NCGA proposes special agency to drive cassava programme 

Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) has proposed the establishment of a Cassava Development Board or Commission to drive cassava value chain, which they observed could inject N10 trillion annually into the Nigerian economy.

The group, while presenting a document to Audu Ogbe, minister of agriculture, Saturday in Abuja, titled “Cassava can inject N10 trillion annual income into the Nigerian economy,” stated that cassava could solve the problem of food scarcity in Nigeria, trigger industrial revolution, improve electricity and provide more revenue than the fossil oil ever provided and solicited that members of the proposed committee or board, should be drawn from the private sector to drive the project.

They also urged the Federal Government to set up a special fund to enable entrepreneurs to set up garri processing units, to mop up cassava roots, estimated at over 300,000 metric tons, capable of producing 50,000 metric tons of garri.

According to them, produce from the cassava value chain could be used would be used to support the internally displaced persons (IDPs), school children feeding programme, while the surplus is preserved in the various silos across the country.

NCGA also requested for the utilization of the 15 percent extra import charges on white wheat, which has been domiciled in an account in the past four years, which according to them, can finance enough processing factories that would mill cassava into high quality cassava flour (HQCF), if this has been in place we would have achieved 40 percent inclusion of cassava flour in bread, while 60 percent excess can be sold out to neighbouring African counties.

Segun Adewale, National president, NCGA, who led the group on the visit said “We cannot continue to sustain other peoples’ economy, by buying their rice, to the detriment of our farmers, whose cassava is wasting away.

He explained that the association would collaborate with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Federal Strategy Grain and Food Reserve and Rural Development, to sanitize and standardise garri production in Nigeria, to ensure that garri is produced and preserved in hygienic condition that would prevent the menace of rats and other rodents.

He urged the Federal Government and its relevant agencies to embark on land development of at least 1million hectares of land per year, to cultivate cassava for industrial use, which would be demarcated into blocks and allocated to young farmers, mostly graduates that would cultivate cassava under supervision of world experts.

He argued that the Cassava Development Programme would have yielded better result, if it was driven by an agency, board or commission with majority of its members drawn from the private sector.