Read the passage below carefully and answer the question that follows.
For generations, cassava (Manihot esculenta) has served as a staple food security crop across West Africa due to its remarkable resilience in nutrient-poor soils and erratic rainfall conditions. However, the raw tubers contain cyanogenic glycosides—naturally occurring toxic compounds that require rigorous post-harvest processing to ensure safety for human consumption. Traditional detoxification methods, such as prolonged fermentation and sun-drying to produce gari and fufu, are not only labor-intensive but also consume vast quantities of fuelwood and water, posing localized environmental strains. In response to expanding urbanization and surging urban food demand, recent agricultural engineering initiatives have introduced mechanized grating, hydraulic pressing, and flash-drying technologies. While these innovations have dramatically reduced processing time and boosted rural enterprise profitability, they have introduced new systemic challenges. Modern high-throughput processing centers frequently discharge untreated, acidic cassava mill effluent directly into adjacent waterways and agricultural soils. This untreated wastewater contains high concentrations of organic loads and cyanogenic residues, causing soil acidification, microbial imbalance, and aquatic hypoxia. Furthermore, the capital-intensive nature of commercial processing machinery threatens to marginalize smallholder women processors who historically controlled the traditional cassava value chain. Thus, while technological modernization in cassava processing successfully addresses urban food security and economic scale, it simultaneously generates severe ecological degradation and social displacement unless accompanied by rigorous effluent treatment protocols and inclusive financing frameworks.
Which of the following best summarizes the central argument of the passage?
- AMechanized grating, hydraulic pressing, and flash-drying technologies have successfully boosted processing efficiency and profitability in rural West Africa.
- BTraditional cassava processing methods should be outlawed immediately due to their reliance on excessive fuelwood and water.
- Although modernizing cassava processing improves processing speed and food supply, it gives rise to environmental degradation and social inequality that demand regulatory and inclusive measures.Cevap
- DThe presence of dangerous cyanogenic glycosides renders raw cassava ineffective as a food security crop for growing urban populations.