The Good Balita

Called in Bicol as “kamoteng-kahoy” or “balinghoy”, the lowly cassava (Manihot escidenta) is one crop in the region that needs attention towards more production because of its importance as a cash crop that is resistant to drought and helpful against the impacts of climate change.

Mainly grown for its tubers which are a rich source of carbohydrates, cassava is also a good source of calcium and ascorbic acid. Its food uses include confectioneries, native pastries like “suman” and “bibingka”, “sago”, vegetables, food seasoning, noodles and flour.

Although not the staple of Filipinos, cassava feeds about 800 million people around the world, according to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

Another important product is cassava starch, known in the world trade as tapioca flour which is extracted from the tuber and used by a wide variety of industries – food, pharmaceutical, paper, adhesive, textile, mining and other manufacturing industries.

In the food industry alone, studies show that cassava flour can substitute for wheat flour in baked products as much as 10 percent in bread and higher in other baked products, studies show. It is utilized as thickener for soups, baby food, sauces and gravies.

Cassava flour is excellent filler that could supplement the solid contents of ice cream. It is also a good binder for sausages and other processed meat products to prevent these from drying up during cooking.

Cassava can also be a good solution to the problems of climate change and fuel shortage. In China, Thailand, and Brazil, cassava is becoming an important biofuel crop.

A feasibility study has found that cassava has a very high starch-to-sugar conversion ratio which means that a high percentage of sugar can be converted from it, and which, in turn, is needed to produce biofuel.

Cassava can also help control erosion. “Farmers can grow cassava and control – even prevent – hillside erosion by following simple methods,” Agribusiness Week, a regular internet publication quoted Dr. Mabrouke Elsharkawy, CIAT cassava physiologist as saying.

Being an easy-to-grow crop, cassava grows well on poor soils found on eroded hillsides because it resists adverse conditions such as drought. When farmers can’t grow corn or beans in depleted soils, cassava is their only choice,” Elsharkawy added.

Growing cassava entails simple farm operations such as land preparation, planting, replanting, weeding, fertilization, irrigation, and harvesting. Plantation type of production needs 55 man-days per hectare to undertake all the necessary farm operations.

Cassava is grown mostly in Central Visayas, Bicol, and Central Mindanao. They are also an important crop in Eastern and Western Visayas, Western and Southern Mindanao, and Southern Tagalog.

The Bureau of Agricultural Research said the provinces of Saranggani, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Misamis Oriental, General Santos City, and Gambales are good sites for cassava production. Potential areas of plantations are Bukidnon, Negros, North Cotabato, and Davao.

(Story courtesy of the Philippine News Agency)

 

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