The National President of Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA), Segun Adewumi, in a recent interview with the Nigerian Tribune, has explained how cassava can be used to boost the Nigerian economy.
According to the interview published on Tuesday, January 3, 2016, Mr Adewunmi says Nigeria can earn over N20trillion yearly through cassava if the country can harness limitless domestic and export market potentials from cassava.
He added that Cassava is the answer to the economic woes of Nigeria.
Below are excerpts from the interview:
There is so much talk about food security and industrial potential of cassava. What can you say about this?
Cassava provides over 20 domestic food types for Nigerians and that includes, Gari, fufu, lafun, starch, tapioca, pupuru, etc at the same time it has five major industrial products namely, ethanol, industrial starch, cassava flour, glucose syrup and sweetener. Incidentally, they are also raw materials to numerous utility items with limitless domestic and export market potentials. Cassava can trigger massive industrial revolution that will earn Nigeria over N20 trillion yearly. Cassava is actually the answer to the economic woes of Nigeria.
How can this be achieved?
All we need is to devote 5 million of the 84 million hectares of the arable land in Nigeria to cassava development and that will yield 200 million MT of cassava. Using Industrial Starch as example, 200 million MT of cassava will produce 50 million MT of starch. 50 million MT of Starch sells for N350, 000 per ton and that will generate 17.5 trillion naira. Fortunately, cassava can be cultivated in all parts of Nigeria. It is even better cultivated in the North where weeding is easier and land clearing is much less expensive.
Is the government aware of this opportunity?
Yes, we made a comprehensive presentation to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture stating all the facts and our presentation was well received and appreciated.
What delays the take off of the programme?
I think the government is taking her time to ensure that the programs are well delivered. All that is required is provision of enabling environment for agriculture and Industry to prosper. Right now we have some impediments that need to be removed for inflow of foreign Investments and prosperity of the local investors. Some of these are non acceptance of agricultural land as collateral security for loan; on the account of the failure of Nigerian banks to accept agricultural land as collateral security for loan, many Investors have relocated to other countries like Ghana.
Recently an American investor who intended to install 100,000 litres ethanol plant per day for cassava growers relocated to Ghana because the land for which farmer had spent hundreds of millions to acquire could not form part of the collateral for bank guarantee that is required for foreign loan. Another one is the need for modern agricultural practices. We appreciate the anchor program of the Central Bank of Nigeria. It will boost food security. At the same time, agricultural commodities required for industrial use need to cost less for its products to penetrate the International market. This is beyond what our aging farming population can provide.
We need modern practice of agriculture that only the educated youths can do. For example, Malaysia and other countries have started to use micronutrients to upscale cassava yield from between 10-22 MT with average 18 per cent starch content per hectare obtained in Nigeria to over 100 MT with 40 per cent starch content. Apart from garri, no Nigeria cassava product can penetrate the international market on the account of its cost of production.
