Quality cassava planting materials results into higher yields. Reusing cuttings carries diseases like cassava brown streak disease and cassava mosaic virus.
Producing quality cassava planting materials require certain practices and result into a good crop. Cassava cuttings cant be stored for long. Farmers grow cassava but few buy cuttings.
Quality cassava materials
Start by selecting a suitable site and prepare land early to benefit from early rain while ensuring good soil fertility for proper plant growth.
Decide varieties to use and handle them properly for higher returns as well as selecting cassava disease free area to control losses and use quality declared planting materials to avoid crop failure.
Furthermore grow cassava on gentle deep loamy fertile soils due to high water holing capacity, easy to work and plough the field early to plant with first rains.
Use healthy planting materials resistant to diseases from a research institute, accredited supplier.
Planting method
Use mature cuttings 9-12 months disease free for proper sprouting and high yielding. However these should be short cuttings and immediately plant them for proper sprouting and vigorous plants.
Buy complete stems that are inspected to ensure proper growth and avoid parking, transporting them under hot sunshine to control dehydration. Be careful when loading and off loading to avoid bruising.
Chop stems into 20-30 cm with 5 nodes each for sprouting, store them under shade while continuously watering them to control stem drying. Lastly plant at 1 metre by 1 metre for maximum production.
