Cassava production, panacea to Nigeria’s economic recovery- experts

Cassava production, panacea to Nigeria’s economic recovery- experts
Abdul Semiu Babalola, Lagos

Tubers of cassava

Participants at the public presentation of a documentary titled, “The Cassava Revolution”, have canvassed for adequate funding of the agricultural sector and cassava farming in particular so that Nigerians will  have more food on their tables, fight extreme poverty and earn more foreign exchange.

They gave the advise in Lagos, South West, Nigeria at the public presentation of  a twenty five minutes video documentary, which highlights the huge role the crop can play in revitalizing the Nigerian economic sector and  put more money into the pockets of farmers.

 “After over one year of successful project implementation in the field, we are delighted to present Cassava Revolution, which clearly shows that investing in agriculture and cassava production can help solve Nigeria’s economic challenges”, the Country Representative of  International Fertilizer Development Centre(IFDC), Scott Wallace explained during the presentation.

Cassava revolution project

IFDC is one of the partners involved in the Cassava Revolution project in Nigeria.

Others include the Dutch government, three state governments in Nigeria- Rivers, Taraba and Osun - Dutch Agricultural Development and Trading Company (DADTCO).

A non-governmental organization, Communicating for Change (CFC), packaged the documentary.

“We have not supported agriculture as it should. What you are going to see is a new technology that is developed in Nigeria and that have transformed the lives of cassava farmers in the three states we are working with now”, Wallace told the audience , shortly before the public screening of the film.

“We work to support farmers through trainings, capacity building, and mechanization and improved farming practices .Through the training and the technology introduced farmers were able to process about forty metric tonnes of cassava daily. DADTCO have invested in the factory in the last five years, they have showed that it is possible to shift from the present largely subsistence to commercial cassava farming”, Wallace added.

With about 45 million tonnes annual production of cassava, Nigeria is the largest cassava producing nation in the world. However, the country seems not to be benefitting much from this staple crop, due to subsistence farming and inability to add value to the crop through processing.

According to cassava experts, for a farmer to move from subsistence farming of the crop into commercial scale, which will be adequate for local consumption and export, he needs to mechanize and cultivate about four hectares of land.

The film demonstrates that with the necessary supports and incentives, cassava can be transformed from a subsistence crop to a viable commercial cash crop that could earn Nigeria huge foreign exchange. It exposed the huge investments potential that foreign and local agro-allied investors can tap into.

In the words of the Director of CFC, Sandra Obiago, “the film, the Cassava Revolution”, torches Nigeria economy. It is an answer to the current situation whereby we spend huge sums of money on importation of food. There is no way we can achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), if we cannot feed ourselves”.
She expressed optimism that with adequate funding of agriculture, Nigeria can attained the objective of halving hunger and extreme poverty by 2015, as contained in the MDGs document.

Quoting from a recent Central bank of Nigeria report, Obiago said in the past, Nigeria contributes about 60 per cent to the world global palm –oil production, 30 per cent to ground-nuts and 15 per cent to Cocoa. She however lamented that due to poor funding of agriculture and neglect of the sector by successive governments, Nigeria now spends several billions on importation.

According to her the country imports about 600 million tonnes of food, annually. Nigeria is also the highest importer of rice- it spends 75 billion Naira on it every year. It equally spends 60 billion Naira on sugar importation, 165 billion Naira on wheat and 105 billion Naira on fish.

Generation of wealth

She also noted that DADTCO in the film provided a viable solution which showed how Nigeria can become the largest producer of cassava in the world and how cassava could be used for baking instead of depending on imported wheat.

“We need the political will to change things. Proper funding and adequate attention will change things for the better,” she said.

Apart from the technology, four different improved varieties of the crop were also introduced to the farmers involved in the pilot project in Rivers, Osun and Taraba states. In the film, some of the farmers testified to how their income had increased through the purchase of the crop from them.

According to Baba Raji, a cassava farmer in Wukari, Taraba State, in Northern part of Nigeria, “today is the happiest day in my life because, I have taken my cassava roots to DADTCO and the company paid me in cash for the crop. I sold about 15 tonnes ... in the whole of my entire life I have never sold roots in large quantities like this”.

Raji, who was one of the farmers used in the pilot project  in the documentary, added that,  “I wish Nigerians could be buying the flour made by DADTCO so that the money would also return to us-the farmers of Nigeria. That will make the local farmers rich and happy”.

Another part of the film, showed how the Dutch company’s innovative technology processed cassava roots into cassava cake, flour and other products such as glucose syrup and starch or used as an important ingredient for industrial products.

The processed cassava can replace raw materials that are currently being imported into the country- such as malted barley in beer, sugar in soft drinks and as flour pasta and bread.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, was also seen in the film, expressing the need for all Nigerians to take agriculture seriously and see it as a business venture.

In his words, “I am not going to be a Federal Minister of Agriculture over poor people and Nigeria cannot be a museum of poverty, the only way in which we can change the situation right now is by taking agriculture very seriously at all levels. Agriculture should generate wealth and not poverty”.

Also speaking at the occasion, a cassava expert, Dr. Paul Ilona, observed that the crop  is one of the key crops, Africa should be paying more attention to because of the value added chain advantage it possess.

Highlighting cassava’s potentials

The Executive Director News, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Okey Nwachukwu, who moderated the discussion on “Cassava Revolution; The Key to Nigeria’s Economic Recovery”, enjoined the media practitioners to be part of the Revolution, by highlighting its potentials and creating appropriate communication messages among the farmers and other stakeholders on the available technology that would boost production and income of farmers.

Other participants at the occasion stressed the need for the documentary to be translated into local languages for the farmers to understand and take advantage of the available opportunities in cassava cultivation.

They also suggested that a radio format of the documentary could be replicated and played on local radio stations for the benefit of the farmers who are largely based in the rural areas.

The participants including journalists, farmers, cassava experts and development partners underscored the importance of providing famers with necessary market information, access to working loans, insurance, storage facilities, access to land and other incentives that would encourage the development of agro-allied industries.

They equally stressed the need for legislative intervention that will provide the framework for the use of 10 per cent of cassava flour for the baking of bread and the policy back up that would provide incentive for the flour mills to fully embrace the idea.

Williams