Agriculture and Environment: Cassava

Environmental Impacts of Production

Though cassava, particularly the sweeter varieties, is subject to pests, few producers who grow it can afford chemical pesticides.

Partly for this reason, the main environmental problems from its production are habitat conversion and soil erosion.

Habitat Conversion and Soil Erosion
In most parts of the world the environmental impacts of cassava production are related to who grows it and where it is grown. Cassava tends to be a poor peoples' food that is most often growth by poor people.

As a consequence it is most often grown on lower-value, more marginal lands. In short, these are often lands that people have claimed because others do not want them. However, such lands often have a high biodiversity value.

Cassava's requirements are few and as a consequence it is frequently cultivated where few other cultivated crops could survive much less yield food for the producer or for sale. The cassava plant does not produce enough vegetation to cover the soil well. Even if other crops are interplanted, the early crops tend to be harvested within a few months or the first year at the latest.

For both these reasons, the production of cassava can result in considerable soil erosion during the entire life of the plant. Because little else grows on such soils, the erosion often continues well after the cassava is harvested.