The West African Virus Epidemiology for Food Security (WAVE) and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire (CSRS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2017.
The CSRS is specialized in food crops and in the development and dissemination of resilient varieties of cassava, yam and sweet potato.
Because of the strong complementarity between the two program's objectives, it only seemed logical that they join forces to tackle the issue of food security together.
Under the MoU, WAVE students and researchers have access to CSRS's Bringakro cassava field-school for all their studies. They can also obtain from the CSRS numerous varieties of cassava for characterization, sanitization and virus resistance tests. In return, the findings of performance results of all cassava varieties tested are shared with CSRS.
For this purpose, from September 19th to 21st, WAVE and CSRS teams traveled to Bringakro and Aboisso to collect well appreciated but non-resistant varieties of cassava (such as (Yavo, Yacé, Olekanga, Ampong…) in order to sanitize, preserve and reintroduce them in partnering fields.
It was also decided, during a meeting held on September 13th, that WAVE and CSRS will organize joint trainings for seed multipliers and selected producers.