Investments in cassava ventures at this
time will be quite auspicious as the cassava transformation project of
the Federal Government is supporting the emergence of a new generation
of cassava farmers, who will take up commercial production and farming
as a business, and to link them up to reliable demand, either from
processors or a guaranteed minimum price scheme of the government.
Cassava is one of Nigeria’s most
important agricultural produce and there are many reasons for this
position: Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava. The nation
actually produces at least 34million tones of cassava annually and as
Africa’s most populous nation, could also provide the biggest market for
the product since cassava is her most important food staple. Seventy
per cent of Nigeria’s populace is agrarian and cassava, a crop that can
thrive profitably in at least thirty states of the federation, is a
constant on most farms. The average Nigerian farm allots considerable
space to cassava because it is easy to grow and can exist comfortably
with other crops.
Contemporary thinking demands that
countries concentrate and develop resources in which they have
comparative advantage and for the reasons already stated, cassava holds
one of the critical keys to poverty alleviation, wealth creation,
employment generation and other isotopes of sustainable development for
the Nigerian nation. Apart from food security and social stability,
cassava is also a potentially important industrial raw material that
would not only support local industry but can be exported to earn
foreign exchange for the nation.
Cassava, according to experts, can find
applications in other industries apart from the food sector. It is a
useful raw material in the production of ethanol (which is both an
industrial solvent as well as a fuel), production of industrial starch;
livestock feed, adhesives, and is also an important component in
drilling. Based on products of research efforts since the 50s and 60s,
cassava has been found to be a useful raw material in the bakery
industry. Indeed, standardized cassava flour can be mixed with wheat
flour to produce composite flour for bread making. Research has shown
that inclusion of 10% High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF), is ideal for
bread making.
Recent experiments have also shown that
20% cassava inclusion is equally very viable. Findings at the Federal
Institute of Industrial Research, FIIRO also prove that a mix of soy and
cassava flour is equally ideal for production of confectioneries.
At a 2013 seminar organized by the
Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, Director
General of FIIRO, Dr. Gloria Elemo, earnestly canvassed that the
National Assembly pass into law a bill on compulsory inclusion of
cassava flour in the making of bread and confectioneries for economic
growth and development. Other applications of cassava in the food
industry include use in the production of pasta like spaghetti and
macaroni and the production of instant noodles, production of glucose
syrup and so on.
Based on these findings, stakeholders,
development agencies and even the government of Nigeria have come to the
conclusion that if the industrial potentials of cassava are
appropriately tapped, all participants in its production value chain-
from the growers in the rural areas, to the processors, equipment
fabricators, flour millers, and so on, would be impacted and this would
significantly contribute to an increase in the nation’s GDP. Besides,
exploiting the industrial applications of cassava would raise its rating
from that of a mere rural food staple to a product of industrial
significance which would also elevate the status of its rural growers,
leading to a rise in the number of cassava based enterprises.
In furtherance of President Goodluck
Jonathan’s Cassava Transformation Agenda, the Honourable Minister of
Agriculture and Rural development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina now serves
bread with 20% cassava to visitors in his office.
Susanna Moorehead, Director West and
Southern Africa and Country Director of DFID who visited his office
early this year was served the bread and she thoroughly enjoyed it,
commenting that “It’s so nice you do not need butter”.
Obviously, Nigeria is getting set for a
cassava boom. Technical information on how to run a successful cassava
cropping business can be obtained from the National Root Crops Research
Institute, NRCRI Umudike and International Institute for tropical
Agriculture, IITA Ibadan while information on completed research into
viable cassava processing businesses can be obtained from the FIIRO.
Nigeria Cassava Processors and Marketers Association, NICAPMA members
can also provide information on equipment and machinery.
