Co-production of knowledge and strategies to enhance the cyanide-safe cassava value chain in Nigeria

Food insecurity and low food safety are major challenges around the world, particularly so in developing countries and in sub-Saharan Africa. Cassava can contribute to reducing food insecurity, as it grows well in a variety of climates and soils, and is a staple food for millions of people worldwide. The potential of cassava to fight hunger is constrained by the presence of cyanogenic glucosides, which lead to high cyanide content in raw cassava and improperly processed cassava products. Fermenting, boiling, drying, or grinding cassava are common techniques to reduce cyanide content, with varying degrees of effectiveness. Cyanide is unobservable in cassava, leading to low awareness and high prevalence in many food markets in developing countries, which are informal and unregulated.

This proposed project’s overall objective is to co-produce knowledge and strategies to enhance the cyanide-safe cassava value chain and increase cassava products’ role in promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and reducing hunger. We have four aims: (1) determining whether a market for cyanide-safe gari (a staple ingredient in many West African countries made from fermented cassava) can exist sustainably, which requires consumers to be willing to pay for the costs of processing cassava into safe gari; (2) train 600 smallholder farmers in Nigeria about the cyanide issue in cassava products and how to mitigate it, and estimate the impact of the training on demand for cyanide-safe gari; (3) calculate to what extent labeling gari as “cyanide-safe” increases demand for it; and (4) disseminate results to farmers, farmer associations, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers in Nigeria and worldwide. To measure the causal impacts of training and labeling on demand, we will implement a randomized control trial and measure demand with experimental, incentive-compatible auctions.