Marketing and Organic certification of cassava production

Much of the cassava production is used for household food consumption either nationally or regionally. It is also increasingly becoming a raw material for industrial production, especially for starch production. Organic certification of cassava production is, therefore, only reasonable as a market requirement if there is a market that demands it. In such a case, interested farmers should be willing to adopt the general organic production requirements like not using synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, and applying other sustainable production methods as discussed in the previous sections of this chapter.

Other considerations include:

• Farmers should have enough land to produce cassava beyond the household requirement (commercial volumes), in order to be able to cover the extra costs of certification.
• For successful marketing, farmers may need to work as a group in order to increase production volumes needed to justify the cost of certification.

Specific national or international organic standards may define additional requirements for production and postharvest handling of cassava. Farmers should, therefore, consult the national organic movement or organic certification body operating within the region or country.