Production of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in western Kenya is constrained by biotic stresses such as pests and diseases as well as abiotic stresses, which include extreme weather conditions and the lack of clean and healthy planting material. The most serious constraint in recent years on cassava was an attack of the virulent form of cassava mosaic disease (CMD), which completely devastated the crop in western Kenya in 1994/95. By 1997 it had become pandemic and caused yield losses of 80–100% in farmers’ fields. Farmers’ response was to abandon producing the crop.

In 1997 the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) collaborated to mitigate the pandemic through a project entitled Accelerated Cassava Multiplication and Distribution of Improved Healthy Planting Materials in Western Kenya. The primary objective of the project was and still is to restore cassava cultivation and abundantly increase cassava production, processing and use.

The project has adopted the following strategies and activities to mitigate the pandemic: 1) Conduct diagnostics and monitor spread of the disease; identify strains, to evolve control measures. 2) Introduce large cassava germplasm and screen it for the disease and for other important agronomic characteristics. 3) Rapidly multiply and distribute proven superior genotypes to the farming communities in the region. 4) Instil skills of CMD control measures, rapid multiplication of planting material and processing to large numbers of stakeholders that include non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations, the Ministry of Agriculture who collaborated on the project. We report on achievements of the project so far.