Cassava is an important crop in sub-Saharan Africa for food security, income generation, and industrial development. Business-oriented production systems require reliable supplies of high-quality seed. Major initiatives in Nigeria and Tanzania have sought to establish sustainable cassava seed systems. These include the deployment of new technologies for early generation seed (EGS) production; the promotion of new high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties; the updating of government seed policy to facilitate enabling certification guidelines; the application of ICT tools, Seed Tracker and Nuru AI, to simplify seed system management; and the establishment of networks of cassava seed entrepreneurs (CSEs). CSEs have been able to make profits in both Nigeria (US$ 551–988/ha) and Tanzania (US$1,000 1,500/ha). In Nigeria, the critical demand driver for cassava seed businesses is the provision of new varieties. Contrastingly, in Tanzania, high incidences of cassava brown streak disease mean that there is a strong demand for the provision of healthy seed that has been certified by regulators. These models for sustainable cassava seed system development offer great promise for scaling to other cassava-producing countries in Africa where there is strong government support for the commercialization of the cassava sector.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92022-7_15

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James Legghttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4140-3757

Edward Kanjuhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0413-1302

Regina Kapingahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6551-2942

P. Lava Kumarhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4388-6510

https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92022-7_15

Plant Production and Health

Agronomy; Cassava; Food Security; Plant Breeding; Plant Health; Plant Production

Cassava; Seed Production; Food Security; Technology Transfer; Production; Yields; Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa; East Africa; West Africa

Nigeria; Tanzania

Eastern Africa Hub