The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is collaborating with national and international agencies to apply innovative technologies to develop the industrial use of cassava in Nigeria, transforming the tuber from a poor farmer’s crop into an industrial one.

An example of a successful public-private partnership in research for development, the IITA cassava project is sponsored by the federal government of Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Niger Delta Development Commission, and the United States Agency for International Development. The project’s two components are the Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) Pre-emptive Project, which breeds and distributes improved cassava varieties resistant to the virulent Ugandan variant of the CMD, and the Cassava Enterprise Development Project, which seeks to promote the development of enterprises that process and use cassava. Under the current implementation program, the IITA Integrated Cassava Project (ICP) has emerged as a mega project guiding cassava’s transformation.

Speaking recently during an open forum in Abuja — where Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo chaired a meeting of all stakeholders including bankers, farmers, entrepreneurs and other government representatives — Lateef Sanni, IITA food technologist and postharvest specialist, reported that IITA has been facilitating implementation of the federal government’s policy, which came into effect at the beginning of 2005, to derive 10% of bread flour from cassava. To ensure the success of the policy, IITA has involved in its implementation other stakeholders, especially the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON); National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); Flour Millers Association; and Master Bakers, as well as farmers.

Dr. Sanni reports that implementation has encouraged fast-track approaches toward developing high-capacity, user-friendly postharvest equipment for processing cassava into industrial products. For instance, IITA has encouraged the local manufacture of processing equipment including flash, cabinet and rotary dryers, as well as hydraulic presses, automated sieves and graters to enhance the in-country production of high-quality cassava flour. In preparation for implementation early last year, IITA collaborated with the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Food Security to hold sensitization workshops in 28 Nigerian states. The participants — mainly food processors, caterers and bakers — were taught how to produce high-quality cassava flour to meet increasing demand.

The ICP has also encouraged the formation and strengthening of the Cassava Growers Association, Cassava Processors Association, and Cassava Equipment Fabricators Association to serve as platforms for private sector participation. IITA has been building micro- and medium-sized cassava processing centers and training rural women to manage them profitably. Cassava farmers are organized in clusters around the processing centers to better enable them sell their fresh tubers at competitive prices. Some of the finished products are packaged in well-labeled polythene bags of 1 kilogram or more for export, while others are sold in Nigerian supermarkets. As the emphasis is on high-quality products, inputs from the SON and NAFDAC were incorporated from the beginning.

Realizing that production holds the key to the cassava industry’s success, IITA has developed, in collaboration with national partners, about 40 high-yielding CMD-resistant cassava varieties adapted to various ecological zones.

Bleached and unbleached syrup from cassava	Women at coop peeling cassava

The ICP has developed a reliable Market Information System on 20 major staples that is updated weekly on the cassava business website at www.cassavabiz.org and in major national newspapers and radio and television broadcasts. Prices covering 70 markets (30 urban and 40 rural) are often collected at farm and factory gates.

More generally, IITA executes the cassava initiative of the New Partnership for African Development, which identifies cassava as a poverty fighter in sub-Saharan Africa. For additional information, contact Dr. Lateef Sanni ( lsanni@cgiar.org) or Taye Babaleye, IITA head of public affairs ( t.babaleye@cgiar.org).

Photos: IITA