SDG 2 aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. This also includes the right to secure and equal access to land and other productive resources. It must be ensured that these resources are sustainable, resilient, and adaptable to climate change and extreme weather conditions.

Overview, targets and indicators of SDG 2

Forschungszentrum Jülich is helping to realize SDG 1 by working with partners to research how to produce one of the world’s most important food sources – cassava or manioc – with more stable yields, thus offering small-scale farmers in particular a secure source of income.

The fight against hunger is closely linked to a number of plant species that are crucial to global food security. In various parts of the world, different crops are considered to be staple foods.

One of these important plants is cassava (also known as manioc), which can be found in three continents: South America, Africa, and Asia. On these continents, it is the main source of carbohydrates/starch – similar to the potato in Northern Europe. Cassava is often grown by smallholders and family farmers. Since they have little access to large machines, pesticides, or fertilizers, it is hugely important that they can breed robust and optimized varieties.

The CASSAVASTORE project aims to optimize the metabolic pathways to increase crop yields and to demonstrate breeding success. The focus is on optimizing the synthesis products in the storage organs (tubers) in order to produce better breeding varieties. Breeding success is measured using soil-based and drone-based measurement technologies as well as special camera systems – a process known as “phenotyping”. The measurement data are correlated with the results of metabolic optimization.

In addition to CASSAVASTORE, Forschungszentrum Jülich is also investigating cassava as part of a research group of the Cassava Source–Sink (CASS) project. This involves, for example, research into how the synthesis of products in the leaves can be optimized.

Due to cassava’s great potential in terms of global food security, CASSAVASTORE is being supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and CASS by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Cassava is the main source of calories for 800 million people worldwide. If we can improve the cultivation, yields, and utilization of the crop, this will benefit the poorest farmers and people in particular,” say Dr. Tobias Wojciechowski, head of the CASSAVASTORE project and senior scientist at the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences – Plant Sciences (IBG-2), and Prof. Uwe Rascher, group leader in the CASS project and head of research at IBG-2.

Project Information

Further information

Website

CASSAVASTORE

International project page with more information on the project partners, events, and the latest news.

Website

Cassava Source-Sink (CASS)

International project page with more information on the individual teams, publications, and the latest news.

Institute

Plant Sciences (IBG-2)

IBG-2 develops integrated concepts for the intensification and sustainability of plant production for the bioeconomy based on molecular, physiological, and ecological expertise.