ABSTRACT
Among tropical crops, cassava, rice, sugarcane, and maize are the most important suppliers of calories. Cassava is grown mainly by small farmers with labor-intensive methods. Although consumption is highest in rural areas, cassava should by no means be regarded as purely a subsistence crop—most cassava is sold or traded outside the farm where it was produced. Cassava is sometimes disparaged as an undesirable food that contains little besides carbohydrate. The cyanide present in raw cassava is a drawback, but among millions of cassava consumers worldwide, chronic cyanide toxicity occurs only in certain areas of Africa. The demand for cassava as food in a locality may be quickly saturated if production increases sharply and no alternative use exists. The development of small enterprises to produce dried cassava for use in animal feed can help stabilize the price of cassava as well as create employment and save foreign exchange.
