BY CALEB AYANSINA

ABUJA- The federal Government, Tuesday, kicked off its Cassava Transformation Action Plan, CTAP, to increase income by at least $450 every year of about 1.8 million farmers and create 1.2 million jobs in the cassava sub- sector of the country’s economy in the next four years.

Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who disclosed this in Abuja, also announced the compulsory substitution of 10 per cent of High Quality Cassava Flour, HQCF, into composite wheat flour for bread baking in Nigeria.

The Minister, who made this known at the kick-off programme in Abuja, said the 1.2 million jobs would be created through a doubling of production, processing and marketing of cassava in the cassava-growing belt of the country.

He said under the action plan, cassava farming would be run as an investment, not as project with the state governments, adding that the Federal Government will move gradually into more organised cassava sector and establish Cassava Market and Trade Development Corporation, CMTDC, to coordinate farmers and provide market for their produces.

“To build around farm clusters market institutions for long term sustainable development of the cassava sector through the establishment of a Cassava Market and Trade Development Corporation (CMTDC),” he said.

Adesina identified lack of access to farm inputs, unavailability of market to little produces and low level of technology of farmers in Nigeria as major hindrances compelling farmers to sow in hope and reap with tears in the country.

He lamented that only 11 percent of farmers in Nigeria get fertilizer and that the fertilizer was of the low quality, compared with other nations, noting that they were working to put in place necessary things needed for them to put them out of dungeon and boost food production in the country.

His words: “It is important because science has prove it that with 10% you can have great bread, I know our flour mills went through hell, but they need to understand that we face a particular problem. Today, our farmers can’t find a market for cassava, their income is dropping, unemployment is rising while we flood this place with imported flour.

“I have talked to them, I will stand up for the interest of farmers of this country; I don’t think it is too much to ask for 10%, the government has three options, it can ban wheat, increase the tariff on wheat or flour import or use 10 % substitution inside baking bread. That 10% substitution alone is 400,000 metric tons of high quality cassava floor and 1.6million metric tons of cassava tuber.

“We have reached agreement with flour mills industry a week ago, I’m happy with that. We must build Nigeria and add value to what we produce and create work for our own farmers. With that 10% substitution going ahead and the cassava transformation action plan is how turn back agreement into quick action at the state level, organising the farmer and cassava processors, to see that there is contractual agreement between them and ensuring that the agreement is fulfilled.

“We are going to monitor it very closely because it is about the farmers of this country, not about any body else. I will like to ask for state commissioners as they work with the cassava transformation team put together a frame work for close monitoring.

“In every country, whether in Netherlands or Brazil, I am very sure you will not see the farmers with hoes and cutlasses, you will not find farmers that are poor, they are supported before planting, even after planting, they are supported in term of stabilizing the prices.

“But Nigerian farmers have no support around them it is as if you have somebody, you put on a rickety boat in the Atlantic ocean and you say sail or sink. Farmers in this country have been abandoned and they are unable to take advantage of they commodity they produced.

“These are some of the reasons they have not been able to benefit from the new technology. If you look at the cassava we are talking about today, the root and tubers are not too good, compared with Brazil. Basically, they have not been able to get access to the technology that will raise their productivity. Therefore, Nigerian farmers are not being able to compete.

“Secondly, they are not getting access to most fundamental inputs, fertilizer. If you look around the country today, the government’s support for farmers is fertilizer but only eleven percent of the farmers actually get it. So, as a result of that, the average level of use of fertilizer in the country is only 14 kilogram per hectare. That 14 kg/ per hectare is so low, compared to people that we are competing against, the global average is 100 kg per hectare.

Speaking on the reminiscence and future of cassava production in Nigeria, Deputy Director Root and Tuber Crops, Dr. Victor Odeyemi, explained that the 10% High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) composite wheat flour was introduced by Obasanjo’s administration but was not respected by millers because it was a policy statement without legal backing.

“In order to ensure that produced tubers are processed, he (Obasanjo) introduced the inclusion of 10% high quality cassava flour into composite wheat flour. Many SMEs for HCQF were put in place within a short period. “However, many of them soon closed as a result of non-patronage by millers because the 10% was a policy statement without any legal backing.

“This is where we are today and on this , the present administration is building on by ensuring legal backing for every policy and make agriculture a business which will be private-sector driven, employing thousands of people along the value chain and ensuring food security,” he said.