A process of conversion of flour from three varieties of cassava, namely Odongbo, ofege and TMS30752 to ethanol using α-amylase locally sourced from germinated unhusked paddy rice and yeast isolated from palm wine was developed. It involves the germination of paddy rice for a period of 15days to produce αamylase for starch hydrolysis and isolation of yeast from palm wine for fermentation. The r...

Global efforts are underway to biofortify cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) with provitamin A carotenoids to help combat dietary vitamin A deficiency afflicting the health of more than 500 million resource-poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa. To further the biofortification initiative in Uganda, a 6×6 diallel analysis was conducted to estimate combining ability of six provitamin A clones and gen...

In clonally propagated crops, non-additive genetic effects can be effectively exploited by the identification of superior genetic individuals as varieties. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a clonally propagated staple food crop that feeds hundreds of millions. We quantified the amount and nature of non-additive genetic variation for three key traits in a breeding population of cassava from...

Executive Summary 1. Maize has been the recognised staple food for most Zambians in rural and urban areas. Food security policies and strategies in Zambia have therefore, remained highly biased towards maize. The danger of over-depending on maize is that its production is expensive and reliance on it alone narrows the food base, and also makes the national food security system vulnerable to dro...

Cassava is an important food and potential biofuel crop that is tolerant to multiple abiotic stressors. The mechanisms underlying these tolerances are currently less known. CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) have been shown to play crucial roles in plant developmental processes, hormone signaling transduction, and in the response to abiotic stress. However, no data is currently available a...

Cassava is an important tropical and sub-tropical root crop that is adapted to drought environment. However, severe drought stress significantly influences biomass accumulation and starchy root production. The mechanism underlying drought-tolerance remains obscure in cassava. In this study, changes of physiological characters and gene transcriptome profiles were investigated under dehydration s...

Cassava is an important crop in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Cassava can be produced adequately in drought conditions making it the ideal food security crop in marginal environments. Although cassava can tolerate drought stress, it can be genetically improved to enhance productivity in such environments. Drought adaptation studies in over three decades in cassava have identif...

Genetic diversity of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), obtained by open or controlled pollination and selection, as well as from germplasm introductions from abroad, is being conserved, both in the field and in an in vitro gene bank. Nine hundred and eighty five germplasm accessions are being conserved under slow-growth conditions using an osmotic retardant medium. The major thrust given in t...