Nigerian cassava growers restate ambitious plan to curb trillions on imported products

Nigeria’s cassava is the costliest to produce in the world, a statement also alluded to by the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) in its plans to maximise the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to reduce the country’s import of cassava derivatives by as much as N1.2 trillion.

“Nigerian cassava is the costliest in the world. For example, while Cassava chips is sold for between $200 to $250/ton in China, it costs $400 to produce a ton (of cassava chips) in Nigeria,” reads part of a document sent to Agribusiness Insight by Segun Adewumi, NCGA’s National President.

The Nigerian cassava growers have an ambitious plan to radically increase production, and drive import substitution across a wide range of products.

The document highlighted some prominent Cassava derivatives like Ethanol, Industrial Starch, Cassava Flour, Sweetener/Glucose Syrup, which are raw materials to numerous utility items with domestic and export market potentials. “Doubtlessly, Cassava can trigger massive Industrial Revolution in Nigeria,” it reads.

Facts and Figures, according to NCGA

1. Nigeria uses 400 million litres of Ethanol sold at N400 per litre –  N160 billion
2. Nigeria uses 1.7million MT of Industrial Starch sold at about

 N200,000  per ton           – N340 billion

3. If wheat bread is substituted with 20 percent Cassava flour, import Bill on wheat will reduce by                                           – N200 billion
4. Other Cassava derivatives like Sweetener used in Beverage

Companies, Glucose Syrup etc have estimated value of   – N350 billion

5. 10 percent substitution of Petrol with fuel grade Ethanol is

1,266,521,642 litres at N145 per litre                        – N183 billion

TOTAL                                                                        = N1.2 trillion

Export Market Potentials

1. According to NCGA, worldwide, the pharmaceutical Industry prefers Cassava Industrial Starch to the cornstarch widely used. The association says it is in talks with a leading pharmaceutical company (name withheld) in Nigeria, and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria on the production of Cassava Industrial Starch to replace what it describes as “the GMO corn starch imported to the Country for pharmaceutical use.”
2. Nigeria has the capacity to produce over 10 trillion litres of Ethanol at a competitive price and earn trillions of Naira exporting Ethanol. The 400 million litres of Ethanol currently used requires only 100,000 hectares of farmland from the estimated 84 million hectares arable land in Nigeria, half of it is currently in use.

This, according to NCGA, implies Nigeria can reduce her import bill on the listed utility items by 1.2 trillion Naira. At the same time, the country can earn several trillions of Naira in foreign exchange from cassava products.

Major Challenges

NCGA notes that although Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava, Nigerian cassava is the costliest in the world. For example Cassava chips is sold for between $200 to $250/ton in China, it costs $400 to produce a ton in Nigeria. For the above reasons cassava derivatives from Nigeria cannot compete in the international market. The reason is the high cost of producing cassava. On the average a ton of cassava cost as much as N20,000 to produce, Cassava for Industrial use must cost bellow N10,000 per ton.

Adewumi however thinks this can be achieved if certain strategies are adopted:

(i)              Cassava for food security

(ii)           Cassava for Industrial use.

The smallholder farmers’ cassava for food security

The cassava of the smallholder Farmers, which according to NCGA must not be “underpriced” because of non-availability of the necessary incentives for Commercial Production, can be harnessed and devoted to food security. Apart from ‘untractorable’ land and lack of mechanization facilities the smallholder cassava has two other major challenges:

(i)              Lack of immediate and rewarding market for their products

(ii)           Cost of transportation of their cassava to the milling centres.

According to NCGA, these two challenges can be met with the following actions:

1. Take the cassava milling centres to Cassava farmers in the Rural Areas. Let the cassava be processed at the farms under the supervision of quality control experts and to the standard of NAFDAC and SON.
2. Provide Silos and Stores at the Local Government Headquarters to store and to preserve the cassava product. Fortunately, cassava products can be preserved for a long time, NCGA asserts.
3. Ensure rewarding market for cassava products. Arrangements should be made to buy up all such food to prevent a glut. There are ready outlets for the food in the various IDP camps in Nigeria and other parts of the world, the School feeding program can also use more of cassava products.

Programme for Industrial Cassava:

Bush/Land Clearing in the Southern Nigeria

According to NCGA, a major challenge to commercial Agriculture especially in the Southern Nigeria is the absence of large farmland that where use of tractors and/or mechanisation is possible. There is need for land development so that farmers can be clustered around the Processing factories.

Suggestion for Land Clearing

NCGA suggests that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) can call for Aggregators who shall be individuals or corporate bodies that owns between 1,000 to 10,000 Hectares with title documents. Facilities will be granted to Aggregators to develop the land and demarcate it into five-Hectare-blocks with access/service roads in-between the blocks. Title documents of the land will be used as collateral for the loan facility. Yearly rent will be paid on the land by the participants i.e the youth farmers. The rent will be used for the repayment of the long term facility for the land development.

Operational Modalities:

1. Land will be cleared and demarcated into blocks for allocation to youth farmers.
2. Farmers will be grouped under extension officers who will supply the inputs, supervise the cultivation, harvesting and delivery processes.
3. Youth/graduate farmers may be put on monthly allowances the total sum of which will be deducted from the proceeds of the sale of their produce
4. Ten (10) Hectares may be allocated to each farmer. The successful farmers will have five Hectares added to his portion yearly until he has 25 Hectares. This will make the young farmers to prosper according to their ability and desire.
5. Youth farmers can form cooperative groups that will own specialized farming equipment such as Planters, Harvesters, Boom sprayer etc. They can even own processing factories.
6. With modern farming methods, yield will be upscaled to a minimum of 35MT per hectares.
7. Cultivation should be staggered in accordance to the pattern of usage of the off taking factories.
8. Cassava milling factories will be sited within the vicinity of the farmland that will supply cassava.

Conclusion

NCGA is of the opinion that, if the enumerated plan is well considered, it will achieve the following:

1. Reduce the annual import bill by over One trillion Naira.
2. Boost annual export earnings by over 5 trillion Naira.
3. Provide employment opportunities for over 5 million Nigerian farmers, skilled and unskilled factory workers, service providers, artisans, transporters, home owners at the villages and ordinary labourers.
4. It will guarantee food security, Nigeria will have enough to eat and store in the Silos for the raining day.
5. It will complement oil as another major foreign exchange earner for Nigeria.

CALEB OJEWALE