Yusuf An-Nuphawi
Nigeria’s agricultural sector received a Presidential goodwill once again in November last year when President Muhammadu Buhari led other stakeholders to Birnin-Kebbi in Kebbi State to launch a N40 billion Anchor Borrowers Programme for rice and wheat for local farmers initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Stakeholders have applauded the development as the CBN revealed that the programme was aimed at creating economic linkages between over 600,000 smallholder farmers and reputable large-scale processors with a view to increasing agricultural output and significantly improving capacity utilization of integrated mills.
Nigerian agricultural entrepreneurs who argued that the programme might have been modeled from agricultural initiatives of the previous administrations, hypothesized that the present administration may treat cassava projects with levity as past investments yielded little positive result in terms of economic prosperity and poverty alleviation, which were the major targets of the projects. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s dream to see cassava bread flooding street corners has proved to be more fictitious than reality despite the billions invested into the project. It was projected to infuse 40 percent of cassava flour into daily production of all confectioneries in the country.
Though the agro-addict former President is still bitter over the futility of his efforts, in 2002, Obasanjo initiated a policy on 10 percent inclusion of the tuber crop in bread under a program tagged “the Presidential Initiative on Cassava” in order to promote the cassava value chain by not only creating demands for its consumables but also provide job opportunities for thousands of youths through a sustainable motivational programme.
In 2013, Obasanjo, resolved to carry out public campaigns for cassava bread as he surprisingly served dignitaries with 40 percent cassava flour included bread at an event organized by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, urging the Tanzanian government to promote the use of cassava in confectioneries in the country to transform agriculture in the African continent.
Also, former President Goodluck Jonathan, in April 2012, reiterated government’s commitment to ensuring that every bread consumed in the country are made from a combination of wheat and cassava flour. When Dr. Akinwumi Adesina became Minister of Agriculture, stakeholders were further reassured when he said government intended to reduce N200 billion annual wheat import bill by 30 percent through the implementation of the cassava infusion initiative.
This was followed up with launch by President Jonathan of Cassava Bread Development Fund to serve as an extension of the Cassava Bread Wealth Development Fund. It was to be funded through imposing a levy of 15 percent on wheat grain imports, which will increase the effective duty from five to twenty (5-20) percent. To this end, government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to manage the N4.3 billion cassava bread fund that would support small and medium enterprises (SMEs), master bakers and large industrial cassava flour mills. The BOI and Bank of Agriculture (BOA) were to manage disbursement of the N9.9billion cassava bread fund.
With these giant inputs but with little positive outcomes, many stakeholders are accusing government of insincerity in the implementation of policies; flour mills and master bakers for resisting cassava flour and by extension causing farmers to lose money and interest.
Speaking to the Economic Confidential on headwinds that are confronting cassava projects in Nigeria, a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Dr. Adbdulrazak Ibrahim said “like most projects in Nigeria, this (cassava project) probably has gone the corrupt way things are handled. I have not seen any reasonable increase in yield or production of cassava in the last years that would justify the billions of naira spent. We still consume wheat bread.”
Dr. Ibrahim who is a distinguished Biochemist with strong bias for genetic engineering of plants like cassava, insisted “I don’t think the policy met expectations. Obviously few bakeries adhered to the policy. Whatever incentive was available was pocketed by select-few and we are still where we were. Frankly I think it’s a policy conceived partly based on politics and emotion. Politics is politics and food security is food security.” Blaming the administrations that succeeded President Obasanjo, the Molecular Biologist argued “We had one of the most reckless governments in this country after Obasanjo. Almost everything went wrong including this project.”
Airing his radical view on the need to see cassava beyond bread making, the academician argued that “the perception in Nigeria generally is that cassava is a staple food and perhaps that’s the emotional point that inspired government to encourage its use in bread making. Few people recognize it as a commodity. It doesn’t have to be promoted for bread making. Perhaps if emphasis had been placed on the use of the crop as raw material for such products as industrial starch, ethanol, carbondioxide etc., and effective mechanism of achieving that was put in place, we would have made better progress.”
Ibrahim who has intensively carried out research on cassava in Nigeria and Republic of Brazil to improve its nutritional values, opined “we shouldn’t insist that cassava should substitute wheat in bread production but focus on ways we can optimize its utilization and you do that through heavy investment in research and development projects based on food technology and agriculture. In Brazil, there is a kind of bread made essentially from cassava, called “pão de quijo” or cheese roll in English. It is highly successful and consumed as much as any bread. It has a huge market including internationally. In taste, it is similar to the popular “Wainar Rogo” (cassava snack) common among Hausa communities. We only need to innovate and improve with help from food technologists and scientists. That should be the focus of government not some cheap campaign that shows the President consuming cassava bread on national TV.”
Lamenting his experiences in bakery business, Chief Goddwin Nkwokebe of Pioneer Bakery, Kubuwa, Abuja said the idea of cassava flour inclusion in bread and confessionary making is an old song, insisting that the bakers and millers have been resisting cassava flour because it is not viable for their business like flour made from wheat.
Chief Nkwokebe who told this magazine that he has operated a bakery for over twenty years, explained that “major problem with cassava flour or flour with high content of cassava is that it easily decomposes by small ants. He also complained that “if you mix such flour with other ingredients for bakery, it doesn’t bake easily or yield commercially satisfied bread and bakers are at losing end.”
Nkwokebe who said he had decided to back out of the business, blamed hike in flour price and quackery that has not been fully tackled by the bakers’ union. He said a bag of flour that used to cost N5,000 or less now goes for about N7,000 in the market, “how do you expect us to survive in the business?” he asked.
A visit to flour retailer’s shops in Utako Modern Market in Abuja by the Economic Confidential showed that a bag of Golden Penny Prime Flour manufactured by Flour Mills of Nigeria contains Vitamin A (30000IU), Niacin (49.5mg), Iron (40.7mg) and Thiamine (6.2mg). However, addressing newsmen in Lagos recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell Mills, Mr. Olarewaju Jaiyeola said the company has started with 2.5 percent cassava flour inclusion in production with a view to increasing it to 10 percent by 2016, adding that the gradual process was necessary in order to have a solid back up plan for greater performance in the not too distant a future.
According to him, “the expectation of government is that Flour Mills should add about 10 percent of cassava flour to our operation; this will be gradual because we are mindful of all other variances and the cost implications. It is expected that this inclusion will assist the farmers to produce more cassava with a readymade market and by and large it will create employment opportunities.”
Expressing his satisfaction on government’s collaborative efforts, the CEO explained that government for the first time was able to back up the policy with a holistic approach in terms of collaborative efforts with the private sector in the value-chain that includes cassava farmers, processors, flour millers and the master bakers who have been producing wonderful results.
Speaking to reporters in Kaduna on the number of farmers who have benefited from the cassava loans so far, the Chief Executive Officer and CEO of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Mr. Babatunde Sadiku said a total of 3,713 members of Nigerian Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) benefited from the phase one of the project while about 3,699 others benefited from the second phase with a total of N2.3 billion dispensed all together.
Sadiku who acknowledged that the bank was mobilized to the tune of N2.4 billion to cultivate cassava tubers in the country, added that the beneficiaries were chosen from NCGA which forwarded the names and all their particulars to the bank throughout the country, adding that before approving and eventually distributing the monies to respective beneficiaries, due diligence have been carried out by NCGA and BOA branches that are scattered all over the country.
