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At the age of fifty-nine, Kouamé Akissi is the mother of seven children and lives in Toumodi, in the central part of Côte d'Ivoire. Thanks to the knowledge, new varieties and training gained from one of West Africa's most successful agricultural interventions, she has not only closed the income gap that now enables her to take full responsibility for her family, but also to produce more cassava on one hectare of land.

"One day, I received a phone call inviting me to a training workshop in Abidjan. No one could have imagined that the outcome of the training would be a life-changing experience," says Akissi with a smile.

Akissi says it produces improved cassava species, monitored and graded by Ivorian researchers. These include Bocoui and Yavo, as well as Ampong, Sma, Olekanga, Brony, Brankye and Otuhia, obtained from neighboring Ghana as part of a regional exchange system to facilitate the free movement of improved species from one country to another.

With the blessing of the Programme de Productivité Agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO), her crops have increased yields to between 20 and 50 tonnes per hectare. Drawing on her experience in cassava processing, Akissi founded Etranou, a local cooperative which means "Let's unite" in the Baoulé language spoken mainly in central Côte d'Ivoire. The group brings together around 30 women from the village.

A root and tuber center based in Kumasi, Ghana, conducts unprecedented research on cassava varieties in West Africa.

Etranou members have also seen their income increase by 10%. Akissi is now regularly invited to join other women's groups to share her knowledge and help improve cassava production.

"We never thought it was possible," she says.

But thanks to the new knowledge and skills enhanced by the PPAAO, she is now a living testimony to the use of cassava to improve both her livelihood and her income.

With certain technologies approved by PPAAO, cassava processing has become considerably easier than before.

They cut their cassava. Then they put them in the machine and press a button. In just a few minutes, the machine, with its 100-liter crushing capacity, delivers ground cassava, finer and cleaner than ever made with their hands along the fields of the green and brown checkerboard pattern covering a wide stretch of Man, Bouaké and Brendressous in western and central Côte d'Ivoire.

Akiri's joy is hardly unique

Tano Viviane, a 50-year-old mother of six from Bouaké in central Côte d'Ivoire, earned the nickname 'Kwasio manioc', meaning Mama manioc, for her 25 years' involvement in cassava production.

The West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF), the region's leading research organization coordinating innovative technologies in the agricultural sector, has recognized its role in the cassava sector.

"I received 3 million CFA francs (around 5,500 USD) as part of the prize," says Tano.

She invested the money in the cassava production process and distributed credit to village farmers.

She says the loan generated a low interest rate of 2% and a 10% increase in her group's revenues.

Growing demand with limited supply

International companies, including Dutch firms, approached his group in 2016 about sourcing cassava. While this presents huge opportunities for growth, assembling the capital and inputs needed to produce on a large scale to meet national and international demand remains a challenge for these small-scale producers in the region.

"There is a demand, but until now, we don't have enough capital and the right mechanization tools to produce enough to meet local and international demand," explains Ms. Kouamé Akissi.

However, in West Africa, where the percentage of poor women is increasing with the growing population, these new technologies and crop varieties offered by the WAPP bring new economic opportunities for women to experience significant changes in their livelihoods.

"I'm responsible for my whole family. My husband is ill, and today I'm the family breadwinner," adds Akissi.

Cassava flour unlocks pastry businesses

Until recently, most small bakeries in Côte d'Ivoire faced major challenges in obtaining raw materials, including flour.

Thanks to the PPAAO, many obstacles in the bakery market are being overcome. Pastry and bread are now produced using cassava flour, which is inexpensive, more nutritious and easier to produce.

Louis Kakou, Director of Top'Pain, a leading Abidjan-based pastry company, acknowledges that thanks to the cassava generated by the PPAAO, they now have enough flour to develop their business and meet local demand.

"Before the training workshops organized by PPAAO, women bakers didn't know that they could use local flour to bake and get good results," explains the director of Top'Pain.

WAAPP has trained 500 businesses, including 350 bakers and 150 patissiers. Solange Mundi, a baker and baking teacher at an institute in Abidjan, says: "I can now save more money because local flour is cheaper, and this has an impact on the whole production and sales cycle.

With the World Bank investing in the WAPP, West Africa is becoming a laboratory for testing new approaches to boosting food production. Experts agree that women hold the future of agricultural transformation in the region.

"What we have seen with this innovative project is that research and development are essential to create new opportunities for players in the agricultural economy of Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa in general," explains Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, Executive Director of CORAF, the Dakar-based research organization.

"This is an exciting time in West African agriculture. Our main goal is to leverage these women, young people and climate-friendly technologies to transform the agri-food system in West Africa in the decade ahead."