Title:
Farmers in East Africa Struggle Against Cassava
Disease
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
About eight hundred million people in Africa, Asia
and South America eat cassava. The plant is a major
source of food energy and a major food security
crop. It can survive in poor soil and without much
water. Also, the root can stay in the ground for as
long as three years, so it can be harvested as
needed. But in East Africa the plant is under
attack. Cassava brown streak disease is a more
destructive form of cassava mosaic. The mosaic has
been active in East Africa for about one hundred
years. It limits plant growth. But brown streak can
destroy a crop. The virus was identified in Uganda
in two thousand four and has spread fast in areas
extending from Lake Victoria. So far, brown streak
has not jumped to Nigeria, the world's largest
producer of cassava. But it threatens more than
thirty million tons a year of production in East
Africa. In some areas of Uganda, rates of brown
streak reached more than eighty-five percent in two
thousand five and two thousand eight. Claude Fauquet
is a scientist at the Donald Danforth Plant Science
Center in Saint Louis, Missouri. He says a few
varieties of cassava can resist brown streak, but
these are not the kinds Africans like. He is working
to develop disease-resistant plants, but he says it
will probably take five years. Loss of cassava crops
could lead to hunger. And hunger can lead to
migration and conflict. About fifty million dollars
is coming from the Gates Foundation, the Monsanto
Fund and the United States Agency for International
Development. But Claude Fauquet says much more is
needed to fight the disease. Brown streak can be
hard to identify in the field. Irregular yellow
spots may appear on lower leaves. But farmers
sometimes do not find the disease until they cut
open a cassava. If there is only a small amount of
rot, the dead material can be cut away. But if the
disease has progressed, the whole root is ruined.
Scientists partly blame whiteflies for spreading the
disease from plant to plant. Brown streak also
spreads if farmers sell or give away cuttings of
infected plants. Cassava has many food uses but the
plant is not safe to eat unless it is specially
prepared. It must be processed through methods like
boiling, grinding or fermenting. A substance that
can produce deadly levels of cyanide when eaten must
be removed. And that's the VOA Special English
Agriculture Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
