Onderzoek kan miljoenen mensen helpen meer uit hun oogst te halen (en)

Western supermarkets rarely stock cassava and yams, but they are staple foods for some 700 million people around the world. The cassava, sometimes described as the Rambo of food crops, is exceptionally resistant to pests, disease and heat. Yams are packed with complex carbohydrates: sprinter Usain Bolt's world record-breaking exploits have been attributed to a childhood yam diet.

Like any food, cassava and yams can spoil after harvest. Growers, producers and traders can lose up to 60% of yam and 30% of cassava through rotting, poor storage, and transport. But these losses could be cut significantly thanks to a European Union (EU)-funded research project that aims to improve the food chain, including better storage, and processing techniques to reduce waste.

The three-year project is called Gratitude, which stands for Gains from Losses of Roots and Tuber Crops. It is being led by the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), at London's University of Greenwich, in collaboration with 15 other organisations from the Netherlands, the UK, Portugal, Ghana, Nigeria, Vietnam and Thailand. Started in January 2012, Gratitude is backed by a €2.85 million grant from the EU.

"Over the next three years, we are going to find ways of cutting waste in crops vital to families in parts of Africa and Asia," says the NRI's Keith Tomlins, who is Gratitude's project coordinator. "This waste not only threatens food security and the environment but also means that opportunities to increase the value generated from these crops are lost."

That could be especially valuable given how many countries, particularly in Africa, depend on the two crops. In Ghana, for example, cassava and yams contribute about 46% of the agricultural gross domestic product.

The work to prevent spoilage will look at practices to control sprouting in the yam tuber (the plant part that is eaten), water loss and rotting. Other research will look at improving systems for drying of cassava and yam, increasing the potential to produce higher quality products, with lower levels of loss and more efficient fuel use. "We believe we can reduce losses by up to half by introducing better storage, and processing techniques to reduce waste," says Tomlins.

The project not only hopes to keep the crops from spoiling, but to turn unavoidable waste into something of value by using every part of the harvested tubers in a more environmentally friendly way. That means using peel, liquid waste and spent brewery waste to help make products for human consumption including snack foods, mushrooms and animal feed.

Gratitude will work on developing three or more 'best bet' products to introduce such as snack foods derived from the food crops. It will also seek new markets, by working closely with local and international companies, research agencies and other groups, while encouraging the exchange of ideas with businesses, NGOs and other scientists. "The idea is to encourage more uses for yam and cassava to help poor people have more access to food and also improve incomes," says Tomlins.

Project details

Participants: United Kingdom (Coordinator), Nigeria, Thailand, The Netherlands, Ghana, Portugal, Vietnam

FP7 Proj. N° 289843

Total costs: € 3 753 138

EU contribution: € 2 850 413

Duration: January 2012 - December 2014