Did you know that Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world; thrice more than Brazil’s production and almost double the production of Indonesia and Thailand?
Even cassava production in other African countries, namely the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, appears small in comparison to Nigeria’s substantial output.
Despite being the world’s largest cassava producer, it is a big shame that Nigeria still spends a whopping N2 trillion in foreign exchange to import products that can be derived from cassava. Cassava byproducts still being imported into Nigeria include ethanol, industrial starch, glucose syrup, bread flour, sweetener, etc. Incidentally, these products are said to be raw materials to numerous utility items with limitless domestic and export market potential.
This is to say that cassava project can trigger massive industrial revolution across Nigeria. It can fully engage millions of farmers, skilled and unskilled factory workers, according to Nigeria Cassava Growers Association of Nigeria (NCGAN).
For instance, Nigeria spends N500 billion to import ethanol and over N400 billion to import industrial starch, which could be processed and sourced locally. Stakeholders have argued that this level of import could pose great threat to economic diversification of the Federal Government.
It is learnt that cassava farmers are facing challenges of glut as most of their produce are rotting away due to their inability to get off-takers for their product and lack of processing facilities to process the commodity into domestic and industrial products.
Prices seem to be crashing due to a glut of cassava produce in most South Western parts of Nigeria.
On farmers’ plight (the three yearly glut circle), the cost of producing a tonne is about N14,000. Harvesting and loading of a tonne is charged between N3,000 and N4,000 while transportation to the factory costs between N5,000 and N8,000 depending on the distance of the factory site.
The above implies that rather than making profit, the loss of the farmer is around N8,000 from every tonne of cassava sold at N17,000. Most farmers usually leave their cassava to rot because the cost of harvesting and delivery surpasses the value of the cassava. This is the plight of cassava farmers because of the (three-four) yearly glut circle. During the years of scarcity, farmers rush to cultivate and that leads to glut in the year that follows.
Nigeria is still not having industrial cassava, which is regarded as a money-spinner in the international market.
The solution to the predicament of cassava farmers and indeed, revitalisation of Nigeria’s economy with cassava, is not farfetched, though there is need for establishment for cassava processing facilities across Nigeria.
It is noteworthy that industrial cassava products could generate over N15 trillion, which is double what oil can generate, if government devotes five million hectares of the 82 arable land to the production of additional cassava and establish adequate processing facilities to off-take cassava.
It is estimated that if 20 units of 250 metric tonnes capacity cassava flour mills are provided from the fund, and if the Bank of Industry (BoI) releases fund meant for already existing cassava processing factories, Nigeria could have 7,000 metric tonnes daily additional market for our cassava.
It was also revealed that N1.2 billion deposited with BoI for cottage cassava industries, which was meant to create market for cassava since 2009 has not been disbursed.
This is a very counterproductive trend that proactive governments need to check and an opportunity for the organized private sector to leverage on.
No comments:
Post a Comment