Cassava Partnerships and Outreach
The Cassava Program works with many partners at different levels to improve cassava productivity globally by addressing primary needs such as better cassava varieties, access to clean planting materials, monitoring and surveillance of pests and diseases, improved farming and postharvest practices, and the development of sustainable cassava value chains to unlock new cassava market growth.
The Cassava Program team is tasked with developing improved, fit-for-purpose varieties to satisfy the requirements of all target environments and applications, including its use as food, feed and as industrial feedstock. The main work of the program can be summarized as generating improved varieties with regionally targeted combinations of traits, including higher yield, better starch quality and functionality, enhanced nutritional value, specific agroclimatic adaptation attributes, and resistance to pests and diseases. The program achieves this by leveraging genetic resources held in trust in the Future Seeds gene bank in combination with many years of conventional and molecular cassava breeding and robust, applied agronomy experience. These efforts are aided by pioneering work in big data management and analysis, which enables researchers to manage and mine the vast and continuously growing genomic, metabolomic and phenomic data.
The Cassava Program Partners
The program works with the following partners from the Asia, the Americas, Europe and Africa.
Australia and Oceania:
- Australia
- ACIAR – Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
- UWA – The University of Western Australia
- UQ – University of Queensland
Asia:
Cambodia
- CARDI – Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute
- GDA – General Directorate of Agriculture
China
- CATAS – Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences
- CAS – Chinese Academy of Sciences
- BGI – Beijing Genomics Institute
- NSFC – National Science Foundation of China
India
- ICAR – Indian Council of Agricultural Research
- CTCRI – Central Tuber Crops Research Institute
Japan
- RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science Kyushu University
- YCU - Yokohama City University
Americas:
Argentina
- INTA – Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria
- CONICET - Concejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y TecnicasBrazil
- Embrapa – Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária.
Colombia
- AGROSAVIA – Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria
- ICA – Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario
- Unicórdoba - Universidad de Córdoba
- ASOMUSACEAS – Asociación Musáceas del Valle
- UNAL – Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Palmira
- MINCIENCIAS – Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación
Costa Rica
- IICA – Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura
Honduras
- DICTA – Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria
Nicaragua
- INTA – Instituto Nicaragüense de Tecnología Agropecuaria
Together with our partners, we leverage cassava genetic resources at the Future Seeds gene bank, and use them to create positive impact for small holder farmers and millions of people who rely on cassava as their staple crop.
Asia:
Laos
- NAFRI – National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute
- DOA-LAO – Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
- PPC – The Plant Protection Center
The Philippines
- UPLB – University of The Philippines Los Baños
Thailand
- KU – Kasetsart University
- TTDI – Thai Tapioca Development Institute
- DOA – Department of Agriculture Thailand
Vietnam
- AGI – Agricultural Genetics Institute
- RDRDC – Root Crop Research and Development Center
- HLARC – Hung Loc Agricultural Research Center
- NOMAFSI – Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute
- TNU – Tay Nguyen University IAS – Institute of Agricultural Sciences for Southern Vietnam
- FCRI – Field Crops Research Institute
- PPRI – Plant Protection Research Institute
Americas:
Peru
- CIP (International Potato Center)
- UNDAC – Universidad Nacional Daniel Alcides Carrión
- INIA – Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria
- SENASA – Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria
- FECONAYA – Federación de Comunidades Nativas Yaneshas
- IBC – Instituto del Bien Común
- MIDAGRI – Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego
United States
- Cornell University
- Ingredion Corp.
- BMGF – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- UCR – University of California, Riverside
- MSU – Michigan State University
- UF – University of Florida
- UMN - University of Minnesota
- UA - University of Arizona
The Cassava Program Team at the Alliance.
Europe:
France
- RTBfoods – Breeding Roots, Tubers and Banana products for end-user preferences
- CIRAD – Agricultural Research for Development
Germany
- DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Leibniz Institute
- GIZ – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
Netherlands
- WUR - Wageningen University & Research
Switzerland
- SADC - Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
- ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
- SFSA - Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
United Kingdom
- NRI – Natural Resources Institute
- RHUL – Royal Holloway University of London
Africa:
Ghana
- CSIR – The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
Malawi
- MARI – Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute
Nigeria
- IITA – International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
- NRCRI – National Root Crops Research Institute
Tanzania
- TARI – Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute
Uganda
- NaCRRI – National Crops Resources Research Institute
- NARO – National Agricultural Research Organization