BY CALEB AYANSINA

The National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) has lashed out at wheat traders in the country saying they have been  frustrating and rendering government’s Cassava Bread Initiative (CBI) useless and unproductive.

The President of NANTS, Ken Ukaoha , maintained that Nigeria is losing huge amount of money to importation of wheat into the country, adding that “if cassava flour can be substituted for wheat, then, the farmers and the country will be better for it.

“For this lofty CBI to succeed, government must strongly resist influences emanating from the politics of wheat trade in the international market. In addition, Nigeria should start looking beyond comparative advantage to competitiveness where local producers of cassava can begin to compete with producers from Thailand and Brazil. To achieve this, millers can be encouraged to have cluster farms in order to maximise profits.”

Ukaoha, said the other impediments working against the policy are insufficient technical competence and know-how among flour millers in effective utilisation of cassava derivatives for bread and confectionery production as one of major factors that needs to be addressed to optimise the policy.

Others setbacks according to  him,  includes unclear direction in level of modification required for cassava to produce similar types of bread currently in the market, and inadequate incentives for committing flour mills to cassava inclusion in flour mix.

He said “the CBI is one policy step that is well conceived and undertaken by government in the right direction. It is capable of reducing the massive importation of wheat into the country, saving large volume of foreign exchange, creating jobs and reducing poverty and unemployment among youths.”

Ukkaoha however, maintained that for the initiative to thrive, the right variety of cassava must be readily available, adding that low processing capacities, as well as capacity building for both flour mailers and bakers at the grass root were germane to the acceptance and sustainability of cassava bread in the country.

“Our survey revealed that some varieties of cassava when used either reduces the durability of cassava bread or gives it an unappealing/unpleasant odour. Government must therefore work with research institutes and mailers to conquer this gap.

“The processing capacity of cassava is still low, while wastage and glut is still high in the midst of huge domestic demand for food. The supply of cassava to the flour millers remain one of the most critical problems militating against the cassava bread policy, especially given that supply infrastructure (such as transportation and preservation) is grossly inadequate, while the understanding of logistics of cassava bulk breaking is poor.

“Technically speaking, to achieve high quality cassava flour, the peculiar characteristics of cassava must be considered; and cassava must be dried and processed within 24 hours of harvest, otherwise, the question of the odour, shelve-life of the bread and other quality concerns would remain a problem once fermentation begins to set in,” he said.

He explained that Nigerians consume not less than 100 million loaves of bread on daily basis, and that, each of these loaves contain certain percentage of cassava flour, but bakers would not indicate it in the label, making Nigerians to believe that cassava flour is bad.

To address these challenges, NANTS recommended that government should make it mandatory for “all bakers to write the identity of the bread (type) and the contents of such bread (or other bakery products) on their labels so that consumers can easily identify cassava bread on the store shelves.