A new disease, "brown streak, is now ravaging cassava crops in a great swath around Lake Victoria, threatening millions of East Africans who grow the tuber as their staple food.
Although it has been seen on coastal farms for 70 years, a mutant version emerged in Africa’s interior in 2004, 'and there has been explosive, pandemic-style spread since then,' said Claude M. Fauquet, director of cassava research at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. 'The speed is just unprecedented, and the farmers are really desperate.'"
Donald G. McNeil Jr. reports for the New York Times May 31, 2010.
Source: NYTimes, 06/01/2010
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