AATF Inaugural Report - African Agricultural Technology Foundation

A New Bridge to Sustainable Agricultural Development in Africa
its most economically valuable part, have poor
keeping qualities and must be processed within
three days.
However, inefficient traditional African
production practices and processing methods
lead to comparatively high production costs and
to cassava products that are of generally low
quality. This limits the ability of African cassava
products to enter local industrial markets or to
compete with maize in global starch markets.
Measures that will reduce the production costs
of African cassava producers will help reduce
poverty by making cassava farming more
profitable while lowering the price of cassava to
consumers.
A technology needs assessment for improving
cassava productivity was conducted during the
2004 symposium of the International Society for
Tropical Root Crops – Africa Branch (ISTRC-
AB) to identify technological interventions that
could increase cassava productivity in Africa.
The results suggest that farm mechanization
would make the greatest contribution to increasing
cassava productivity. However, cassava farming
and processing machinery producers from
outside Africa are reluctant to sell equipment to
African countries for fear that such equipment
will be copied by local engineers, pointing to an
IP issue that needs to be resolved.
The overall goal of this project will be to
improve cassava productivity through appropriate
mechanisation aimed at optimising labour
productivity during production and processing
operations and opening up new market opportunities
for cassava products.
AATF’s role in this project is to clarify
and seek to resolve key IP issues involved in
the acquisition and deployment of proprietary
machinery for cassava production and processing.
Working with its partners, the Foundation
will help organize a meeting of experts in 2005
to develop a master plan for the industrialisation
of cassava in Africa. This plan will be designed
to facilitate the efforts of all stakeholders along
the cassava value chain to promote cassava-based
industries in Africa.
Partner Institutions
• African Agricultural Technology Foundation
(AATF)
• International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA)
• United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO)
Discontinued Projects
Pro-Vitamin A Enhancement in Maize
Malnutrition is common in sub-Saharan Africa.
About 40–50% of the region’s population remains
malnourished each year and the region is worse
off nutritionally today than it was 30 years ago.
Many of the hungry and malnourished are the
more vulnerable members of society – women
and children. The most widespread micronutrient
deficiencies in Africa are those of iron, zinc and
vitamin A. In children, malnutrition often leads to
diminished cognitive development and suboptimal
functioning of their immune systems. In communities
where vitamin A deficiency is endemic,
improving availability of the vitamin can reduce
child mortality by over 20% and mortality due to
measles by as much as 50%.
Building the required micronutrients into
food through biofortification is both sustainable
and cost effective. In this instance, a combination
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