Edo Farmers Lament Cassava Glut

Farmers in Edo State have decried the current cassava glut in parts of the state, blaming the state government for the situation, according to an official of AFAN.

They said that the government had encouraged the farmers to cultivate more cassava with assurance that there was ready market for the produce but expressed regret that the government had abandoned them.

They also alleged that the government reneged on its promise to provide cassava processing centres in the state, noting that the inability of the state to meet its promise caused the glut.

Edo North Coordinator of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Alhaji Abdulahi Mohammed, said these in an interview with the newsmen in Auchi in Edo.

Mohammed, who spoke on behalf of the farmers, said: “The government is the cause of our woes.”

The coordinator said that many farmers were encouraged to go into cassava production based on the understanding that there would be market for it.

He said that even Root and Tubers Expansion Programme (RTEP) organised seminars to further encourage us.

Mohammed expressed regret that “the story is different today”.

He recalled that the government promised to establish 25 cassava processing mills but what they had as at date were only five.

“The processing centres were to be encouraged to produce garri and process starch for export.

“But the dream has not been realised because the government did not pay counterpart fund for the centres to be built.

“And, as I speak with you, the five existing processing centres are idling away because counterpart fund has not been paid to make them functional,” Mohammed said.

The coordinator pointed out that the farmers were suffering because of glut, saying “cassava has time limitations. If it matures, harvested but not processed, it rots away”.

Mohammed said that if the government had established the 25 cassava processing centres and facilitate the market as it promised, the cassava glut in the state would not have arisen.

“The price of cassava that rose to more than N30,000 per tonne has now fallen to about N15,000 per tonne as a result of the glut,” he said.

But Mr John Omoruyi, an official the state’s RTEP, dismissed the allegations of the farmers against the government, saying that the five garri processing centres were functional.

He also said that the government did not default in its counterpart contribution.

“The government contributed during the first phase of the RTEP programme, which has just ended and we are waiting for the release of modalities for funding of the second phase.

“The next phase of the programme is the sustainability where the Federal Government is still being awaited to come up with its modalities.

“The five processing centres were established in the first phase of the programme and they were completed and equipped according to specifications of the programme.

“The centres could not have been idle, but if it is true, then it is the fault of the cooperative groups that are supposed to run the processing centres as their own,” Omoruyi said.