Jennifer Abraham
Agricultural raw materials processing continued
Cassava
Cassava is one of Nigeria’s most
important agricultural produce and Nigeria is the world’s largest
producer of cassava. The nation actually produces at least 34 million
tonnes 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 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, standardised cassava flour can
be mixed with wheat flour to produce composite flour for bread making.
Research has shown that inclusion of 10-20 per cent high quality cassava
flour is ideal for bread making. Findings at the Federal Institute of
Industrial Research, also prove that a mix of soy and cassava flour is
equally ideal for production of confectioneries.
At a 2013 seminar organised by the
Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, Director
General of FIIRO, Dr. Gloria Elemo, earnestly canvassed the passage into
law a bill for the compulsory inclusion of cassava flour in bread and
confectioneries production for economic growth and development. Twenty
per cent wheat substitution could save the nation as much as N20bn per
annum (N250 to a dollar exchange rate) as Nigeria currently spend $4.1bn
annually on wheat importation. 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.
According to a study undertaken by
Truman P. Phillips et al as a contribution to The Global Cassava
Development Strategy and published in 2004 by the International Fund for
Agricultural Development
Food And Agriculture Organization Of The
United Nations, “A growing demand for cassava will spur rural
industrial development and contribute to the economic development of
producing, processing and trading communities and well-being of numerous
disadvantaged people in the world.”
Sugarcane
Sugar is good business. It is a mainstay
of Brazilian, Chinese and Indian economy. In Swaziland Sugar cane
plantations account for nearly three quarter of total agricultural
output with a total production figure of about 680,000 tonnes per annum
and annual revenue generation of $408m. The industry is the highest
contributor to net tax earnings in that country and employs more than
10,000 workers.
That level of success does not come
without incentives. The government of that country supports big
plantations to empower small holder growers with extension and milling
services; making it possible for them to feel secure, concentrate and
remain productive. Nigeria needs to learn from this because uncertainty
of outcomes is one of the reasons that people shy away from agriculture.
There are indications that the Nigerian government is understudying the
Swazi module.
Nigeria meets almost all of her sugar
needs through importation. Out of an estimated national sugar demand of
about 1.3 million tonnes, only about 100 million tonnes is met through
local production. Unarguably therefore, there is a ready local market
for sugar and allied products in the country.
A favoured snack in the northern parts
of the country, it is often seen hawked in major cities of the country
with wheel barrows by peasants who do not realise the economic value of
the stalks they practically pawn off for basic livelihood. Application
of science to process the cane into secondary products that attract
higher prices is what government at all levels needs to explore to
increase revenue for development and for job creation.
Copyright PUNCH.
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