Akinwunmi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture,says operators of flour mills in the country are planning to kill the ongoing agriculture transformation agenda of the Federal Government.

Adesina strongly holds that the flour millers are misinforming Nigerians that using 40 percent cassava flour in bread is unhealthy. According to him, the statements credited to some flour millers that cassava consumption is not good for those with diabetes is untrue, scientifically baseless and is a deliberate attempt to disconnect Nigerians from a viable and patriotic programme. The minister said the millers are so doing to protect their abnormal profits.

It would be recalled that only recently, President Goodluck Jonathan alleged that some big stakeholders in the agriculture sector were working against the country’s transformation agenda.

Also, the House of Representatives was said to have rejected a bill on the mandatory inclusion of 40 percent cassava flour in bread.

Adesina said there was no such bill from the executive, “and therefore, no decision can be taken by the National Assembly on an executive bill that does not exist. This was a figment of imagination”, he said .

Adesina argued, “Cassava, for which Nigeria is the largest producer in the world, is being used to produce high quality cassava flour to replace some of the wheat. The flour mills and their surrogates are doing all they can to misinform Nigerians so as to protect their super profits, which they siphon out of Nigeria . They are fighting to make Nigerian farmers poor and wretched, while making farmers of wheat exporting countries happy.”

The President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Ignatius Onimawo, a professor, commenting on the issue, said: “Adding cassava flour will not increase the glycemic index of bread. It will not aggravate diabetes. In fact, it may lower it. The glycemic index of wheat flour is higher than that of cassava. It is only whole wheat bread (that is, wheat flour with bran intact) that has lower glycemic index.”

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood, sugar, a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI of 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

Citing nutrition authorities, Adesina compared the glycemic index of cassava with those of other foods: “In their insightful study titled ‘Glycemic indices of selected Nigerian flour meal products in male type 2 diabetic subjects’, Fasanmade, A.A., Anyakudo, M.C. (2007), published in Diabetologia Croastica 36: 2, 2007, the authors compared cassava flour with yam flour, maize flour and wheat flour among diabetic patients. The glycemic indices are : Yam flour: 49.81; Cassava flour: 59.34; Maize flour: 54.83; Wheat flour: 70.10. This shows clearly that cassava flour has much lower glycemic index than wheat flour. Yam flour has the lowest glycemic index. Wheat flour, which is what we are being told to consume, has high glycemic index. So, which one is good for you: cassava flour or wheat flour? It is clear, it is cassava flour.”

He went on to compare the glycemic indices for some of the exotic foods that are being promoted for Nigerians. “Let us start with the French bread, popularly called ‘banquette’. The glycemic index for French bread is 95, which puts it in the very high range for diabetes. White wheat flour has glycemic index of 71, which is in the high range for diabetes. Take the foods eaten by the British, the popular English Muffins. They have glycemic index of 77, in the high range for diabetes. Now take whole wheat flour bread, it has glycemic index of 71, again on the high side. You all eat corn flakes every day, right? The glycemic index of corn flakes is 82, which is very high. Only 100 percent whole wheat bread (that is the one in which the husk and the bran are intact) has a glycemic index of 51, which is close to that of cassava in Nigeria at 59.”

Ignatius Onimawo argued the statement giving percentages of those that are diabetics as between 20 and 30 percent is misleading. According to him, “the percentage of Nigerians suffering from diabetes is on the increase but I doubt if it is up to 20 percent. No national survey has been conducted to determine the actual prevalence”.

Akinwunmi Adesina explained Nigerians eat ‘Eba’, ‘fufu’, ‘amala’ - all made from cassava and no health problems have ever been reported from the consumption of these foods. “Our local foods are much healthier than imported over-processed foods that cause cancer and aggravate diabetes, such as white wheat flour. What does this all mean? It means that cassava is better than wheat flour, French bread, English Muffins and cornflakes. Indeed, yam has the lowest of all, with glycemic index of 49, which is lower than even 100 percent whole wheat bread.”

It would be recalled that the private sector is already successfully substituting cassava flour for wheat flour in bread and confectioneries. UTC Plc and Food Concepts, two of the largest bakers in the country are commercialising healthy cassava-based bread and confectioneries. In particular, UTC has been the leader, and has gone ahead to train more bakers who are ready to adopt this new technology. This, the minister said, is true patriotism.