CASSAVA PROCESSING AND THE CORES OF IT


Day in, day out, I receive calls as regards Cassava; enquiries, questions, conversations, it has been part of my everyday life and the truth of the matter is, I like it.

Today, I received one that may go down as one of the
most passionate ever received.

*Caller*; Hello, do you have Cassava Chips? How much is it?

*Me*; We don't sell to 3rd Parties Ma, we produce to supply but if you want us to sell to you, we will have to arrange that ma.

*Caller*; How much do you supply presently?

*Me*; 320 per ton.

*Caller*; How do you get Cassava Tubers?

*Me*; ... We do but it is expensive.

It was at that point she got so emotional and she was like this high cost of Cassava is farmer's plan to sap processors. Garri is no more a common man meal, etc. She was so unhappy about it. And said a lot with so much burning passion in her voice, I tried explain the factors that has warranted the present high cost of Cassava, she disagreed.

Out of all she said, she said she was a processor, a farmer and that government was making frantic efforts at agricultural growths with programs, grants and subsidies.

This got to me and I feel I should say it aloud and clear. "Efforts of the government are not getting to the right farmers, it is either not getting to the small and medium scale farmers, who are the real farmers and processors' friends, totally favouring the bigger players or totally redirected" particularly as it concerns Cassava o!.

Nigeria is top on the Cassava production ladder but that won't make (or made) any significant impact because most Cassava farming are done in small scale with low productivity.

Permit me to give two instances without fear or favour, our company; Aligo Global Ventures in 2022 entered the CBN Anchor Borrowers' Programme as a Prime Anchor, fulfilled all righteous, after it was time to disburse, we were unofficially told that if we had enrolled for the program through Heritage Bank, we won't be getting disbursement. This was literally after over 7months of processes and waiting for a the *Wet Season Planting*, only for the CBN at a webinar show us that they have helped Cassava Projects like in the picture below. Forgetting the fact that the simple maladministration has caused a growing company its existence, let's say almost it's existence. A proper (Cassava) farmer would understand what it is and entails to rent, properly clear and uproot 200H of land.

And this was the fate of other small/medium scale Cassava processing companies.

The said woman certainly said she knows one or two programs where I can buy farm inputs at 60% reductions, which I believe is not existent. I challenge anyone to come forward to show where such programs exist, if it does at all, it would be in the urban areas and real farmers are (semi) rural inhabitants.

Real farmers don't get these aids, subsidies and grants. Maybe I would respectful ask some of our mentors if they have gotten any.

I hereby conclude that government agricultural interventions, subsidies, grants and aids are either political or just exist on paper.

Now coming to the reality of what this woman processor could do. 

I must quickly mention; I respect her person, like her passion but would like if she can invest more energies into Cassava farming, since she is a processor, Truecaller showed the name of her company, just as we have in our Cassava Refinery Project Framework, it would insulate production against market fluctuations majorly sharp inflation. This is the reason companies like Psaltry International have been able to navigate price fluctuations, sincere apologies to Psaltry International, it seems I'm mentioning them too much lately but they are certainly a company worthy of emulation when it comes to Cassava production and processing in Nigeria.

Processing Cassava in Nigeria, one cannot wholly or largely depend on the raw materials market for raw materials else there will be market shocks and volatility affecting scale and flow of processing ops. And those who have our Cassava Refinery Project Framework would now understand why we have enshrined starting phase and the emphasis on it.

This does not mean you can do Cassava Processing particularly Cassava Chips production as a lot of people are in my inbox asking different questions in this regard before now. You can start Cassava Chips Production but at a medium scale of not more than 6 to 10tons at periodics, if you intend to go beyond that or even do same tonnage quite constantly, my free advice is start looking at Cassava farming, either as at a well designed outgrower scheme or direct farming, preferably both though.

Cassava Processing is a business just like every other business, it has its cores and it should be known by that/those principles.

I wish that us best of luck, I love the passion, I felt over the phone earlier today, it is indeed long I have felt such a passion, it is infectious, I must say.

She is indeed a *Cassava Champion*

Again, good luck to us all.

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