In Kenya, as the most consumed crop, maize is grown on 90% of all Kenyan farms over about 1.5 million hectares of land but climate change is making maize farming challenging due to erratic rainfall in the traditional maize-growing regions in the country. Farmers are therefore gradually shifting to cassava, a crop that is drought tolerant unlike maize. Classified as an ‘orphan crop’, cassava is a resilient product that can survive in the minimal rainfall that is common in semi-arid regions and in poor soils but still produce yields after reaching maturity.
Due to its multiple uses after value addition, cassava is also improving the economic livelihoods of those rural communities that are growing it where poverty is rampant. As over 25% of Kenya’s 54 million people were facing extreme poverty as of April 2023, cassava, a crop that is not only resilient but also cheaper to grow, is believed to have the potential to help to fight poverty in the country’s rural areas.
What are orphan crops?
Orphan crops, also called minor crops, are so called because they receive less attention in research, agricultural training, and extension. The breeding technology of orphan crops lags behind others and they are also not traded internationally. Orphan crops are largely grown in Africa, Asia and South America and form part of the local communities’ traditional diets.
Cassava cultivation in Sub Saharan Africa
Although cassava has been widely produced and consumed in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), its status as a famine crop in the past caused it to be perceived as an inferior crop. Pests and diseases also made it challenging for African farmers to grow it with the cassava brown streak virus which causes yield losses of up to 100% and the cassava mosaic virus constantly plaguing SSA farmers. However, in SSA, cassava is the second most important source of carbohydrates after maize.
In Kenya, cassava production dipped in the 1990s and early 2000s because clean planting materials were not released by agricultural research institutions leading to cassava farmers planting diseased cultivars which did poorly on their farms. With time, farmers in western and coastal Kenya, where cassava was traditionally grown, relied heavily on maize as their staple amidst a changing climate, gradually abandoning cassava.
Cassava renaissance in Kenya
In recent years, the production of disease and pest-resilient varieties by research institutions in SSA has ignited a renaissance of cassava production. In Kenya, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization has released new and diverse varieties and availed these to smallholder farmers who are reaping the benefits of growing them. Farmers who need fast maturing varieties can source cultivars that mature in 6 to 8 months whereas others can take 12 months, both of which are high yielding and do not produce less than 20 tonnes in an acre. These varieties are not just suitable for consumption but also for making starch, flour and animal feed after being processed.
Community cottage processing industries
Value addition is also boosting the incomes of smallholder farmers growing cassava in Kenya. Instead of farmers selling their raw cassava crops, they are undertaking basic processing which involves peeling, cleaning, drying and milling the raw cassava. While raw cassava at farmgate may fetch $0.15 per kilogram, milled cassava can sell for $0.60 or higher depending on buyers or the season. To have more bargaining power, smallholder farmers bulk their cassava and by-products together and sell these collectively.
The unfulfilled demand for cassava in Kenya
According to data from Self Help Africa, demand for cassava reached 3 million metric tonnes in 2022. This has transformed cassava from being an orphan to a high-value crop with the potential to boost the economic livelihoods of those rural communities that farm it. In 2018, according to the Agricultural Ministry, Kenya produced 945,827 tonnes of cassava whereas today, production is estimated to be 1 million tonnes annually. However, officials from the Ministry note that the country has the potential to produce over 3 million tonnes of cassava annually if it is promoted as a climate-friendly and pest-resistant crop to more farmers who are experiencing the effects of climate change in regions where it is not traditionally grown.
