Global Partnership Intends to Fight Cassava Viruses

Scientists are struggling to contain a flesh-eating virus sweeping across the cassava plantations of Africa

Cassava is a major source of food in Africa, and it’s under increasing threat from two devastating diseases. This week researchers and development organizations meeting in Bellagio, Italy, pledged to step up their efforts to prevent the spread of the diseases and safeguard the crop.

About 300 million people in Africa depend on cassava, a root that is ground into flour, used as starch, biofuel, and for brewed into beer. For a century, production across the continent has been hindered by outbreaks of cassava mosaic disease, which is caused by several viruses.

… Full text: news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/05/global-partnership-intends-to-fi.html

Tags: CBSD, Nigeria, Congo, Ghana, devastating disease, whiteflies, disease

Source

ScienceInsider, 2013-05-10.

Supplier

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
World Bank

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