Nigeria stands out as the world’s largest producer of cassava, however its huge agricultural output has but to translate into a reliable provide of uncooked supplies for industries or widespread adoption of regionally produced cassava derivatives, stakeholders have noticed.
The problem, in accordance with stakeholders within the cassava worth chain, goes past rising manufacturing.
High harvesting and transportation prices, low farm productiveness, inefficient processing, inconsistent product high quality and weak connections between farmers, processors and industrial consumers proceed to undermine the sector’s business potential.
These constraints emerged at an operators’ roundtable convened by the Nigeria Cassava Investment Accelerator (NCIA) lately, which introduced collectively processors, industrial consumers, regulators and different stakeholders to look at why Nigeria’s cassava manufacturing benefit has not translated into stronger industrial utilisation.
The discussions highlighted a elementary downside: producing cassava in massive portions does not essentially imply factories can entry ample roots at aggressive costs, course of them effectively and promote derivatives that meet industrial necessities.
One of the issues raised was the reliability of Nigeria’s reported cassava manufacturing figures. Participants questioned whether or not current estimates precisely mirror the amount of roots truly harvested, noting that some manufacturing calculations could depend on cultivated land areas and assumed yields.
Where mature cassava stays unharvested due to labour shortages or excessive harvesting prices, estimated manufacturing might considerably exceed precise output. One participant recommended that, in some manufacturing areas, as a lot as 60 per cent of planted cassava could stay unharvested.
Even harvested roots face one other problem: getting them to processing factories rapidly and affordably. Cassava deteriorates quickly after harvesting, making environment friendly aggregation, transportation and coordination between farmers and processors important.
The roundtable subsequently emphasised that industrial buyers want greater than spectacular nationwide manufacturing statistics. They require reliable feedstock delivered at commercially viable prices.
Increasing farm productiveness was recognized as one other precedence. Cassava already provides necessary home meals markets, significantly garri and fufu, that means industrial processors should compete with established customers for accessible roots.
Rather than diverting provides from meals consumption, members advocated increasing general manufacturing via improved farm yields.
The World Bank Group’s 2025 Nigeria Country Private Sector Diagnostic places common Nigerian cassava yields at 8.2 tonnes per hectare in 2020, in contrast with the worldwide common of 12.8 tonnes and 24 tonnes in Southeast Asia.
Stakeholders attributed the productiveness hole to restricted entry to improved high-yield varieties, insufficient agronomic practices and weak extension providers.
Although analysis institutes have developed improved cassava varieties, the capability to multiply and distribute planting stems to farmers stays inadequate. Furthermore, farmers want technical assist to use beneficial practices, together with acceptable crop spacing, to realize larger yields.
Beyond manufacturing, the price of harvesting and processing presents one other impediment.
Transportation additionally will increase prices as a result of recent cassava roots comprise roughly 70 per cent water. Processors consequently spend cash transferring cumbersome uncooked supplies over usually poor roads, though a lot of the transported weight does not develop into completed product.
However, members argued that the business ought to not strategy cassava derivatives as common replacements for competing industrial inputs.
Instead, funding ought to goal functions the place cassava merchandise can meet particular technical and business necessities.
Potential alternatives recognized embrace cassava-derived bioethanol, sweeteners and cassava-wheat composite flour. Biscuit manufacturing was highlighted as a promising software for composite flour as a result of biscuits rely much less on gluten for construction than bread.
Cassava starch additionally provides alternatives. A participant reported that regionally produced starch had develop into price-competitive with imported alternate options.
However, variations in performance imply that cassava starch could not carry out identically to corn starch in each industrial software, even the place laboratory specs seem related.
Stakeholders recommended that impartial testing preparations might assist resolve disagreements between suppliers and consumers, whereas nearer collaboration with offtakers would allow processors to grasp specs and enhance product consistency.
Against this backdrop, NCIA stated it’s focusing its interventions on bettering farmer productiveness, strengthening market connections, supporting processor growth and high quality assurance, and selling application-led product growth in collaboration with consumers, regulators and researchers.
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