United Nations Radio

The tropical root crop cassava could help protect the food and energy security of poor countries now threatened by soaring food and oil prices.

That's what the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says while referring to a call by cassava scientists for a significant increase in research and development to boost farmers' yields and explore industrial uses of cassava, including the production of biofuels.

The scientists, meeting at a global conference in Belgium, say the world community could not continue to ignore the plight of low-income tropical countries that have been hardest-hit by rising oil prices and galloping food price inflation.

Cassava is the staple food of nearly a billion people in more than 100 countries. It is widely grown in tropical Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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