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Template:Did you know nominations/Cassava production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cassava production in the Republic of the Congo

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Victuallers (talk) 20:52, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

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Cassava production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cassava production in the Republic of the Congo edit

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Created by Nvvchar (talk), Dr. Blofeld (talk), and Rosiestep (talk). Nominated by Rosiestep (talk) at 03:27, 8 April 2015 (UTC).

  • These hooks are both demonstrably untrue. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava by a long way, with Indonesia and Thailand flip-flopping between second and third place; DRC vies with Brazil for fourth place, and RoC is twenty-eighth according to, er, Cassava production in the Republic of the Congo. (1.25 million tons sounds like a lot, but to put that in perspective Nigeria's annual production is roughly 50 times that. Even India, with little tradition of eating the stuff, grows about 8-10 million tons a year.) The hook doesn't appear at all in either article; Cassava production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo says that the cassava production of DRC is approximately 16.5 million tons (roughly a third of Nigeria's) but makes no claim as to where this places the country in world production rankings, while Cassava production in the Republic of the Congo correctly says that the RoC is ranked 28th, not second. The articles do say that DRC and RoC are the first and second largest consumers of cassava, but the sole source used for this claim is a 20-year-old paper on the microbiology of cassava fermentation which mentions in passing that at the time of writing the countries then known as Congo and Zaire were the first and second largest consumers of cassava. Since Zaire, and its successor state of DRC, was engaged in a major civil war from 1996 to 2013, assuming that its economy is unchanged since 1996 is not a credible position to take without strong sourcing to back the claim up. – iridescent 19:36, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

@Iridescent: It's an obvious error with the hook, it's consumption rather than production. Even the article claims consumer rather than producer. I've just corrected it. Also stated date, unless a recent source can be found. Surprised to see you here, I thought you hated DYK! I've largely avoided it for a few years too.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:41, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

@Dr. Blofeld: If so, it needs a better source than a 1996 paper on Cassava Lactic Fermentation in Central Africa: Microbiological and Biochemical Aspects. Per my comments above, it's not reasonable to assume the economy of a failed state which has gone through two decades of civil war hasn't undergone any significant changes. At the very least it needs an "as of 1996", but regardless of that I'd question whether a paper on an unrelated topic is a legitimate source. – iridescent 19:48, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

I've just stated "as of 1996" The FAO website should have statistics on consumption, can somebody try to find some more recent figures?♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:52, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

Argh... feel free to trout me as it was my bad on the original hook! The articles used the word "consumption" (not "production"). Sorry! --Rosiestep (talk) 23:02, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
Very easily done, especially as the article is about production!♦ Dr. Blofeld 06:46, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
  • Full review needed of both articles and the revised original and new ALT hooks. BlueMoonset (talk) 13:26, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
    • Struck the original hook for reasons of accuracy; I like ALT1. The articles are new (both were created on 31 March), long enough, and within policy (I couldn't detect any copyright violations for either article). QPQs are in order; image is used in the corresponding article. 23W 01:15, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
  • Hi, I came by to promote this but do not see the claim "vital to the economy" sourced in either article. I see that it is the number-one crop, and that the Republic of Congo is the biggest consumer of cassava, but not that it's "vital". Yoninah (talk) 16:31, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
  • Thought it could be synonymous, but alright. Both use "principle" and "prime crop" respectively in the lead paragraphs. 23W 17:09, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

If you used this image, the hook would for sure make the first slot. It is public domain:

A cassava plant in the DRC

Yoninah (talk) 18:52, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

@Yoninah: Yes, it is a great, "hooky" picture; let's use it. I've removed the image associated with the original hook. Here's ALT3: ... that cassava (plants pictured) is a principal crop in the Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo? --Rosiestep (talk) 19:03, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
  • Thanks. I moved "(pictured)" up; alternately, we could say "(plants pictured)". Restoring tick based on 23W's review. Yoninah (talk) 19:11, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
  • @Yoninah: I think "(plants pictured)" is a better description, so I've made the change. --Rosiestep (talk) 14:12, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
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