to the drying of the cassava,” Sentayi added.

Inspecting affected gardens in Kibanga I Cell in Kagadi town council last week, Sentayi said the outbreak was the first of its kind in Kibaale district and was spreading fast.
Omuhereza Amulinda of Kibanga in Kagadi town council lost his entire five-acre cassava garden.

Amulinda said the disease had been spreading for five months but farmers had not recognised it, thinking that a change in weather had caused the blackening of the cassava leaves and stems.

Amulinda told The New Vision that when a cassava plant is attacked, the tubers cannot develop and eventually the entire crop dries up from the bottom upwards.

“The disease has left us in tears. Hunger is definitely looming because we had thought of having adequate food with the cassava we planted.”

Sentayi said the disease was spread by tiny white flies which move in large numbers and multiply rapidly.
He asked affected farmers not to weed their gardens to avoid spreading the disease further. He urged them to be patient as his office consults the National Agriculture Research Organisation for a remedy.

He asked farmers planning to plant cassava next season to search for disease-resistant species.

He said some improved cassava varieties had not been attacked by the disease. He called for the adoption of modern planting materials in order to ensure food security.

Sentayi appealed to farmers in areas where the disease has not been sited to be vigilant and report any signs to his office immediately.

The disease has affected Muhorro, Bwikara, Kyanaisoke, Mpeefu and Kagadi sub-counties, as well as Kagadi town council in Kibaale district.

Govt has to use up P280 million to hike cassava yield

GMaNews.TV 06/17/2009

MANILA, Philippines - The government needs to spend between P130 million and P280 million for its five-year program to increase cassava production and self-sufficiency by 2014.

This will help feed millers during tight corn supply and avoid emergency importations of corn and feed wheat, Agriculture assistant secretary Dennis B. Araullo said in a statement.

Hiking production of cassava by 440.21 percent to 10.48 million metric tons (MMT) in 2014 from 1.94 MMT in 2008 will need P26 million and P70 million every year until 2014 for its five-year program, which also calls for increasing areas planted to 500,000 hectares from the 230,000-hectare target this year.

The industry requires 10.48 million MMT by 2014 as cassava can replace as much as 20 percent of corn in feeds that is also used for bioethanol production and human consumption.

The hog and poultry sectors corner more than three-fourths of total domestic cassava consumption.

“The government has to address a slew of challenges that threatens this goal of cassava self-sufficiency, such as low productivity, limited supply of planting materials of new and high yielding varieties and limited supply of cassava dryers and other postharvest equipment," Araullo said.

The plan also involves the establishment of post-harvest equipment to increase the quality of produce in major cassava-producing regions like northern Mindanao, Bicol, Central Visayas, and Caraga.

The department has distributed high-yielding cassava varieties like NSIC Cv22 (KU-50), Lakan I and Golden Yellow in 53 hectares during the last crop year.

“Hence, this five-year cassava self-sufficiency plan that aims to raise the national yield average of nine MMT per hectare to 21 MMT per hectare by 2014," he added.

Local demand for cassava will likely increase to some 10 MMT in 2014 from 8.820 MMT in 2013; 7.448 MMT in 2012; 6.132 MMT in 2011; and 5.016 MMT next year, given a steady hike of demand for feeds to 8.294 MMT in 2014 from four MMT next year.

During the first quarter, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) said cassava was the biggest gainer in the crops subsector as it increased 5.08 percent to 405,000 MT followed by banana at 5.04 percent to 2.02 MMT.

In 2008, cassava production rose 3.64 percent to 1.941 MMT last year from 1.871 MMT in 2007 while areas planted inched up to 211,633 hectares last year from 209,633 hectares in 2007. - R.A.M.Rubio, GMANews.TV

Katine farmers harvest first cassava crop

guardian.co.uk by Richard M Kavuma. Jemorun is among the first of the 18 livelihood groups in Katine, Uganda, to harvest the new high-yielding, disease-resistant variety of cassava



A woman carrying cassava in Katine. Photograph: Dan Chung

In the midday heat, a dozen women, members of Ojemorun farmers group in Katine, sit peeling a heap of cassava tubers as men gather stems from the garden.

The tubers of this new variety are longer and bigger than those of the Nigeria strain, the most common type of cassava grown in Katine, but which is vulnerable to diseases like cassava brown streak.

Farmer groups in Katine have been harvesting this new high-yielding, disease-resistant variety of cassava, planted a year ago, given to them by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), which is implementing a three-year development project in the sub-county, funded by the Guardian and Barclays. It is receiving technical assistance on farming from Farm-Africa.

Ojemorun is among the first of Amref's 18 livelihood groups to harvest its cassava. After training in May last year, each group was given stem cuttings of the improved Akena and, later, 2961 varieties. Ojemorun was one of four pilot groups to test the enthusiasm for the new strain among farmers. Each group set up a demonstration garden to put into practice what they had learned in training, but also to share the cassava crop. Last month, it was time for the farmers to reap the rewards of their labour.

"Some members wanted us to sell the cassava and buy other things like goats for rearing, but the majority decided that we share the cassava and use it in our homes," explained Julius Opejo, 38, vice-chairman of the group. "There is famine here; people don't have food. A basin of cassava now costs UShs 10,000 [around $4.60], whereas earlier it cost between UShs 3,000 and 5,000."



The new disease-resistant strain of cassava. Photograph: Dan Chung

The group has already ploughed a fresh 0.4 hectare (1 acre) garden where they want to plant the stem cuttings from this harvest. Group chairman Julius Otim says if the new crop does well, then tubers can be given to other farmers who are not part of the 30-member group.

"That is how our neighbours in the village will also benefit," Otim said. "Now the planting material [tubers] would not be enough to give to other people. That is why we have to plant a new garden so as to multiply them."

Although Uganda's research scientists often come up with new varieties of crops to defeat emerging diseases and pests, the challenge lies in getting this information to farmers. The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), which seeks to inform farmers about new varieties and ideas, does not get enough money to reach everyone. Like the Katine project's livelihoods component, NAADS works through farmer groups, with one set of farmers having to wait for another before getting any new variety.

Replanting crops in Katine is a slow way to get the improved variety out to other farmers, but, according to David Ogwang, Amref's project assistant for livelihoods, there are no easy short cuts.

One farmers group, Ojwinyi, has decided to distribute the cuttings among themselves right away, instead of re-planting. "The disadvantage with this option is that each farmer only gets a few cuttings that can only be planted in a small area. But in the end we shall see the results and tell which method will have worked better."

So what lessons have the Ojemorun farmers learned from the demonstration exercise? For Anna Grace Anyeno, a mother of five, Akena is a good variety that she did not know about until Amref introduced it. She says it gives bigger tubers and, after only one year, it can be cooked and eaten from the garden.

"But this variety needs a lot of work," Anyeno says. "It needs a well-ploughed garden and you must plant it in spaced rows, whereas for Nigeria, we just plant in any field anyhow."

While she sees this as a disadvantage, in future she hopes to plant both Nigeria and Akena. Nigeria can be harvested, sun-dried and sold or milled into flour after eight months, while the new type will be popular with buyers who want to boil it for food or to make cassava chips.

Agricultural products exported to China enjoy free of charge for C/O

Nhan Dan – The import-export management department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade offered free certificate of origin (C/O) to agricultural products exported to China through Lao Cai border gate.
This move aims to create favourable conditions to Vietnamese enterprises to export their agricultural products to China.

So far, the Lao Cai import-export management department has issued 174 sets of C/O form E to enterprises exporting products to China through Lao Cai international border gate with the total volume of around 30,700 tonnes. The list of agricultural products offered form E is mainly fresh cassava, dried cassava, rice, cashew nuts, water-melon and fresh lichee.

Ethanol orders unchanged despite price fall

Written by Nguon Sovan
Phnom Penh Post - Phnom Penh,Phnom Penh,Cambodia
Tuesday, 02 June 2009

Cambodia’s first bio-ethanol factory in Kandal province says it has not benefitted from low costs as sales remain flat

THE recent decline in ethanol prices has not resulted in an increase in orders placed with Cambodia's first bio-ethanol plant, which opened in November, the head of the Korean company that operates the facility told the Post Monday.

Lee Dong Jun, Cambodia director of MH Bio-Energy Group, said ethanol prices had dropped from US$700 per tonne in November to $600 per tonne in May, but that the plant's export volume had not been affected.

"So far we have exported 20,000 tonnes of bio-ethanol fuel to European markets, and we expect to export an additional 20,000 tonnes by the end of the year," he said.

Ith Praing, secretary of state at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said Monday that the decline in ethanol prices could be attributed to the decline in the price of oil on international markets, which fell markedly after reaching record highs last summer before falling steadily ahead of a recent rally - oil prices increased by nearly 30 percent last month.

Ith Praing argued that the fall in oil prices had hit other fuels.

"Bio-ethanol is a kind of renewable energy, an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline, so bio-ethanol and oils are linked," he said. "So when the oil price goes up, the price of bio-ethanol also goes up, and when oil prices go down, bio-ethanol also goes down in price."

Sar Peov, head of the administration unit at the factory, which is located in Kandal province, said the price of cassava had begun to recover slightly with the concurrent increase in the price of oil, though he could not provide figures supporting this claim.

Lee Dong Jun said the decline in the price of ethanol since November had also coincided with the decline in the price of dry cassava chips, a raw material used in ethanol production, meaning that the company had not experienced much change in revenue.

Cassava prices had also become depressed due to a Thai blockade on Cambodian exports designed to protect prices across the border. Sources in Pailin have recently told the Post that cassava is now getting through to Thailand.

"Now it is roughly $110 or $112 for a tonne of dry chips of cassava, which is down from between $130 to $180 per tonne last year," he said.

He added that the plant requires 100,000 tonnes of dry cassava chips per year, which it receives mainly from Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Kampong Cham provinces.

Lee Dong Jun expressed optimism regarding the plant's prospects, saying he expected international demand for ethanol to increase, which would lead to an increase in the amount of cassava the plant would need to operate.

"We will need more when we increase our production volume," he said.