Nigeria: Cassava leaves, a potential foreign exchange earner
By Chinyere Ogbonna-National Root Canal Crops Research Institute (s), has proposed product diversification as a remedy to retain Nigeria’s position as one of the world’s leading producers of cassava.
Cassava leaves
Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Institute, Prof. Ukpabi Joseph Ukpabi suggested during an interaction journalists at a Stakeholders Workshop on the prevention of cassava brown streak disease in Nigeria put together by the West African Virus Epidemiology (WAVE) in Abuja.
Prof. Ukpabi said that there was the need to diversify the uses of cassava in the country to serve other purposes other than food consumption. According to Professor Ukpabi, “Product Diversification is the key. We need to diversify the use of cassava as 30% of our cassava is being consumed as human food giving examples of some countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, whose majority of cassava produced are exported to Europe.
Cassava
We need to know how to diversify the market because of international policies.” He noted that the lifting of the ban on exporting cassava would be beneficial to the country, while maintaining that the momentum can only be built if the produce is being utilised both for food, livestock, and industrial purposes.
Professor Ukpabi admonished that farmers to ensure the quality of their products to meet international trade requirement, certain precautions and standards. Speaking on the varieties of cassava, Prof. Ukpabi added that the leaves would also be utilised and exported to China to generate more income for the farmers and subsequently improve the economy of the nation.
He added that any country that possesses the wealth of cassava would never experience famine, while also highlighting the need to prevent viruses and diseases from crippling the cassava value chain.
cassava
“If there is excess rainfall, drought or starvation, famine comes in. Because cassava is a hardened crop, it can withstand some harsh condition so based on that, we take cassava very serious. By our local tradition, we consider yam as the king of all crops but when it comes to cassava, we overlook the kingship and look at the one that is sustainable in terms of food security in Nigeria which brings me to WAVE.”
“Due to the problem of viruses wiping out our cassava crops, anything that will affect cassava will affect Nigeria and because we have that mandate to research into cassava, we are willing to collaborate with international agencies like IITA, universities, state governments, farmers, food processors and extension organisations to make sure that we have food security and generation of income for farmers, processors and even the marketers. “he explained.
