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THE GUARDIAN, Sunday, January 8,2012
'We Never Got Loans Applied For Our Cassava Farms' Israel Komclafe Dwoeye, former Chairman, Nigeria Cassava Growers Associalion (Agbeloba), Arigbajo Ward, Ogun Stale, spoke on The challenges and threat faced by cassava farmers and their expectations from the government. He spoke to GBENGAAKINFENWA \ fM® aretile changesfeeingCassavafarmersin Nigeria at VV present? The problem facing us is enormous because there is insufficient fund for farmer? to cultivate. The only few farmers [ha: are Still planting cassava are cultivating a small fraction meant to sustain them. We cannot plant enough for manufacturing pur>se than for consumption like in the past, terms of production level, how would you estimate the volume of cassava production in Nigeria presently? The production capacity is dwindling by theyear because many of our young people are nor ready to engage in farming and the few old people who still loved farming don't have enough resources to cultivate just an hectare of land. You would need a lot of money before you can do such. For the cultivation of an hectare of land from the clearing to the period of harvest, nothing less than N300,0oo would be required and this may not commensurate with income from sales of cassava ha.-vested from the farm, which means no profit. What variety ofca; sava do you commonly cultivate now? The common cassava variety we have is called Somid'aloro (make me wealthy). It was given such a name because it can be grown anywhere and it will germinate successfully. There was a time the govenim int, through the Ogun State Agricultural Development Programme f OGADEP), promised to give a variety but it failed because many of the stems did not germinate. We believe that government had held on to the cassava stidts for a very long time and many of them had dried before distribution to the end users. 1 can't even remember the name of the variety. How would you determine the sellingrate of cassava now? The market price is determined mostly by what people sell in the market. If the price goes up in the market, then the farmers would increase their charge per25 kilogram sack. A sack is now sold forNSOonow. In the past we can sell it at most fora thousand or more but now that we are getting close to Christmas, the price may fall sharply and at such period, a sack could sell for as low as N500 or below. There is no profit in this at all. Do you enjoy any .unding from government or any organisation? We have tried many of these government initiatives on loans but they are just rr ere propaganda because nothing was forth coming. Like we u.r;e to have in Ogun Stare before, the government promised to do something in form of loan but it never came to light;-maj be the project was hijacked by some power-
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ful people brt the jnoney never got to die fanners. Wehave series of forms thai we nave filled for loans and submitted. We have many of them as far back as 2005 but there was no money given [o anybody. We also formed a Co-operative Society involving only 10 people; we did a little bit of contribution out it wasn't much, except government can come to the aid of the farmers. What we contribute is a small fraction to what is needed for farming. How do you intend to meet up with the demand rate now with the introduction ofcassava for flour production? What do you need to achieve this? We shall need more lands, farming equipment because the rate at which the farmers cultivate now, the clearing of land and preparation ahead of farming and other things are exhorbitant but if we have farming tools to assist us in growing more cassava for the production of bread, that would Just be fine. Another problem is chat we have big trees in our farms unlike in the Northern part olthe country. We would require the use of Caterpillar to uproot the trees because if die roots are not well uprooted it may damage the plow to bulldoze the area before the harrowing machine comes in.
ng cassava flour al Thai ranns Inti
Fresh Drive To Boost Food Production, Diversify Revenue Base And Create Jobs loans. However, the fund, which was first domiciled with Bank of gradually introduce the 40 per cent inclusion since the 10 per cent Industry (Bol)and later transferred to AgricBank, has suffered low rate of returns from initial beneficiaries, roject did not make it because of shortage in supply of cassava Elemo says R1RO is one of the service providers to the Cassava: our. Adding Value for Africa (CAVA) project led by Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich, UKand collaboratStakeholder's su jport for Cassava ing University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB). To strengthen this support, the Bill and Melinda Gates "THERE is need foi continuous stakeholders' interactions for bodJ-ies like N1CAPM\ Cassava Growers, FIourMillers, Adhesive man- Foundation has a sponsorship going for QAVAas a means of ufacturers, National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASS1), reaching out to rural people of Africa and improving their wellbeing. National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), etc to generate The Cassava Potential/Wealth Creation support at various levels. Ukpabi, FMNFlc chief executive, revealed the level of funding TH the Market and Trade Development Corporation (MTDC) released previously by flour millers to die tune of N500 million nitiative beingplanned by the Agriculture Minister,a lot is from which cassava growers and processors could draw revolving in store for the tuber and the economics of its exploitation. CONTINUED FROM PAGE45
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Work Progressing On HI; Hour In. Bread Making, fj By Olukayode Oyeleye
pROFESSORD tee: Sanni, a food scientist and one of researchers J, workingonihe rompositebreadprojecthassaidawiderangeof inclusion cassava flour is possible. He disclosed that the "concept is dial: we can produce composite bread frotniQ to 40 per cent depending on varioiisjlevf^ls of) acceptability; target: consumers and capacities of our bakers." The additives neeiled. explained, are five types, There are flavouring agents "to mask •Ji-'cassava-likeflavouror taste, orenliance taste and flavour of the bread." According to him, "the choice of flaTOurant depends on individual bakers and their targets e.g. vanilla, banana ere." Another type uf additive, he pointed out, are the emulsifying Agents, "used to provide dough stability and tolerance in addition to improving loaf voljrne and crumb structure and maintai n ing softness e.g. Glyceivl nionoste<iriilt-°{GM->\ steroyl lacfyiate, etc." Texture modifier, noted Sanni, isa third type, used to soften the dou°h and enhancegood crumb formation which deteiTfiines the finaftexture of the bread e.g. ascorbicacid, while anti-stal ing agents such as hydrocclloids are used "to reduce the rate of moisture loss from the crumb. The preservatives are the fifth type of additives and, "the most common form of preservative used is vinegar. This adjusts theacidiry level (pi-I) of die loaf to prevent the development of mould sporesand D the r spoilage organisms." Sanni described vinegar as "a natural ingredient ana is not regarded as a food additive," adding tJK\fCn!cii'inpropionais(E2S2) inhibits the growth of mould spores and badert-i directly." The professor ivhuworksat the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (LINAMJ), hinted "t lereare Jew bread improvers current!)'available
Down the line, Adesina expects over 1,2 million jobs to be created on and off farm. The improved yield of 12.5 tons per hectare under this plan gives this a fresh impetus. Olubori projects that it would require L2 million tons of fresh output per annum to give flour millers the300,000 metric tons ofcassava flour needed for a 10 per cent inclusion. But he considers this a challenge that would pose no barrier since, in 2005 when the Presidential initiative on cassava came on stream, that stimulated over 10 million metric tons (fresh cassava) within a year. At this level. Olubori does not foresee any undue pressure on the present industrial application ofthe tuber affecting the food/domestic uses. Ogun State cassava processors appear to be getting well primed for die expected bountiful yield with over 33 cassava processing SMEs as revealed by the State Agriculture Commissioner. Presently, three processors are doing it large scale led by Thai Farms, which is doing the high qualify cassava flour, then Obasanjo Farms and another firm. Expectedly, at the end ofthe plant audit embarked upon by engineers and fabricators in the state, and attainment of high plant utilisation when they start operation, output would be upscale. Elemo estimates that cassava flour inclusion has the capacity to generate about N24billion based on the 300,000 metric tons of HQCFdemanded by flour millers thus saving foreign exchange. This is against die backdrop of die nation's wheat annual import bill of N635billion as cited by the Minister of Agriculture mid this year.
in the local food markets. Some of these are composite mixture of the individual additives mentioned above. However, it should be noted that formulation of additives mixture depends on the target BrJUT system. Most of the ones available were manufactured for correcting the weakness of gluten system in wheat flours imported into the counttyand not forcomposite (lour. Therefore, the existingones may not satisfy die emerging requirements for improving the more Setback of project complex composite bread Appropriate ones need to be developed." •THOUGH Ukpabi supports government's initiative to utilise cas[n bread making, Sanni stressed, "these additives" are "usually included in srnalf quantities (not usually greater than five per cent of JLsava (lour in making bread, positively affecting farmers' earnings and creating jobs, he thinks the challenges that faced the 10 the flour weight)" while "me amount used for bread making varies with bakers. Hente not more than SO kg of the additives per ton of per cent inclusion initiative should not be ignored, namely lack flour weight may be needed" He statecfcategorically that "since of good quality cassava dour nationwide and inadequate monithere is no tailor-made additive formulation for handling composite toringon the part of government to ensure compliance by bread flour, nocost estimate is available." the longevity of cassava millers. bread may nor be an issue to worry about as Sanni showed that He said while 50 percent inclusion is possible, the reality on "there are various type of spoilage found with any bread. The first ground and from hindsight calls fora gradual step up from 10 and the most common is the microbial spoilage. Others are textural percent; adding that growing the tuber should be increased to depreciation in termsof crumbling and ftardeningcrumb; flavour reduce the pressure on it by other domestic demands. depreciation and off-flavour development, depending on the dough The Nigerian grown wheat, a scheme of the Lake Chad Basin formulation." irrigation project, stakeholders say, showed good chance and a He observed tiia t "wheaten bread without preservative has three to promise to give millers something to work on. That was in 2001, five days beforea conspicuous moldiness is observed, depend ing on when the scheme was screaming itself hoarse to get attention, baking hygieneand other factors. This is general aboutall other which never came. Ten years from that dme would have made a types of bread including composite bread Cassava-wheat oread, however, has addin'onaTconcerns of shorter shelf Me in terms of stal- lot of sensebut the place is now moribund. Cassava has also found use in animal feed, garri/tufu, starch (for ing {hardening and drying of crumb, off-flavour development, and exceptional crumbling)." All these changes, he indica ted, "ensueafter textiles and Pharmaceuticals), high fructose syrup, which serve as sweeteners in food processing, and fuel ethanol. 24iioursofbaking." " •