Abstract:

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) has its origin in Latin America where it has
been grown by the indigenous Indian population for at least 4000 years. After the
discovery of the Americas, European traders took the crop to Africa as a potentially useful
food crop; later it was also taken to Asia to be grown as a food security crop and for the
extraction of starch. Thus, in the 19th century cassava became an important food crop in
southern India, as well as on Java island of Indonesia and in the southern Philippines, while
in Malaysia and parts of Indonesia it was also used for extraction of starch. After the
Second World War it became an important industrial crop in Thailand, mainly to produce
starch for local consumption, and dried chips and later pellets for the rapidly growing
European animal feed market. In Indonesia the crop remains first and foremost a food
crop, used in a great variety of dishes, but in southern Sumatra it is now mainly grown for
starch extraction.