Abstract:
Cassava is an important food crop and ranked in the fourth place after rice, sugarcane and maize [1]. It has been reported to feed more than 700 million people per day [2]. Apart from the dietary aspect, cassava is also demanded by diverse industries, including medicine, cosmetics, biopolymers, and biofuels. These highlight the significance of cassava beyond its previous recognition as a staple food in many countries in the African and South American continents. Compared to other starchy crops, the competitiveness of cassava lies in the capacity for starch accumulation, and the tolerance to drought and the deprivation of soil nutrients; cassava roots contain starch up to 70 to 90 percent of the root dry weight [1] and cassava plants can grow under water scarcity and in low fertilized soil [3]. With the growing demand of starch along with a significant increase in world population, most of the research focuses on cassava still aim to produce cultivars with greater starch yield per unit cultivar area.