N2.1bn Rivers Cassava Plant Ready, Feb

Barring unforeseen hitches, all plant components and infrastructure for the €10million (approximately N2,151,934,000.00) Rivers State Cassava Initiative in Afam, Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state, will be ready for test-run and comminssioning by February, 2014.
Executive Director, Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), Noble Pepple, who said this at the project site while briefing members of the Editorial Board of the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation (RSNC), during a guided tour of the agency’s facilities in the Ogoni axis last weekend, said that April, 2014, has been fixed as tentative date for the official commissioning of the complex.
The initiative is a major private sector-driven intervention bringing together the Rivers State Government being represented by the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), the Dutch Agricultural Development and Trading Company B.V. (DADTCO), the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, to develop local cassava farmers, build their capacity and provide opportunities   to generate greater income.
Of the total investment of €10million, 30 per cent will be used for the education and development of smallholder cassava farmers in the state while 70 per cent will be invested in the joint venture for the building and operation of the cassava factory.
RSSDA, he said, would use the strategy to create employment for 20,000 Rivers people, either directly or indirectly, act as a launchpad to transit Rivers farmers from subsistent to commercial farming, inject more than N3million daily into the farming communities through direct payments for the purchase of cassava roots from farmers, while guaranteeing product off-take from the factory by multinational players such as Unilever, Nestle, Nigerian Breweries, SABMiller, Johnson Wax, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, and Honeywell, among others.
Pepple said so far, 45,000 Rivers farmers have been identified and registered, with more than 600 already trained by IFDC on improved cassava cultivation techniques while four integrated soil fertility management demonstration and multiplication farms have been established, while 245 are currently participating in farm clusters development scheme.
He added that the RSSDA has surveyed a total land area of 4,000 hectares in the different local government areas of the state, which would serve as pilot farms while doubling as support and input centres.
Pepple said that the cassava processing plant, including the flash dryer were manufactured in Holland while the three Autonomous Mobile Processing Units (AMPUs) for on-farm processing of cassava roots were being produced in Norway, adding that the on-site infrastructure would be completed before December, 2013, just as the processing components are billed for installation and test-run by February, 2014.
He said that the 30,000-ton capacity factory would increase the yield for local farmers from 10 to 20 tons per hectare, facilitate evacuation and processing of tubers at the farm gate, while ensuring that farmers are paid guaranteed competitive prices for supply of roots based on international market prices for starch.
The executive director said that when on stream, the AMPU units would produce cassava cakes from fresh roots, which could be used directly by brewers across the country or supplied as feedstock to the main processing plant for further conversion into high quality cassava flour.
Pepple said that the initiative was aimed at leveraging the abundant production capacity of 90 per cent of smallholder cassava farmers in the state, who have continued to experience significant post-harvest losses, low yields and non-competitive pricing of the dominant staple food on the Nigerian menu.
He regretted that although Nigeria is by far the largest cassava producer in the world, producing more than 45million tons annually, cassava value addition to the national food chain was insignificant, adding that with the initiative, more than seven products’ opportunities would be available for the company.
According to him, when available, cassava flour from the facility would help replace expensive wheat flour for macaroni, spaghetti and bread production, just as cassava cakes could serve as a significant cost effective substitute for imported glucose syrup and starch from barley for the brewing industry.
In addition, Pepple said that the DADTCO and second largest world brewer, SABMiller partnership, would guarantee income and good fortune for thousands of Rivers smallholder cassava farmers, stressing that the HQCF would serve a binding agent for food and other industrial uses and provide increased ready market opportunities for manufacturers of Bouillon cooking cubes such as Knorr and Maggi.
The RSSDA executive director said that the products from the factory would help boost Nigeria’s fight against malaria through the production of sufficient re-agents for mosquito coils while 95 per cent starch from DADTCO’s HQCF could be further processed into sugar substances like commercial Glucose and Sorbitol – a sugar substitute for toothpaste, chewing gum and cough syrup production.