Land Preparation

Land Preparation

• Should be ploughed to allow root penetration and root filling.
• Herbicides should be sprayed on weeds at least 3-4 weeks before planting, this gives time for weeds to dry up and the remains ploughed into the field.
• Cassava can also be planted on ridges for good root penetration.

Plant in lines

• Plant in lines for optimum plant population
• Stem cuttings planted at a spacing of 1x1m give 4,000 plants per acre. When planted 80cmx100cm (by tractor planter), this gives a higher plant population of 5,000 plants per acre.

Manual Planting

• Planting using hand hoe for smallholder farmers.
• Place the stem cutting horizontally in the hole making sure most nodes face upwards.
• Cover the stem cutting with soil and move to the next hole.

Mechanical Planting

• Mechanical planting tends to optimize plant population, plants at a uniform depth and optimizes size of roots and yield.
• Use cassava ridger to ridge the field.
• Place 1m – 1.5m stem cuttings onto the tractor hopper.
• The stems get cut into 15cm pieces and are planted into the holes and covered with soil.

Fertilizer; A farmer has to apply 6 to 8 tons of organic manure to 1 acre.

Intercropping

• Cassava can be intercropped with beans
• Intercropping should only be done in the first 3 months

Irrigation

• Climate change is causing high temperatures and frequent long dry spells are being experienced in many farming areas.
• Though it’s not a common practice, Irrigation can be applied in drought-prone areas.
• Irrigation can be applied in cassava fields and this increases the yield of cassava.