Cassava is a starchy crop that is a lot like a potato (also called a manioc) and is consumed in many parts of Africa.

I recently travelled to my old stomping grounds in Bati to visit the weekly market.  This was the site of the Partnership for Food Security Project that CHF ran in Bati district of central Ethiopia from 2005 to 2010.  I lived in Ethiopia for the final 3 years of the project working with our local implementing partner, ORDA, to bring the project to a successful conclusion—I am always glad to get back and see friends and familiar faces. 

In the Benishangul-Gumuz region in Ethiopia bamboo is an important resource and currently, and when I visited Ethiopia this fall, I could see that the bamboo was flowering. One of the challenges for bamboo farmers is that bamboo dies immediately after it flowers, and because huge crops of the same type of bamboo flower at the same time, a lot of bamboo in the region will soon be gone.