Cassava is the most importan root and tuber crop grown in the tropical developing regions of the world. While the greater part of cassava production is destined for human food uses, the potential for the use of cassava and cassava products in animal feeding has increased considerably over the pest 20 years. The interest in the use of cassava as a carbohydrate source to replace, partially or totally, feed grains in rations for swine, poultry, ruminants, and other amimals has generated a vast amount of information on the subject. With the objective of systematizing this information and of making it more widely available to researchers, producers, and agroindustrialists, CIAT produced the bibliography "Cassava utilization in animal feed" in 1985 which contained 578 references.
In this book, the author brings together the latest information on improved strains, modem production systems, better processing methods, innovations in storage and marketing, and the prospects for using cassava to produce fuel alcohol.
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the staple food of more than 300 million people in the world. Though cassava is utilized in a variety of ways, scientific books of any category written on the postharvest aspects of cassava are relatively few. The effect of this paucity was strikingly felt during recent years. This was one of the impelling reasons behind the present venture which, it is hoped, will stimulate other publications on this neglected crop.
Cassava is a major tropical tuber crop found throughout the tropics (India, Oceania, Africa and Latin America). Hitherto, there has been no single text covering all aspects of cassava biology, production and utilization. This book fills that gap, representing the first comprehensive research level overview of this main staple crop. Chapters are written by leading experts in this field from all continents. The book is suitable for those working and researching in cassava, in both developed and developing countries, as well as advanced students.