The Current Climate

• Climate change and conflict are disrupting our food systems like never before!
• According to NASA, the yields of grains like maize are projected to plummet by as much as 24% between 2020 and 2030.
• In addition, African economies spend billions of dollars of foreign reserves importing grains — a significant hit to their balance of trade.
• And to make matters worse, the Russian war in Ukraine has destabilized the grain supply chain, triggering a severe food insecurity crisis in Africa.
• This has created a vast market for indigenous African alternatives, especially cassava. 
• Cassava is particularly remarkable because, unlike wheat and maize that are intolerant to heat and water stresses, cassava is climate-resilient.
• Furthermore, it has a taste profile that is similar to wheat-based options leading to little behavior change for local African consumers.
• In addition to its local potential, cassava is gluten-free, grain-free, and nut-free — properties that make it equally valuable to consumers globally. 

  Problem

• Despite cassava’s climate-resilience as well its incredible health and taste benefits, the tuber spoils only 3 days after harvest, with over 50% of the global annual harvest lost on average. Consequently, a majority of the 20 million cassava farmers in the world today, 75% of whom are women, live in extreme poverty — on under a dollar a day per capita income.

  Our Innovation

• At CassVita, we have invented a simple process for increasing the shelf-life of cassava from 3 days to 18 months. With our technology, farmers lose 0% of their harvest and are able to increase their incomes.
• Our innovation enables us to offer this indigenous, climate-resilient alternative at scale, building resilience in the face of a dire food insecurity crisis and creating wealth for historically overlooked, local farmers.