A method for the induction of somatic embryogenesis in eight cassava genotypes from northeastern Brazil is described. The explants used were shoot apexes isolated both from in vitro grown plants and from shoots that sprouted from stem cuttings. Somatic embryogenesis was achieved in high frequencies by the addition in the induction medium of the auxin picloram over a wide range of concentrations. Green cotyledons of primary somatic embryos were used as explants to induce somatic (cyclic) secondary embryogenesis in an inducing medium supplemented with picloram at 12 mg/L. The method could be used not only for the mass production of plants of the cassava genotypes, but also to generate explants (green cotyledons of somatic embryos) as themselves excellent targets for genetic transformation.