Cassava is a major staple food for about 800 million people in the tropics and sub-tropical regions of the world. Production of cassava is significantly hampered by cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), caused by Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) and Ugandan cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV). The disease is suppressing cassava yields in eastern Africa at an alarming rate. Previous studies have ...

Due to unfavourable climatic conditions, the production of wheat in Mozambique is not sufficient to satisfy national food industrial needs and substantial quantities must be imported at high cost. Bread is currently produced basically using wheat flour. Therefore, this thesis examined the partial replacement of wheat flour by cassava-maize flours in the Mozambican bread manufacturing context an...

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...

The biochemical and toxicological effects of occupational and dietary exposure of humans to cyanide poisoning from large-scale cassava processing and ingestion of cassava foods were investigated using spectrophotometric and enzymatic methods. Analysis of urinary and serum thiocyanate (cyanide metabolite) from workers in cassava processing industries, who were 'frequent' [those who eat cassava f...

BACKGROUND Whereas conventional white cassava roots are devoid of provitamin A, biofortified yellow varieties are naturally rich in β-carotene, the primary provitamin A carotenoid. OBJECTIVE We assessed the effect of consuming yellow cassava on serum retinol concentration in Kenyan schoolchildren with marginal vitamin A status. DESIGN We randomly allocated 342 children aged 5-13 y to receiv...

This study analyzed the effectiveness of cassava women processors in value addition technologies in Abia State, Nigeria. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select ninety (90) women. Data for the study were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics such as: frequency, mean scores and percentages and inferential statistics (Tob...

BACKGROUND Cassava starch, the economically important agricultural commodity in Thailand, can readily be cast into films. However, the cassava starch film is brittle and weak, leading to inadequate mechanical properties. The properties of starch film can be improved by adding plasticizers and blending with the other biopolymers. RESULTS Cassava starch (5%w/v) based films plasticized with glyc...

The maximum daily cassava flour intake of children may be calculated from determination of the total cyanide content of cassava flour and urinary thiocyanate levels of school children in samples collected at the same time and place. Four sites, two with and two without recent konzo cases, were chosen for study. In two sites with recent konzo cases, 84% and 93% of school children consumed cassav...

The effect of Aspergillus niger hydrolysis on cassava peel meal based diet on the growth performance and nutrient retention of broiler chickens was studied. Delignified cassava peel was used as the carbon source in a composed medium under a pH of 5.0, concentration 3% and 35C to grow Aspergillus niger for five days. The culture filtrate obtained was then used to hydrolyze delignified cassava pe...

Cassava breeding is difficult and, compared with other crops, inefficient. The problems in cassava breeding relate to the length of the breeding cycle, the large genetic load present in the crop, and the heterozygous nature of the parents and progenies evaluated. The production of doubled haploids, through tissue culture techniques, offers interesting advantages. By definition, any process that...