I'm looking forward to working with the Ministry of Agriculture to publicize the successes and foster more success down-the-line. Here is part of their progress report from the last sure and steady pdf:
The transformation agenda sets out to create over 3.5 million jobs in the agricultural sector, from rice, cassava, sorghum, cocoa and cotton value chains, with many more jobs to come from other value chains under implementation.
The agenda aims to provide over 300 Billion Naira (US$ 2 billion) of additional income in the hands of Nigerian farmers.
Over 60 Billion Naira (US$ 380 million) is to be injected into the economy from the substitution of 20% of bread wheat flour with cassava flour.
In total, the agricultural transformation agenda will add 20 million metric tons to domestic food supply by 2015, including rice (2 million metric tons), cassava (17 million metric tons) and Sorghum (1 million metric tons).
Cassava Transformation:
The goal of the cassava transformation programme is to turn Nigeria, the largest producer of cassava in the world, into the largest processors of cassava in the world.
Government is aggressively expanding markets for cassava, through the development of high quality cassava flour to substitute for up to 40% of wheat imports, dried cassava chips, native and modified starch, high fructose cassava syrup and ethanol.
Achievements:
• Developed 40% substitution of cassava flour for wheat flour, through collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. This is the first time such a level of substitution will be achieved.
• Mr President directed on November 30, 2011 that the cassava flour bread be commercialized. Within 90 days, the commercialization was successfully achieved in February 2012 when UTC, the largest corporate baker of bread, introduced the cassava flour bread, with 20% cassava flour substitution for wheat flour. The feat was repeated in April 2012 when Butterfield, another large corporate bakery, introduced its 20% high quality cassava flour bread. Cassava Bread is 60% of the cost of Wheat Bread.
• Two large scale cassava processing plants (Thai Farms and DATCO) which were at the brink of collapse when the flour millers in Nigeria stopped buying cassava flour before the advent of this Administration, are back in business and have doubled their capacity to over 22,000 MT.
• 153 SME processors of high quality cassava flour, all of which had collapsed when flour mills stopped buying cassava flour, before this Administration, were fully audited and are being upgraded to ramp up cassava flour production. Total high quality cassava flour production now at 110,000MT, from the SMEs.
• Secured a total of 2.2 million MT of dried cassava chips exports to China. This amount is 200,000MT greater than our 2015 projected plan. Exports of dried cassava chips to China, for the first 1 million MT, started in July 2012. This will earn Nigeria $136 Million annually and represents the first time Nigeria will achieve commercial scale exports of dried cassava chips.
• Held a highly successful agribusiness investment forum in the US in April 2012. Successfully secured $ 6 Billion investment commitment from a large US investor for ethanol production. Four ethanol plants will be established, 2 in the North using sugar cane (a total of 200,000 ha) and in the south using cassava (a total of 150,000 ha). Feasibility is being completed and expected to break ground on first ethanol plant in 2013 with a 2015 completion date.
• Secured financing of over $ 200 million from the China Exim Bank for the procurement and installation of 18 large scale industrial cassava flour processing plants, with capacity of 1.3 Million MT of High Quality Cassava Flour, in place within 18 months. Processing plants to be run and owned by the private sector. The 18 plants will produce 1.3 million MT of high quality cassava flour and meet all of Nigeria’s cassava flour need for up to 40% substitution for wheat flour.
• The National Root Crops Research Institute released 3 Pro-Vitamin A varieties, the first in Africa to develop and release cassava varieties with Vitamin A.
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| Cassava_based industry in Nigeria |
5 comments:
Oh men, not to mention corn bread. Loooove that corn bread. The corn fritter casserole at what was the name of that gross restaurant - Tony Roma's, a place for ribs - on South Lake in Pasadena, CA. Oh yum. That was beyond cornbread.
What does cassava taste like?
a bit like potato. but most people don't eat it cooked directly; it's dried and processed into little grains called garri which we buy and ... long process, eh. We pour the garri in water for an energizing drink or make a dough-like mixture of garri and boiling water which we call eba and eat with some amazing soups and stew.
Pictures: eba and soup
i think it's the same as yucca, which Cubans (and presumably other Caribbean people) eat. Try a Cuban restaurant.
I once paid a lot of money for what was essentially a plate of eba at Jennifer Lopez's restaurant in Pasadena. I thought let me try this yucca and carnitas ropas (?) thing. They brought partially cooked eba with barbecued pork.
one year on, I've def eaten cassava bread a few times and it's gooooooooood. I've had a few people try it too, and at first they're not sure they want to go for something called cassava bread, but then they're like real fans afterwards.
I get mine from Shoprite in Ikeja, Lagos. You?
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