Experts want replication of Thai-farm in Nigeria

Strongly propelled by the realisation of 20 percent of High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF), inclusion in the production of bread and other flour-based confectioneries locally produced, Cassava: Adding Value to Africa (C:AVA), in partnership with NOBEX Tech Company Limited, has successfully built and test-run improved retro-fitted flash dryer for cassava processing.

The improved retro-fitted dryer and heat exchanger, a major cassava processing machine, which according to C:AVA, uses agricultural waste products like cashew nuts, is found more efficient and cost effective than black oil, diesel and kerosene previously used.

The African cassava research and processing-based organisation also said “10 improved heat exchangers have been built by NOBEX Tech Company Limited with input from C:AVA, while 15 more are under construction with the intention of distributing them to SMEs players in cassava processing in various geo-political zones of the country,” saying it would make adoption of 20 percent HQCF realisable among indigenous bakers and yield more profit for users.

Speaking with the media in Abeokuta at the weekend, Lateef Sanni, country manager of C:AVA and immediate past head of department, Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), said the partnership with NOBEX Tech, which saw the making of heat exchanger for improved HQCF processing, had further boosted Federal Government policy on the adoption of 20 percent HQCF, saying the move also “portends high profit for bakers.”

Sanni explained that a pilot training, anchored by UTC Limited in Ekiti State, saw nine bakers in attendance, using recipe developed in Nassarawa State by a team of Master Bakers and Caterers Association of Nigeria national executives, pointing out that the bakers had the opportunity to witness first hand the viability and profitability of the cassava flour.

He further stated that since the Ekiti State test-run had been successful, C:AVA will now take the campaign to other zones of the country in order to demonstrate that local bakers, even from the remotest part of the country were informed and thus had access to the flour.

The professor of food science and technology however disclosed that C:AVA with branches in four other African countries, which had earlier worked with relevant agricultural agencies at federal, state and local level in cassava production and processing in Nigeria, was planning to engage in social marketing in order to further promote HQCF.

Meanwhile, the country co-ordinator of the European Union project on the “Gains and Losses from Cassava and Yams,” Lateef Sanni, has given a panacea out of the insecurity challenge bedevilling the nation, saying the replication of the Ososa, Ogun State-based Thai-farm, which produces 100 tons of cassava-based flour to feed the biscuit, cake and bread requirement of the confectionery market in Nigeria, remained one of the practicable ways out of restiveness.

He made the statement while conducting the EU team, with partners from Thailand, Vietnam, Netherlands, Portugal and Ghana, on an industrial visit to establish and engender ‘South-South co-operation’ round the multi-million naira facility in the state.

Sanni’s position came as the supply chain executive of the company, while the tour guide, Adeleke Aranju, disclosed that over 3, 000 farmers supply fresh cassava tubers to feed the company.

Aranju said: “The multiplier effect of having 3,000 farmers in the database of this company as the supply chain executive has told us is better imagined, and one prays it should be best experienced.” Sanni also doubles as the Nigeria director of the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation sponsored C: AVA- Cassava: Adding value for Africa.

Aranju, who informed the visitors that energy and other inputs into the production process were accountable for the high cost of goods and services in the country, however told them that the Louw Burger-facilitated and sponsored company runs on 24 hours on energy source independent of public power source.

Despite the massive production of cassava boasts by the farm, Aranju revealed that his firm was yet, and could not meet the flour demands of the country, “even if government had pegged cassava flour inclusion in bread at 5 percent as against the 20 percent recommended,” commending the Federal Government cassava transformation agenda.

By: RAZAQ AYINLA