I would like to thank
SciDev.Net for the coverage it frequently gives to cassava research (see Global partnership to boost cassava research).
However, our concern is where funding for such research is channelled. Normally,
investment is directed towards the International Centres created by the Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which are not short of money or
provisions, rather than towards those programmes run by universities in developing
countries.
To put some figures on this,
the budget of the cassava programmes in CGIAR centres is not less than US$2 or 3 million
every year. Other programmes — very productive programmes by all criteria — such
as that of the University of Brasilia, have funding of no more than a few hundred dollars
a year (see several articles on the subject in my site www.geneconserve.pro.br).
I hope that those policymakers
who manage these investments pay attention to this matter. For example, I have to buy
imported chemicals and molecular reagents for my research from my own pocket.
Not only this, but the only
living collection of wild cassava from all over the world is suffering, and many of its
accessions have died simply because of a lack of irrigation systems, fertilisers, and
workers to take care of routine propagation.
Nagib M. A, Nassar, Professor,
Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil, 14 November 2002
© SciDev.Net 2002
