The plant recovers rapidly once the stress is removed; visually
this is displayed by the formation of new leaves, which have the benefit of enabling the
plant to increase its photosynthetic rate (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, 1992).
However, moisture stress conditions can critically affect the root system development of cassava, the extent being dependent on plant maturity.
Dry conditions during the period when plants are establishing lead to lower root dry weight (Pardales and Esquibel, 1996), but there are few reports describing the effect on starch quality (Defloor et al., 1998a,b).