[How does the practice accept agricultural research: Integrated cassava production and processing in Columbia]

Cassava is a traditional staple crop of the tropics, rich in energy. In Latin America it is produced beyond self suffiency, predominantly for sale. So far, however, great difficulties existed for marketing this voluminous and easily perishable agricultural product, as it was not possible to develop alternative markets in addition to the mostly saturated market for the fresh product. This has lead to a series of so far unsuccessful attempts to introduce modern technologies of cassava cultivation particularly into smallholder farming. Nevertheless, cassava has a manifold use potential. In cooperation with the Canadian development aid organization CIDA and the Columbian development service DRI, CIAT has initiated a pilot project at the north coast of Columbia having as objective the fragmention and drying in the sun of cassava destined for the feedstuff industry, i.e. the integrated production, processing and marketing of cassava. This project is liable to become an extraordinary success, particularly because all processes, from the production to the marketing, remain in the hands of the farmers themselves and because they are able to carry them out by their own simple means. In addition, the process provides employment at a season when manpower is particularly abundant. There is a secure and growing demand on the part of the feedstuff industry, on the regional level and far beyond it. Since 1983, the idea and its realization have spread from the north coast of Columbia to Panama, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, in form of a series of smallholder self-aid-organizations among the cassava producers. The pilot project represents thus a successful example of how technology development by research can be transferred into practice, and how it is in a position to positively influence the living standard of the rural population in a larger geographical scope.