Cassava Plantation to revive Nigeria’s economy
Posted by Labels: Africa, biofuel, Cassava, VegetableOur cassava plan is to revive Nigeria’s economy – Adesina
By Jimoh Babatunde
(Vanguard) THE Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has revealed that the Cassava Transformation Plan of his ministry is meant to revive the country’s economy and create jobs for millions of Nigerians.
Speaking during a meeting with partners from the bakery industry, the minister explained that Nigeria’s food import bill is exceptionally high; with the top four imports consuming over 1.3 trillion naira in foreign exchange every year.
“Our food imports are growing at an unsustainable rate of 11% per annum, fueling domestic inflation and driving poverty. We are importing products that we can either produce in abundance, such as 356 billion naira worth of rice, 217 billion naira worth of sugar and 97 billion naira worth of fish; or are importing products that we can easily find local alternatives for us to reduce our import bill, such as 635 billion naira being spent on importing wheat. “
Dr. Adesina said that the import dependency is hurting Nigerian farmers, displacing local production and creating rising unemployment. “Our unemployment rate is spiraling, increasing from 12.7% in 2007 to 20.6% in 2010, driven by a wave of 4 Million young people entering the workforce every year, with only a small fraction able to find formal employment.
“As we examine the opportunities to sustainably reduce our food import bill, Cassava is a crop that provides tremendous potential.”
While noting that Cassava is an exceptionally important crop to the country, Adesina said as the world’s largest producer of Cassava with annual production currently at 40 million metric tons, the country is not a player on the global cassava market.
“So, while being the largest producer in the world, Nigeria accounts for zero percent of global trade in value added cassava products, while Thailand, which represents only 10% of the total production in the world, accounts for 80% of the global trade in cassava value added products.
“Cassava farmers in Nigeria face huge challenges, including lack of access to high yielding varieties, limited access to appropriate cassava processing technologies and highly volatile price swings for cassava due to poorly developed markets.”
Adesina added that the poor market development has caused the price of Cassava to plummet from 20,000 Naira per MT during the Presidential Initiative on Cassava to as low as 5,000 Naira per MT today.
Reaping in tears
“The price is so low many farmers have abandoned their fields, as the cost to harvest the Cassava is higher than the value they will receive for the Cassava. This creates a situation where farmers sow in hope and reap in tears.”
The only way the country can turn the situation around according to the minister is to create a new markets for Cassava. “Our Cassava Transformation Plan calls for a sharp focus on diversifying product and market opportunities for cassava for our farmers. We are working aggressively to create sustainable value chains for cassava and stabilize prices for farmers. Our major focus is on high quality cassava flour for use in composite flours to substitute for some of the wheat flour being imported.”
Dr. Adesina explained that the 40% cassava bread launched by President Jonathan recently from blending 40% High Quality Cassava Flour with 60% Wheat flour is a way out.
He added “In his 2012 budget speech, Mr President backed this up with bold fiscal policies to promote the substitution of wheat flour with 40% high quality cassava flour in bread. Government has raised the tariff on imported wheat to encourage the substitution of wheat flour with high quality cassava flour.”
The Agriculture minister disclosed that all equipment and machinery for processing high quality cassava flour and composite flours will attract zero taxes, “all flour mills, producers of high quality cassava flour who attain the 40% substitution with high quality cassava flour will receive a 12% tax rebate.
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