National Root
Crops Research Institute [NRCRI], Umudike, Abia State, has warned against
possible outbreak of Cassava Brown Streak Disease [CBSD], a deadly crop
disease, in the country.
The institute is advising the federal government to do something
immediately to arrest the situation saying it would drastically affect the
nation’s economy if not checked on time.
The institute warned that outbreak of CBSD, which mainly attacks
cassava, could cost the Nigerian economy about N400 billion [$2 billion)
annually.
It said it based its loss assessment from the effect the disease
had in countries it had attacked, stressing that those who do not learn from
history plan to fail.
The Umudike-based NRCRI said the deadly crop disease has not come
to Nigeria or any West African country yet but “there was great need to prepare
against it as it is already having devastating effect in some East African
nations like Kenya”.
The warning was given during the launching of WAVE Project, a
campaign against the dreaded CBSD at Umudike, Abia State, which was attended by
agricultural researchers from Ivory Cost, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Togo
and Ghana.
The institute said that as an institution with a national mandate
for cassava research and development, it was taking a pre-emptive initiative to
the CBSD threat in Nigeria.
This it said is because its effect could result in complete loss
of root yield in cassava thus making it a severe threat to food security in the
sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: http://thenationonlineng.net/institute-raises-alarm-over-crop-disease/
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