{"id":4880,"date":"2015-10-18T02:30:45","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T07:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.generationcp.org\/sunsetblog\/?p=4880"},"modified":"2016-02-22T19:02:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T01:02:44","slug":"chiedozie-egesi-cassava-champion-for-poor-african-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.generationcp.org\/sunsetblog\/2015\/10\/18\/chiedozie-egesi-cassava-champion-for-poor-african-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiedozie Egesi: cassava champion for poor African farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"C-Egesi_w\"<\/a>\u201cYou can use any technology in the world, you can develop any product, but you need the products that farmers are willing to grow in their field.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So says Chiedozie Egesi<\/a>, a plant breeder and geneticist who has been one of the inspirational leaders and Principal Investigators for the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme’s (GCP)<\/a> Cassava Research Initiative<\/a> in Africa.<\/p>\n

It was his commitment to helping farmers that led Chiedozie to forsake his dream of becoming a surgeon, and instead to train as a plant breeder and help smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Having grown up in a small town in south-eastern Nigeria where poverty was a daily reality, he was particularly concerned about food security and nutrition for the people. He dreamt of developing cassava<\/a> varieties that could beat the pests and diseases that often devastate such crops.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Peeling cassava roots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe food people grow should be nutritious, resistant and high-yielding enough to allow them to sell some of it and make money for other things in life, such as building a house, getting a motorbike or sending their kids to school,\u201d Chiedozie says.<\/p>\n

Nigeria is the most populous African country, with a population of more than 174 million. The main staple food is cassava, making Nigeria the world\u2019s largest producer and consumer of the crop. But cassava is also important in other African countries. It is grown by nearly every farming family in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa produced nearly 140 million metric tonnes of cassava in 2012 \u2013 but most of the production is low-yielding subsistence farming for food by small-scale farmers for food for their own households alone.<\/p>\n

After almost eight years working on GCP-supported cassava projects, Chiedozie is proud of what they have managed to accomplish: \u201cThat we\u2019ve been able to give African farmers the varieties that they will love to grow is my biggest achievement\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meet Chiedozie and hear all about his research and the importance of cassava in the video series below (or watch on YouTube<\/a>):<\/em><\/p>\n