Agriculture
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PASTOR Segun Adewumi, the National President, Nigeria Cassava Growers Association says cassava can generate over N20 trillion for the country, annually if adequately utilised. Adewumi stated this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Monday.
He said that cassava which was one of the most reliable cash crops in the world that could also be used to trigger industrial revolution and solve Nigeria’s economic problems. Adewumi lamented that the country spent over N600 billion yearly to import ethanol and starch which were cassava derivatives that could be processed and sourced locally.
According to him, cassava has over 20 food types and three major industrial products like ethanol, starch and cassava flour which are raw materials for other products. “Government should pay more attention to cassava, it has been neglected. “By the time cassava is accorded the needed attention, it will take over crude oil. We have been trying to set up industries that will utilise cassava for the benefit of this country,’’ he said.
Adewumi called on both the Federal and State Governments to provide lands for farmers to boost mechanise cassava farming. The national president noted that modern cassava cultivation required mechanisation to meet up with international best practices. He explained that making cultivable land available to cassava farmers would improve yields and create employment.
“When we import, we are exporting our job opportunities. The government should encourage setting up of industries and mechanise cassava farms. I do not expect the government to give us free money, but to provide enabling environment by making loans and lands available. The only area where the government can come in with money is provision of infrastructure.
“By the time we begin to have 500,000 hectares for mechanisation, the country will get out of this foreign exchange problem,’’ he explained. – Vanguard
— Sep 12, 2016 @ 15:10 GMT
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I thank Pastor Adewumi for his frank and patriotic advice. The cassava crop grows well in nearly all states of Nigeria. It is truly the queen of the root cops in the country. But for its products many families in urban Nigeria would perish from hunger. Cassava is a mighty economy on its own. Research has shown that the crop has over a dozen industrial uses. I once visited one of the biggest cassava factories in the world in Thailand in 2003 when the government of Delta State planned to invest in agro-industrial business. What Thailand earns from the export of cassava products is twice what Nigeria earns from the export of crude oil.
Cassava is one of the elements of food exchange that developed from the holocaust of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (1450 – 1850). About 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, sold, and transported to the Americas and the Caribbean. Cassava tubers were some of foods served to the slaves in their long and horrific journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Professor Peter P. Ekeh the President of the Urhobo Historical Society has conducted research into the arrival and domestication of the cassava crop in the coastal area of Nigeria. According to his findings, the cassava crop is a native of Brazil and Portuguese slavers/traders first introduced it to the Benin Kingdom/Empire in the early sixteenth century. Professor Ekeh has further disclosed that Urhobo area in Delta State was one of the first sites where the cassava crop was cultivated in 1516, that is, 500 years ago. For the memorabilia of this half a millennium, the Urhobo Studies Association based in Delta State University, Abraka, plans to host a symposium on 500 Years of Cassava (Imidaka) in Nigeria before the end of this year. We look forward to the attendance of Pastor , President of the Cassava Growers Association of Nigeria.