The Nigeria economy and cassava production
The trend for cassava production in Nigeria is rapidly increasing and expansion of the
multi- purpose plant has been relatively steady. Nigeria is making use of its cassava crop to
diversify and boost its economy by making cassava production a sustainable economic
edge over its contemporaries. By Chigozie EGWUATU Cassava is Africa’s most important
staple food crop, after maize, and Africa produces half of the world’s supply. The plant is
used to make a starchy food called gari, and it is also a source for biofuel as well as animal
feed. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) document repository,
Nigeria is currently the largest producer of cassava in the world with an annual output of
over 34 million tonnes of tuberous roots. Despite its preeminent position in cassava
growing, Nigeria is yet to make much impact on the global cassava market, since most of its
crop is consumed domestically. But with new initiatives under way aimed at increasing and
improving cassava production and developing new ways to use the crop, Nigeria hopes to
utilise cassava as part of its strategy to diversify its economy away from petroleum. Prior to
the discovery of oil in the 1970s, agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy,
accounting for about two-thirds of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With the oil boom,
agriculture’s contribution to GDP declined to 25 percent by 1980 and Nigeria moved from
being a large exporter to a major importer of agricultural products. Since the mid-1980s, as
a result of a decline in oil revenue and policy measures implemented under a Structural
Adjustment Programme (SAP), agriculture’s contribution to GDP has risen to about 40
percent.
Nigerian cassava production is by far larger than production in Brazil and almost double
the production of Indonesia and Thailand. Cassava production in other African countries,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania and
Uganda appears small in comparison to Nigeria’s substantial output. Cassava has been
noted as one produce in the agric sector that can re-launch Nigeria into the league of
economically viable nations using the agric route. Efforts in that direction have been steady
since the inception of the Jonathan administration and the Agriculture Minister, erudite Dr.
Akinwunmi Adesina has been raising the stakes in the cassava production. Recently he
presented a loaf of bread that was baked with cassava flour to the Nigerian President who
made a good show of the event by eating the bread gleefully before his Ministers at the
Federal Executive Council meeting. By that action President Jonathan was directly making a
statement that the he supports the effort of the Agric Minister in his drive to make cassava
production one of the foreign exchange earners for Nigeria as well as a product that take us
to greater economic heights. This sub-sector apart from being alternative source of revenue
also has the potential to generate the much needed employment for our teeming youths. It
also promises to feed a variety of local industries which use cassava as raw material
thereby reducing our over dependence on other countries for materials we can produce
locally. Such industries as pharmaceutical and beverage industries stand to benefit a lot from cassava and the economies of scale as so enormous that it ought not to be ignored. A wide range of agro-ecological conditions allows for very diverse crop production. The northern part of the country is suitable for sorghum, millet, maize, cowpea, groundnut and cotton. The main food crops in the middle belt and the south are cassava, yam, plantain and maize. Low-lying and seasonally flooded areas are increasingly being used for rice production. Broadly speaking, the cassava-growing belt falls within three agro-ecological zones of the southeast, southwest and the central areas. The first two zones fall within the humid tropics. The predominant soil types are the ferralitic soils which are rich in free iron but low in mineral reserves and are consequently low in fertility. The central zone lies between the southern and the drier northern agro-ecological zones. The soils are poor, due to leaching from heavy and intense rainfall and so limited fertility is a constraint to agricultural production. However, recently, Nasarawa, a state in the northern part of the country, is competing favourably with the southern states in cassava production, marketing and processing. Information reaching Nigerian OrientNews has it that Nasarawa State has overtaken many other states of the federation in the mass or commercial production of cassava. Confirmed report also has it that the seriousness and commitment of the Nasarawa State government to the practice of farming earned the state this enviable position among other states of the federation. Some agricultural experts who commented about the good news attributed Nasarawa State’s success to the willingness and readiness of farmers in the state to adopt and put into practice modern farming methods as well as the commitment of the state government to the development of agriculture in the state. Some cassava production experts, however, described the taking over of Nasarawa as the number one cassava producing state in the country as a major challenge to other states, especially states in the South and East, that used to pride themselves as champions in cassava production and processing. The experts and stakeholders who belong to this school of thought also lauded the relentless efforts of the country’s cassava researchers and research institutes like the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), as well as other research institutes in the country in making sure that they increased the number of cassava farmers in the country, just as they celebrated the news with farmers associations like the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA). The experts have, however, called on the lawmakers at the National Assembly in Abuja to consider and give speedy deliberation and hearing to the presidential bill of compulsory inclusion of 10 per cent cassava flour in the production of bread and other flour-based foods by President Goodluck Jonathan in the recent time. In Nigeria, cassava has great potential both for export and domestic consumption. The usefulness of cassava plant has a wide spectrum ranging from the leaves to the roots which are mostly used in animal feeds and food processing. Cassava leaves have a high protein content (20-25% of dry leaves), while cassava roots have 25-30% starch but are low in protein. Many studies have shown the effect of different processing methods on the chemical contents and nutritional values of cassava leaves and roots; the
use of cassava roots and leaves for feeding pigs; young stems and leaves for feeding cows; the use of cassava dried leaf powder as animal feed for chickens and pigs; using cassava stem to grow mushrooms. Cassava roots have multiple end-uses, such as for the starch industry, for food and feed processing, for pharmaceutical industry and export. Cassava is an easy crop to grow. It can grow in poor soils and produces high yields with suitable management. Previously, people were reluctant to grow cassava, because they thought that cassava caused soil degradation and produced low profits. But in reality one hectare of cassava can produce 60-80 tonnes of roots and leaves. The situation has changed because of the development of sustainable cultivation techniques and new high-yield varieties. Cassava has become cash crop in many countries in the world. Cassava starch is now being produced competitively, and cassava markets are promising. The combination of growing and processing cassava has created many jobs in developed countries, has increased exports, attracted foreign investments, and contributed to industrialization and modernization of several rural area. Being an excellent source of starch and flour, cassava production in Nigeria has a huge development potential. There are several hundred chemical products made from starch. In China today, considering the need to protect their environment and the limited mineral oil reserves, at the beginning of 2002 the federal government of China started a new project of producing ethanol for use as fuel in automobile. The production of fuel ethanol will be a Chinese “sunrise industry” with an estimated value of 2.5 billion dollar per year. Among maize, sugarcane and cassava, the main crops to be used for ethanol production in China, cassava has a competitive advantage because of its lower cost of raw material and a simpler ethanol processing technology. For that reason, it is expected that the Chinese cassava cropping area will expand to about 600,000 to 800,000 hectares during the current decade. Cassava is particularly suitable and relatively cheap for baking flour. It is quite suitable for production of modified starch. Modified starch is a main product among starch derivatives because it has become a new raw material in multiple industries. For example, modified starch is the third most important in the paper making industry, and large amounts are also used in the textile industry. Although the amount of modified starch produced is still relatively small in Nigeria. These are exciting times for cassava enthusiasts in Nigeria and indeed across Africa. But the farmers in their little capacity are faced with the challenges of funds and market. The banks are unwilling to lend money to the farmers. In spite of the Local Purchasing Order (LPO) the Federal Government has given to cassava farmers to supply the national strategic grains reserves, banks are still unwilling to give loans to farmers. The stance of the banks is a business decision, as the reason given is that the demand for cassava products is still too small. The Federal Government has however been emphasizing a private sector-led market for agricultural produce. But Segun Adewumi, president, Nigerian Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) says the reason companies that need cassava as raw materials are unable to buy from Nigerian farmers is that the cost of production in Nigeria is too high. There is an ongoing plan by the Federal Government to
set up cassava processing mills, but Adewumi says the government is no longer carrying farmers along in the setting up of the cassava processing mills. In his words: “In all advanced countries, governments guarantee markets for farmers and banks guarantee financing for agricultural produce. Meanwhile, N6 billion is being proposed for the purchase of phones to give to farmers, all in the hope of getting them to produce more when they are not even guaranteed of a market.” Looking at ‘the way forward’ it is wise to be mindful of the past. In the early years of Structural Adjustment, Nigerian agricultural trade policy set out to achieve many of the objectives being discussed here; promotion of agricultural exports and reduction of agricultural raw material imports. During that time four strategies were utilized: trade liberalization, export promotion, backward integration and privatization. In the early years these initiatives gave rise to significant improvements in non-oil exports, with cocoa leading the way. Unfortunately this growth was not sustained. The reasons cited: poor quality of exported product failing to attract good international prices, inefficient large scale farms established by the private sector resulting in large capital losses and problems in sourcing supply because out growers failed to honour contractual agreements with industries. It is very important that the above mentioned issues are addressed appropriately and highly effective cultivation technologies are developed, with a well-integrated production, transport, processing and marketing system put in place. In this way, cassava will become a key link in the industrial chain in Nigeria and other less developed countries, resulting in increase in people’s income, which in turn will lead to social progress. It is pertinent to state that government functionaries whose obligation it is to promote healthy economic position in the country should desist from sabotaging the effort of the federal government by paying superficial services and embrace patriotism. For instance, the government mandated farmers to supply garri to the national strategic grains reserves but most of the contracts to supply the grains reserves were given to contractors who were not farmers and have no obligation to buy from Nigerian farmers. They could decide to buy from Benin Republic, Ghana or any other neighbouring country. Based on the numerous industrial uses of the crop such as cassava chips, flour, starch, cassava leaves, which all have export demand and the country’s comparative advantage in production of the crop, various heads of Cassava Producers and Marketers’ Association and export consultants have equated cassava’s revenue generation potential to that of crude oil if a good developmental plan is put in place to harness it. Government should also encourage private sector participation by lending money to real farmers as against portfolio carrying farmers. Free-holds on land can also be encouraged by government initiating cassava farm settlements so that the rural-urban drift that has encouraged urban congestion would be reduced. The potentials that cassava hold for our economy cannot be over emphasized and concerned authorities should ensure that the gains already made by this administration are sustained and encouraged

I learn t that in Oyo state they gave young farmers some portion of land to farm. Pls my how through is the matter because am interested.

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We have thousands of acres
of good fertile land for sale,
lease or rent in Ogbomoso,
Oyo state. Selling from
N50,000 per acre and u can
rent at 5k per year. Our lands
are suitable for most crops.
Good roads, peaceful and
friendly people. 08060318769