Cassava production practices in Ethiopia and its use as Ingredient for injera making

Abstract

Cassava contributes to food security and is strategic crop under the changing climate. However, limited information is available on its production practices, utilization and on cassava varieties for injera making. First, a survey was conducted to study the cassava production practices and its utilization, focusing on farming households’ criteria for selecting the cassava variety for injera making. Secondly, it was evaluated the proximate composition, cyanide contents and consumers’ acceptability of injera prepared from two dominant cassava varieties blended at different ratios with teff. The household survey revealed that farmers preferred Qulle and Kello varieties for injera making based on yield, maturity, resistance to disease and pests. Majority of households use 40: 60 ratio of cassava to teff for injera making. The study was also conducted using the two selected varieties and five levels of teff flour. The best teff-cassava blend injera is 90% teff with 10% cassava flour for both Qulle and Kello varieties. Injera, made from 50% teff with 50% of Kello variety, has higher cyanide content than Qulle. However, cassava-teff injera, mixing cassava up to 30% is found to be acceptable and it can be recommended to the urban consumers of injera