Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access
In the OIC Member Countries
27
Smallholders’ participation in the main crop markets
CASSAVA
Mozambique produces both sweet and bitter cassava varieties.36 Sweet varieties are
mostly consumed fresh; the bitter varieties account for 90 percent of production and are
processed into flour because of their higher levels of cynogenic glycosides. Ninety percent
of the cassava consumed in Mozambique is consumed as flour.
Cassava is a perennial crop, generally harvested in small lots throughout the year. For
about a decade starting in the late 1990s, a severe outbreak of cassava brown streak virus
limited cassava production, particularly along the northern coast.37 Subsequent testing
and release of tolerant varieties and distribution of improved cuttings by a variety of NGOs
has helped production to rebound.38
Most cassava is consumed by the farm household. Only about 11 percent of production is
marketed on average, compared to 16–18 percent of the maize crop.39 Farmers in the
northern provinces account for 85 percent of national cassava production and more than
90 percent of the marketed volume. In 2008, they produced an average 554 kilograms of
cassava per household and sold about 20 percent. In contrast, the average production in
southern provinces is 172 kilograms per household; market sales are about 6 percent of
production. Households in the central provinces produce 11 kilograms on average and
market about 3 percent of their production.40
Cassava is marketed either as dried roots or flour. On-farm processing involves peeling,
sometimes followed by fermentation in the shade for 4–5 days, and always followed by
long-term sun-drying on raised platforms or on the ground. Farm households that do not
ferment their cassava sun-dry the roots for up to two months to volatilize hydrogen
cyanide.41 Women dominate on-farm processing—peeling, fermenting, drying, producing
rale (toasted flour)—and market retailing. Men undertake most of the assembly trade,
wholesaling, storage, and milling.
Farmers sell to a large network of itinerant buyers who come to their farms or to rural
assembly markets. Cassava markets are competitive. Barriers to entry are low, and large
numbers of traders participate. Many small-scale traders, usually young men with modest
working capital, dominate the short-term trade. Traders purchase in surplus zones and
sell in regional wholesale markets. Dried cassava can be stored for 6–10 months. Due to
large seasonal price swings, some farmers retain stocks on the farm for sale during the
rainy season, when prices are highest, but most farmers sell during the dry season, when
36 This section draws largely on Donovan et al. (2011).
37 Donovan et al. (2011).
38 Donovan et al. (2011).
39 Donovan et al. (2011).
40 Donovan et al. (2011).
41 Donovan et al. (2011).