CAPACITY BUILDING AND GENERATIONAL WEALTH IN CASSAVA FARMING AND PROCESSING (By: Enitan A'Azeez, Cassava Chips Priest)

It is not a far fetched fact that Nigeria is the biggest producer of Cassava, also it is a fact, Cassava is what I would describe "Multi Utility Crop (MUC)", kindly underline/note "Multi Utility Crop", it is my coinage to crop(s) that can be used for food, beverage, alternative energy and industrial use on daily basis across the world. And crops like Maize belong to MUC group.

For background purposes, Cassava takes between _6-12 months or more_ to harvest after planting. This means works of weeding, fertilizing (if at all), pest/rodent control would come into play, all these post planting activities warrants some level of costs.

Despite Nigeria's reputable stand in the league of Cassava Producing Countries, we are still lagging way behind in the business angle of it all.

With my journeys nationwide, interactions and experiences on the farm, Nigeria has only been able to become a large Cassava producer to the fact that a very large number of people are producing Cassava only on subsistence level. The more reason, Cassava Farmers are relatively poor and struggling through life.

Let's look at it this way, a man between 25 - 45 has a farm of about "5acres", which is what most farmers in the rural setting sees as commercial, let's say his variety is 10months cos most of them targets the Fufu and/or Garri producers, who prefers the local breeds to hybrid with the belief that hybrid has more water content. With this analogy, the farmer would have incurred accumulated expenses and financial commitments only to harvest 16tons overall.

This will leave him with 1/3 profit of 16tons income after harvest labour expense, which he has to manage for the next 11-12months, it will likely take him within 8weeks of thereabout (less or more) to re-prepare the land for another planting.

Now, if we properly look into this how will this farmer with child(ren), wives and/or girlfriend, possibly with a bike, which uses petroleum and others things that requires energy would not struggle with finances and life after a month or two after harvest?

As we all know this is not to make a mockery of Cassava Farmers but to highlight means we in the Cassava Industry will escape poverty and year in, year out struggle.

On the farmer discovering they have to struggle with finances in the outgoing year, tends to the emotional with prices, which plays a vital role in the sharp prices of Cassava year in year out. This will definitely rub on the processors, who struggles to remain in business, the struggling circle from the farmers connects with processors, who apart from struggling to remain in business, will too with life. I stand to be corrected than if not for the credit facilities most rural processors get from farmers, alot of them would have been out of business. All this struggle tale also goes with Cassava Chips production.

The only people that seems to be making fortune from Cassava Industry are the middlemen and big processors as their major issue is to have where and how to get Cassava is available at the prevailing time. The reason major major processes like Greentech, Psaltry International etc have their own farms and developed outgrower(s) scheme.

Over the years, this has brought me to plan the way and manner to overcome this struggling circle especially as relates to us as a processor and collectively. But before I talk on that, it will be worthy to mention to say that the best way to escape this struggle stage for Cassava farmers is to change their perception of fertilization, cultivate 6-7months varieties, adequate spacing and double their hustle as the streets will say.

By so doing, there will be remarkable increase in yields, which usually reduce post planting and harvest costs, which will shoot profit levels above 25%.

Now as a processor particularly newbies, get information, go through internship, start small for a very short time but remain small, else you will struggle. The more reason as the Cassava Chips Priest we are looking at growing and developing our Cassava Refinery Project and talking to/looking at financing prospects for the project.

In this project, we would have our own farm and in the course of it develop our outgrower scheme, which will be the basis on which other blocks of industrial processing will be built upon.

Psaltry International, our mentor company have built a similar structure and the company runs into digits and commas in the region of hundreds of millions (and billions in Naira) year in, year out and sincerely with it very worthy of emulation.

To conclude this, if capacity building is absent, generational wealth may just not be generated with Cassava trade but if our Cassava culture changes and charges towards the above solutions in addition to the technological angle to be discussed at a later date, we would be talking of millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires from Cassava.

I want to belong to than clan, what about you?