Advances in Cassava Trait Improvement and Processing Technologies for Food and Feed

Abstract

Cassava is an important staple crop globally; its roots and leaves are directly consumed as food or undergo secondary processing in food industries or as animal feed. Inherent biological challenges in cassava affect the quality and quantity of food and feed. Although trait consolidation has been explored, the diversity in cassava food products has led to stratification of target crop characteristics. Among the traits targeted, crop improvement for food includes: yield and starch quality for different applications such as pounding, resistant starch, waxy starch, and even post-harvest deterioration. The presence of the antinutritional compound cyanide reduces the quality of food and feed, and efforts to reduce cyanide levels are continuously explored. In this Chapter, we review biological and technological research efforts in cassava geared toward improving the quality/quantity of cassava for food and feed. These efforts cut across target trait improvement efforts to new bioprocessing technologies.