Abstract
Cassava is the principal staple root crop, providing a major source of calories for rural and urban households in Luapula province of Zambia. However, the yields on smallholder farms are relatively low largely due to disease infections. The study was therefore conducted to establish farmers’ perceptions, knowledge and management of cassava mosaic disease (CMD), which is one of the major diseases of cassava, and to establish farmers’ preferred traits, constraints and assess sources of cassava cuttings for planting. Focus group discussions (FGD) and structured interviews involving 156 farmers in Mwense, Mansa and Samfya districts were conducted from December 2008 to March 2009. Knowledge of CMD was limited among the respondents. Only 2.4% of the respondents were aware of the disease despite high CMD incidence in farmers’ fields. The majority of the farmers were aware of the importance of insect pests; however, they could not differentiate between damages due to diseases or insect pests. High yield and early bulking traits were highly ranked. Most of the farmers planted local landraces on small-fields (<1 ha). It was evident that a local breeding programme aimed at developing locally adapted disease and pest resistant cassava cultivars was a pressing requirement.
Highlights
Cassava is one of the major staple and most highly valued root crops in Zambia
Improved cassava cultivars have been developed by the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) and have been promoted by public and private extension services, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), adoption has been slow and overall production is still low, with an average yield of 5.8 t∙ha−1 [5]
The study established that the farmers had little, if any, knowledge of cassava mosaic disease (CMD)
Summary
Cassava is one of the major staple and most highly valued root crops in Zambia. It is mostly grown in Northern, Luapula, North-Western and Western provinces (often referred to as cassava belt) which accounts for 95% of total production [1]. Thirty percent of the population in Zambia is directly or indirectly dependent on cassava for their livelihood, with the majority from the cassava belt region [2]. Improved cassava cultivars have been developed by the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) and have been promoted by public and private extension services, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), adoption has been slow and overall production is still low, with an average yield of 5.8 t∙ha−1 [5]. The adoption of a cultivar depends on the presence of farmer preferred traits among the available cultivars and the availability of information upon which decisions are based
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