A 12-member delegation from the Voluntary Indigenous Development Service (VIDS) has returned from a week-long knowledge-exchange mission to northern Brazil, bringing back critical new insights to fight Cassava Witches’ Broom Disease — a destructive pathogen that threatens cassava production and food stability for Indigenous communities across Suriname. The mission, held from July 2 to 9 in Oiapoque, Amapá state (a Brazilian region bordering Suriname and French Guiana), was backed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funded by the New Zealand Embassy, and forms a core part of the Women-Led Indigenous Action Against Cassava Witches’ Broom Disease initiative.
The project centers the critical role women play in protecting food systems: in most Indigenous villages across the region, women are the primary stewards of cassava cultivation, responsible for both household food supply and community-level crop management. The delegation included Indigenous leaders, small-scale cassava farmers, youth representatives, and UNDP liaisons, who traveled across three local Indigenous villages — Ahumã, Curipi, and Kuahi — to learn on-the-ground disease management strategies. During site visits, the team inspected disease-affected cassava fields, exchanged insights with local Brazilian farmers who have successfully controlled outbreaks, and held working meetings with leading agricultural research bodies including Embrapa and Rurap, the Oiapoque Council of Indigenous Leaders, and an Indigenous women’s organization that leads regional disease response efforts.
Through these engagements, the delegation gained hands-on training in three key areas: early identification of Cassava Witches’ Broom Disease symptoms, proven prevention practices to stop pathogen spread, and the development of local community surveillance systems that catch outbreaks before they decimate entire crops. Delegates also learned about climate-resilient safe cultivation techniques and the importance of using certified disease-free planting material to protect new crops.
For VIDS, the mission is not a concluding step, but the starting point of a coordinated national response to the disease in Suriname. Over the coming months, mission participants will share their new expertise through a series of community workshops and village gatherings across Suriname, bringing practical, locally accessible training directly to Indigenous smallholders. Attendees will learn to recognize early disease signs, implement on-farm prevention measures, and adopt practices that slow the spread of the pathogen to healthy fields. Feedback and on-the-ground outcomes from these community sessions will then be shared back with VIDS to refine the national disease response strategy for Suriname.
Cassava is far more than a staple crop for Suriname’s Indigenous communities: it is a primary source of household income, and a core element of Indigenous cultural heritage. The spread of Cassava Witches’ Broom Disease has emerged as a major threat to both food security and livelihoods across the country’s rural Indigenous villages. VIDS officials note that the cross-border knowledge exchange will lay the groundwork for a more coordinated, community-led response to the disease, protecting existing cassava plantations and securing long-term food stability and economic resilience for Indigenous communities across Suriname.