Lessons in Cassava Plant for Economic Development

Lessons in Agriculture at the University 

Elvis Asare-Bediako, from University of Cape Coast Agricultural Department, and PhD programme at the University of Warwick, UK, explained about growing cassava plants.  The plants are a major food source for Ghana’s 23 million people (estimate 2003) as a food deficit country.  The tuberous plant grows well in warm humid climate, does not tolerate freezing and can withstand some dry weather so it grows in Ghana.  Cassava is propagated by replanting stems with a node, so it is important to be growing healthy plants rather than diseased plants.   The crop from either can be eaten, takes the same amount of work, yet the yield is much higher with healthy cassava plants which is important to people needing food.     Diana produced a visual aid flyer for Daasgift Qualilty Foundation, a financial NGO, to educate women borrowing money to grow cassava.  Better that their hard work have greater crop yield.

Cassava is part of the traditional food called fufu.  It is boiled, and then pounded into a glutinous mass using a long wooden pestle and large wooden mortar.