Cassava

Revemi Trade Limited, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), through a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has trained 2,000 youths and women on cassava value chain in Delta.

Revemi Chief Executive Officer, Mr Oreva Amata, disclosed this at a capacity building workshop, tagged, “Eki Farmers Support Programme” organised by the company for peasants farmers in Delta South Senatorial District on Friday in Ozoro.

Amata noted that the programme was sponsored by USAID in partnership with Delta Government and Townstalk.

According to him, Revemi, an Integrated Agrotech and Agro Commodities Trading Company has as target to train 10,000 based pyramid farmers and equip them with requisite information on how to plant, harvest, process and market their products to make money.

“We started the training in February this year, in Delta North, in June, we also trained those in Delta Central and today, we are training farmers from Delta South Senatorial District in Ozoro.

“So, far, we have trained over 2,000 low pyramid farmers but we are targeting 10,000 farmers in the state,” he said.

On the choice of cassava, Amata said that cassava remains a crop in which Nigeria has a comparative advantage in addition to the many by-product that cassava offers to the market.

He said that it has capacity to grow Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products.

“Our mission is to bridge the critical gap in food security in Africa.

“As a first class graduate of economics, ever time I heard that farmers are poor in Africa,  this is contradictory because foreign national are making billions of money from agriculture.

“Revemi as winner of the COVID-19 Food Security challenge in 2021, we won a grant from the USAID to carry out this training to liberate our poor farmers from hunger, increase their income by linking them up to the market.

“Agriculture is the backbone of  development in any nation, it creates jobs for youths and women and also ensure security because the youths will be gainfully employed,” Amata said.

He said that his company would link all the trained farmers to sources of finance, provide them with information on climate change, weather conditions and availability of land across the state and from government sources.

On his part, Mr Anslem Emikpe,  the Assistant  Director, State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource, advised the farmers to form clusters to enable them engage government, access funds and  land.

Also, Dr Friday Okei, a Resource Person, said training on cassava value chain exposes  the farmers to varieties of byproducts of cassava, such as starch, flour, garri, chips, raw material for production of alcohols and drugs and others.

In an interview,  Mr Samuel Askia, Managing Director, Uzere Cassava Processing Factory,  urged the farmers and governments to take positive initiative on what the NGO is doing, adding that the training gives hope for a brighter future for farmers in Nigeria.

“It is time for us to see agriculture as a commercial venture, so that we can benefit from the support the government at the centre is giving,” he said.

The beneficiaries, Mr Lawrence Ugwologho and Mrs Martha Odus lauded the programme and thanked the organisers for impacting them with the right knowledge on best practices on cassava value chain.

They said that the training had reawakened their minds on how to plant, harvest, process and market their cassava to make money for the family.

They, however, called for additional support in the areas of finance and land to expand cassava cultivation in the state.

Nigeria has the economic potential to generate 427.3 million dollars (N188bn) from domestic value-addition to cassava, and earn additional 2.98 billion dollars (N1.2 trn) in export of the commodity annually.

The Executive Director of Partnership Initiative for Niger Delta (PIND), Dara Akala, who made this known at the National Cassava Summit in Abuja, said that processing would potentially unlock about 16 million dollars in taxes to the government per annum.

The summit was in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), it stated.

The PIND helmsman said a 2020 report estimates that Nigeria would need to plant about 28.3 million metric tonnes of fresh cassava roots on about 1.2 million hectares of land annually, to meet the country’s demand for its by-products and derivatives.

According to him, PIND has invested almost 800,000 dollars to increase cassava production, strengthened coordination and relationships of cassava value chain actors, and has promoted improved technologies for cassava production in the Niger Delta region.

He added: “Through this, we have effectively reached approximately 300,000 farmers with information and training, and facilitated the creation of almost 2,500 jobs and a network of 150 service providers.”

Akala, however, said the large-scale cassava processors required a reliable, healthy and timely supply of fresh cassava roots to feed their mills continually.

He said regrettably, Nigerian farmers were unable to deliver the quantity and quality of cassava roots required on time, resulting in low productivity, gross under-utilisation of turnkey processing machines and subsequent loss of capital.

He said experts had reported that the combination of high yielding, virus free varieties, mechanised system and good agronomic practices, including six steps in weed management, could be the country’s game changer in root supply.

A Director at IITA, Dr Alfred Dixon, said it was sad that Africa was spending about 35 billion annually on food import.

“The danger is if we do nothing about this, food import would rise to 110 billion dollars by 2025, and if this happens, our trade, and particularly exchange rates, will be in jeopardy.

“We will be exporting jobs and importing poverty, unemployment  will rise and raise the tempo of youth restiveness to a higher degree.

“The impact will be precarious on the food and nutrition security of the continent, it is timelier to double our efforts to arrest the situation,” Dixon said.

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan and Bayer Nigeria have developed a new crop protection product to help farmers tackle problem of weeds in cassava and improve yield.
The herbicide is known as ‘Lagon’ was launched on Tuesday in Ibadan.
Bayer Country Sales Manager in Nigeria, Mr Temitope Banjo, said that the product had been subjected to more than 200 trials and demos in Nigeria and Tanzania.
He said that Lagon was rated among the top best pre-emergence herbicide for control of both grasses and broad-leaf weeds in cassava.
“The launch of Lagon today aims to provide big relief to cassava farmers. These are exciting times for the farmers, as they need not to worry about weeds anymore,” he said.
According to him, weeds have remained a major challenge to increased cassava productivity in Nigeria and Africa in general, with women spending about 500 hours annually to keep a hectare of cassava weed-free, using hoes.
He added that the manual method of weed control compromised the health of resource-constrained farmers, while, in some cases, children were pulled out of school to support weeding.
“When left uncontrolled, weeds compete for water, nutrients and space with cassava and depress yield by 40-90 per cent.
“To tackle the menace of weeds, IITA managed the Cassava Weed Management Project, and in the last eight years, screened more than 40 pre-emergence herbicides, both on-station and on-farm.
“The trials and subsequent demonstrations were conducted in Abia, Benue, Ogun and Oyo states in Nigeria, and in Tanzania.
“Across the four states, representing the key agro-ecological zones that predominantly grow cassava in Nigeria, yields of cassava from Lagon-treated fields were more than double the national average and above 20 tons per hectare.
“Furthermore, cassava plants treated with Lagon were more vigorous compared to those on the fields where the product was not used,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Alfred Dixon, Director for Development and Delivery, IITA, said that the Cassava Weed Management Project team conducted residue analysis on the leaves, stems and roots of cassava.
“The residue analysis provided negative results, meaning that Lagon is safe to be applied on field crops, particularly cassava,” Dixon said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that farmers, who used Lagon, commended the pre-emergence herbicide for its efficacy.
According to Mrs Chichi Ngufan, the use of Lagon on farmers’ fields is doing wonders and helping farmers to increase their yields and profits.
Ngufan, who is a cassava commercial seed producer, said that the use of the herbicide had helped her group to increase the size of their cassava farm in Benue.
“This is possible because we now manage weeds in cassava better with Lagon. Farmers can now save more on the cost of weeding,” she said.
Ngufan, however, called on government to make the herbicide available so that more farmers could have access it and make more returns from growing cassava.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Nanono, has inaugurated a Cassava Plant at Afam in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers.

Mr Ezeaja Ikemefuna, the Chief Information Officer in the ministry, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

The minister during the inauguration on Thursday said the processing plant would address challenges of value addition of the crop in the value chain sub sector.

He noted that the plant would also promote adoption and use of 10 per cent high quality cassava flour (HQCF) in bread and confectionery businesses, so as to reduce wheat importation and conserve foreign exchange earnings to meet other needs.

‘’Rivers is among the top 5 Cassava producing states. It is therefore of necessity and thoughtful on the part of government that cares for its farmers to embark on project of this nature that will enhance value addition and guarantee employment to the people.

“This factory, when fully operational, will be fed with output from 3,000 farmers within the farming communities as well as other farmers far and wide from neighbouring communities.

“The processing plant will also cultivate thousands of hectares of cassava to ensure uninterrupted supplies of raw materials.

“In all these arrangements, massive jobs will be created and over 20,000 farm families will earn income for enhanced livelihood and improved standard of living.

“This milestone achievement of the government of Rivers will promote export substitution, job creation, economic diversification as well as food and nutrition security.

“This is in tandem with the agricultural policy put in place by the present Federal Government poised to build agribusiness ecosystem that will address challenges in the agricultural sector in partnership with all stakeholders,” he said.

He said the outcome of the continued use of the processing plant would lead to increased incomes and livelihood.

The minister said this would ensure healthy cassava food processing activities and serve as a new page to achieve the desired result in the 10 per cent cassava flour inclusion policy as well as food and nutrition security.

He commended greatly, the activities of Rivers Government under the leadership of Gov. Nyesom Wike, who had constructed the cassava plant as a landmark contribution toward ensuring food security and value addition in the country.

Wike had esrlier said the primary focus of his administration was to diversify the economy of the state from oil and gas to agricultural development by providing financial support and inputs to  smallholder farmers in the state.

The governor assured the people that the state government would provide financial grants, seeds and inputs to the cassava smallholder farmers which would increase production, create more jobs and boost revenue.

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, said CBN was committed to financially assist through provision of grants that would fast track growth in the agricultural sector, which was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Fred Kpakoi, said the state government had invested massively in agricultural development of the state.

He added that the Cassava Plant would create jobs for its teeming youths, ensure food security and increase internally generated revenue in cassava value chain.

In his presentation, the Managing Director, Rivers State Cassava Processing Plant, Ruben Giesen, said the company would provide jobs for over 3,000 smallholder farmers in the cassava value chain and also provide quality cassava.

He appreciated the governor for his policies in the agricultural sector which were geared toward empowering people of the state.

“The processing plant is expected to off-take cassava tubers for not less than 3000 smallholder farmers in the state with an installed capacity to process 45,000 metric tons of cassava tuber.

“It is also expected to produce 12,500 metric tons of high quality cassava flour, it’s huge and considered another giant milestone in ensuring agricultural opportunities have been delivered to the people,” said Giesen.