Despite been the world largest producer of cassava, Nigeria still imports about 95 percent of its industrial starch, a by-product of cassava.
Industry sources say Africa’s most populous nation spends $580 million yearly on importation of cassava by products.
“The government is ignorant about the opportunities in the cassava value chain. Nigeria currently imports over 95 percent of industrial starch used in the country,” said Segun Adewunmi, president, Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) in a paper presentation seen by BusinessDay.
“Currently, industrial starch sells for over N200, 000 per ton,” Adewunmi said.
Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world with about 46 million metric tonnes and an average yield per hectare between 10.6 to 15 metric tonnes, industry sources said.
Frank Udemba Jacobs, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in a telephone interview, said “the problem is the will of our people to engage in detailed processing.”
“Companies that mainly use cassava starch, for example, are mostly pharmaceuticals. They are supposed to use modified starch, which is not mostly done here. So they tend to import corn starch because nobody has taken the pain to reform cassava,” said Jacobs.
He said Nigerians limit value addition and processing to cassava to what they eat because it’s simple, adding that the country plays in the upstream cassava sector rather than the downstream, which limits advantages the country can get.
Starch is used in many across food and beverage firms for the production of caramel, biscuits, bread, and confectioneries. It is also used in non-food industries such as batteries firms, gum and super glue, among others.
Union Dicon is one company showing massive interest in starch, having acquired 15,000 hectares of land in Ebonyi to produce cassava, starch and other food products.
The firm, driven by Chuka Mordi and Bex Nwawudu, agreed with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to replace Cargill as the core investor in the $100m Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone in Kogi State.
Only very few firms like Yale Foods are tapping into the cassava flour industry. Frank Jacobs told BusinessDay that few manufacturers are already using cassava flour mixed with corn flour for production.
Cassava has major industrial products like industrial starch, ethanol, flour, glucose syrup, sweeteners amongst others. These products are also raw materials to numerous Industries with limitless domestic and export market potentials.
Nigeria imports a great percentage of animal feeds, as many still do not wish to tap into processing cassava for feeds. There is also absence of awareness from the government.
The biggest challenge confronting farmers is low yield per hectare. “Farmers are not getting the yield they are supposed to get and this makes them not to break even. If the production of cassava is not attractive, farmers will not expand their production areas,” said Abdulai Jalloh, project leader, African Cassava Agronomy Initiative.
He said that some of the limiting factors to increased productivity in cassava production are poor weed control and high cost of farm inputs.
Research across the globe show that some countries have started using micro-nutrients to upscale cassava yields to about 100 metric tonnes per hectare with starch content of cassava up-scaled to 38 percent in Indian and 40 percent in Malaysia.
Jalloh stated that If Nigeria must take advantage of the high potentials in cassava production; farmers need varieties with high starch content, adding that government must initiate policies that would boost cassava production in the country.
Cassava requires less labour than all other staple crops. However, it requires considerable post-harvest labour because the roots are highly perishable and must be processed into a storable form soon after harvest, experts say.
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