It was a beehive of activities and an exposé at the first National Conference of Industrial Cassava Stakeholders Association of Nigeria (ICSAN) in Lagos as the many vast opportunities in the cassava value chain were brought to the bare.
At the conference that brought major agricultural stakeholders, particularly those in the cassava value chain, together, speakers after speakers reiterated the need for investment in the sector given the economic benefits of various products that could be harnessed from cassava.
Welcoming the participants at the event, with the theme; ‘The Golden Crop: Harnessing the Economic Potential of Cassava for National Development Through Industrialisation’, Mr Segun Ladele, the president of ICSAN, highlighted the huge role cassava has been playing as a key driver of the economy towards self-sufficiency and economic emancipation.
He noted that apart from being the source of staple food in the country, cassava has been providing local industries with raw materials.
“Industrialisation has been carefully and appropriately chosen with the understanding and the roles the cassava industry has been playing as the key driver of our national economy towards self-sufficiency and economic emancipation and also, its numerous
potentials and opportunities if well harnessed,” he said.
“Apart from being the major source of domestic foods in our Country today, the industrial sector of the cassava industry has been providing the local
manufacturing industries with needed raw materials like Cassava starch, High-Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF), Sorbitol, Glucose, Bio-Ethanol, and numerous other industrial raw materials.
“Through the local manufacturing of these high-end industrial raw materials, there has been an appreciable reduction in forex demand required for importation to meet our industrial raw material needs through import substitution. Many of the processors in this sector are now producing high-quality, exportable products that meet international standards, which could further enable the country to increase its forex earnings,” he said.
Going deeply into the many economic opportunities inherent in cassava, the keynote speaker, Mr. Lateef Oladimeji Sanni, a Professor of Food Science and Technology, who is also the executive director of the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), said cassava can principally help Nigeria to industrialise, listing the many opportunities in the value chain to include employment generation leveraging the most-sought-after modified starch, given that Nigeria is the biggest cassava producer in the world.
“For oil drillers, they need modified starch. The largest ethanol plant in the world is in Igbesa and ethanol is also a product of cassava. Ethanol plant need nothing less than 300,000 tons of cassava roots per day. What are we doing in this regard to ensure continues supply of this?
“Companies like Nestle Nigeria, Cadbury and others in the same sector need cassava starch for their maggi cubes binder.
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“Cassava starch is the most-sought-after among other starch in the world. There is starch in yam, cocoa yam but cassava starch is the one most sought after globally.
“In Nigeria, we annually need at least 350,000 tons of starch annually and this is where the opportunities lie.
“I want to tell Nigerians that if we don’t stimulate industrial growth by releasing money to investors, Nigeria won’t grow.
“There is the need for government to continue to be the catalyst and to either ensure tariff reduction or tax rebate for investors because.
“Cassava has the potential to generate income, generate employment and enhance capacity building, among other advantages,” he said.
Speaking, Mrs Fakorede Abiola who represented the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, echoed the keynote speaker, saying there are numerous opportunities inherent in cassava, charging Nigerians to go back to agriculture.
She said that the Lagos State Government has continued to support agricultural renaissance through giving interventions to the farmers in the state.
Mrs Oluyemisi Iranloye, the Vice President of ICSAN and managing director/chief executive officer of Psaltry International Limited, noted that there was the need for sustained funding of agricultural sector in general and cassava value chain in particular, noting that there may likely be huge pressure on cassava now given the poor performance of maize in Nigeria this year due to rains.
She explained that cassava could be very costly at the moment given the scarcity of starch which is serving as a major raw material to many companies, calling on the government to ensure steady investment in the sector.
Answering questions on why ICSAN, which has been in the forefront of bridging the raw material gap created by the scarcity of starch, has not taking advantage of the huge cassava production in the eastern part of the country, Mr Bernard Siwoku, the moderator of the event and a member of ICSAN, said the high cost of cassava in the region with attendant logistical demands had made it difficult to leverage the area.
He noted that given the fact that the region pays high premium on staple food like eba and foo foo, the cost of cassava is at a cut-throat in the region.
Other speakers also harped on the need for governments at all levels to leverage the huge economic potentials in the cassava value chain to pump more money into the sector.
