The Lagos State Government has established a cassava processing factory with the capacity to process 64 tonnes of cassava into high quality flour daily.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Co-operatives, Mr Gbolahan Lawal, said this in an interview with newsmen last Saturday in Lagos.

He said that the mill located at Epe was established to increase the supply of cassava flour in line with the Federal Government‘s policy of 20 per cent cassava flour inclusion in bread.

“About 65 per cent of flour mills in the country are located in Lagos; none of them is meeting the 20 per cent cassava inclusion in the flour for bread because of inadequate supply.

“I think what they have achieved is about three per cent or less.

“So, apart from keying into the cassava bread policy, we established this mill to increase supply and create jobs.

“The cassava processing factory has so far generated no fewer than 600 direct and indirect jobs for our people, and we intend to generate more as we scale up the capacity in the future,’’ he said.

The commissioner said that cassava farmers had a ready market in the mill as their harvests were taken up to be processed into flour and other cassava derivatives such as ‘garri’.

He dismissed the fear that the establishment of the mill would affect the supply of ‘garri’ and other cassava derivatives.

“We are supporting cassava farmers‘ clusters across the state with all they need to improve production under our AGOA programme.

“I can say we are happy with all the improvements.

“The mill, though designed mainly to produce cassava flour, has the capacity to produce garri, starch and other cassava derivatives.

“As we produce cassava flour for bread, we are producing more garri and starch. Nothing suffers.

“The whole thing is to enrich the cassava value chain and boost food security,‘’ he said.