Revamp Cassava Processing Companies, AFAN Tells FG

Sole Administrator, Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, Ambassador Desmond Akawor (2nd left), briefed by the Secretary of GPHCDA’s board, Mr John Singer, during an inspection visit to projects in Port Harcourt recently Photo: Ibioye Diama

The National Technical Adviser, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Dr Tunde Arosanyin, has advised the Federal Government to revamp the abandoned Cassava processing companies spread across the country.
Aronsayin gave the advice in an interview with The Tide source in Abuja, yesterday.
According to him, cassava is a main source of carbohydrate for dietary requirement needs and a regular source of income for most rural dwellers and should not be neglected.
“If the processing companies are not urgently revamped to boost the sub-sector, Nigerians may have to face imminent scarcity of cassava in the market soon.
“We have the Nigeria Starch Manufacturing Companies producing below 30 per cent capacity across the country while some processing centres have been completely shut for a long time now.
“With this development, there will be no more cassava for consumption next year and the price for the little available would increase; this is not good for our agricultural growth,” he warned.
Arosanyin explained that the price of the commodity in the market had already dipped by about 30 per cent, forcing farmers to sell their produce at a loss and take a break from production.
He said that the crash in the price might be as a result of low quality of the commodity and unstable market price of cassava in the open market.
He said many farmers had chosen to plant alternative products that would sell having been discouraged from planting cassava this farming season due to the unstable price of the commodity in the market.
“Presently, the cost of cassava production compared to the price the commodity is being sold in the market is not encouraging.
“The market price for cassava per kilogramme is around N7 whereas the cost of production is about N10; this has left many cassava farmers in great loss.
“By this time last year, a kilogramme of cassava was sold for N22 (twenty-two naira) and the cost of production then was much less,” he said.