ABSTRACT
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), originally from South America, where it was domesticated several thousands of years ago, is believed to have been transported throughout the world, since the sixteenth century, by the Portuguese. Africa adopted cassava primarily for human food production. And, although its spread through the continents is fairly recent, by 1960 it was already the most important food crop (in fresh root tonnage) in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, more than 55%, or 146 million tons (mt), of the world cassava production is from Africa (FAO 2016). At the same time cassava became very important in Asia as well, but mostly for industrial purposes (e.g. feed, starch, sweeteners and alcohol). Moreover, since 1998, cassava is the food crop that has outperformed, in relative production, all other major crops in the world. If this trend continues, by 2050 cassava will be the world’s third most important food crop after maize and rice, with about a billion tons produced annually.
