Cassava is an important food source and famine reserve in Africa, but
is now seen as a means of improving incomes of the rural poor,
especially smallholder farmers. The premise of CAVA II is that if new
markets for cassava can be developed and smallholders linked to them at
scale, then farmers will increase their incomes and adopt new
productivity enhancing technologies
CAVA II is the second phase of
C: AVA project led by the Natural Resources Institute of the University
of Greenwich which ended in 2013. The second phase, CAVA II was launched
in 2014 and led by the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta,
Nigeria working closely with University of Greenwich, Food Research Institute, Ghana; Tanzania Food and Nutrition Center, Tanzania; Africa Innovations Institute, Uganda; Chancellor College, University of Malawi; and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) alongside several partners.
CAVA project is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria.