São Paulo – Cassava, manioc, yuca. Regardless of the name, this has for a long time been the research focus of professor Nagib Nassar, an Egyptian-born botanist, geneticist and post-graduate who came to Brazil to research the tuber back in 1974 and stayed here since. The scientist works on improving cassava to produce larger tubers and increase the protein content of its flour — all for the sake of eradicating hunger and malnutrition in Brazil and African countries that produce the Brazilian-origin root.
Today, at 85, Nassar told ANBA in an interview via video call the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited him through a bilateral agreement between Egypt and Brazil. At first, he would stay for two years to carry out the cassava improvement project. The work was extended, and he was invited to teach at the University of Brasília (UnB) and decided to stay in the country. Today he is a professor emeritus and retired but continues to research at the Nagib Nassar Foundation for Scientific and Sustainable Development (Funagib).
Nassar began his research on cassava in Egypt at the Institute of African Research and Studies of the University of Cairo. The tuber crop was in jeopardy on the African continent, attacked by the African mosaic virus. According to Nassar, the mosaic particularly attacked producing countries in East Africa, such as Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Uganda.
The professor then researched ways to remedy this issue and found the solution in a species native to Brazil. It was immune to the virus. Nassar then crossed it with common cassava and produced a mosaic-resistant hybrid. “This hybrid I sent to Africa was used to combat mosaic, and it worked. I became known for sending this hybrid that saved cassava in Africa,” he said.
The work was sponsored and published by a Canadian research center, and Nassar claims it was his passport to institutions abroad. “The most important job for me was sending this hybrid that contributed a lot to fight hunger, particularly in Uganda, in 1995, when the mosaic outbroke,” he said.
Cassava is native to Brazil, and history claims the root was spread worldwide by the Portuguese, at first in Portuguese colonies in Africa. On the African continent, cassava is produced in countries close to the equator, from east to west, such as – in addition to those previously mentioned – Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Congo, Malawi, Benin, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, and Rwanda. There is also cassava production in Asia, in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Brazil is the fourth leading producer of cassava, behind Nigeria, Congo, and Thailand, according to 2020 data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). Cassava production can be found in all Brazilian states. The main ones are Pará, Paraná, Amazonas, and Bahia. By region, the highest production is in the North (38%), followed by the South (24.2%) and Northeast (17.9%), according to 2020 data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
In 2014, Nassar received an award from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS) for his research on using cassava to fight hunger. With a prize of USD 100,000, he created Funagib and took hybrids and cassava varieties to small farmers in the Brazilian Northeast.
The scientist is also improving cassava, which, according to him, is a tuber low in protein compared to other basic foodstuffs. “Cassava from the Northeast has about 1% protein, while wheat, rice, and maize have 7%. And there, almost 100,000 farmers survive on cassava flour,” he said.
In 1946, author Josué de Castro wrote the book ‘Geografia da Fome’ [‘Geography of Hunger,’ in free translation] and, at that time, was already warning about health issues caused by a protein-poor diet. Nassar read the book, which was a turning point in his career.
From it, he looked for ways to solve the problem so small farmers could have access to the solution. “In the cassava plant, there is more protein. We discovered the cassava leaf has 30% protein, so we created a project to add the leaf to the flour and obtained a result of 9% protein in the cassava flour,” he said.
The 20% proportion of leaf flour to cassava flour obtained a protein percentage of 9%, more than wheat, maize, or rice. According to Nassar, the project for flour enriched with leaves will start in Paraíba and be extended to all producing states.
According to the report “(State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI),” released this month by FAO, 70.3 million people were in a state of moderate food insecurity in Brazil in 2022, meaning they had difficulty obtaining food. The study also pointed out 21.1 million people in the country were in severe food insecurity last year, characterized by a state of hunger.
“There are millions of farmers below the poverty line. When Lula cried, he was right,” said the researcher, referring to the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who cried speaking about hunger in the country.
The cassava variety developed by Nassar, Chimera, is characterized by its large size and greater weight. “The root weighs 15 kilos, and traditional cassava weighs only one!” he said. Funagib made an agreement with the Pernambuco Agronomic Institute (IPA) a few years ago to supply its varieties, and this year, it is expected to ship to other states.
In addition to producing more cassava from each root, the chimera has twice as many leaves as common cassava. To make flour from the leaves, producers collect, dry, and crush them to obtain flour. Then mix the indicated proportion with the cassava flour.
“In addition to feeding adults, we want to supply school meals and feed children in the Northeast,” said Nassar about cassava flour enriched with leaves.
The scholar intends to spread the chimera variety throughout Latin America. “In Brazil, a center created by the Organization of American States (OAS) showed interest in our study and wants to take the project to other countries, such as Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Guatemala, which also need more food and more protein, because cassava is one of the main sources of food in these countries,” he informed.
UnB hired Nagib Nassar as a professor, and from that, he decided to stay in Brazil and still lives in Asa Norte, in the national capital Brasília. He has four daughters and seven grandchildren who live in Egypt, visits his family almost every year, and his daughters also come to Brazil. The post-graduate was born in the south of Egypt, in Assiut. When he arrived in Brazil, he was a professor at Cairo University. He learned to speak Portuguese by talking with students and friends.
“At age 85, I continue to research and publish. My last publication was about the chimera technique last year,” he said.
Nassar believes with the chimera, national cassava production could increase. “I believe it will revolutionize [cassava] production for sure because it doubles or triples productivity,” he declared.
“I want two things with my research; contribute to feeding the poor and solve problems of malnutrition, and contribute to increasing the national production of cassava,” he concluded.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
