Unleashing power of cassava to feed the hungry

Last year, Jonathan Shenyagwa planted cassava on 80 acres of his farm, with disastrous results.

“I harvested part of the cassava and transported it to the nearest processing centre, where it was peeled, washed, pressed, dried and milled into cassava flour. They charged me Tsh600 per kilogramme (about half a dollar) and the market price was Tsh380 a kilo,” he says.

“As you can imagine, that was a total loss from the 1,000kgs of flour milled. I did not harvest the rest of the crop.”

Lack of awareness on the potential of this crop frustrates many farmers attempting to gain more from the crop than just food.

Mr Shenyagwa, who hails from Mlandizi in Coast Region, 60km from Dar es Salaam, is taking part in a set of three hands-on training sessions on the processing of cassava into various products, packaging and labelling for markets, and business planning for entrepreneurs, taking place from September 28 to October 9, in Tanzania.

The training is one of the activities of Unleashing the Power of the Cassava (UPoCA) project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

For starters, cassava is one of the traditional crops whose cultivation could go a long way in boosting food security in Africa.

However, in addition to being a reliable source of food for millions of people, cassava has the potential to boost the economies of sub-Saharan countries, as a source of the much-needed foreign exchange from the export of high quality flour, starch and dried chips for industrial use.

Associated with poverty

The crop that has in most of the countries been associated with poverty and subsistence farming, in which households just grow enough for their own consumption, has great potential for creating wealth and driving rural development.

According to Dr Braima James, the UPoCA project manager based in Sierra Leone, who is heading the training team in Tanzania, the aim is to promote cassava production and utilisation to make it an engine of economic growth, especially in rural areas.

The project is sponsored by USAid.

It was initiated in response to the food crisis that drastically affected the majority poor in sub-Saharan Africa last year.

“The tuberous cassava roots are not only a daily source of carbohydrates for over 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, but also rich in starch that can be extracted for use in the food, textile, paper, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Cassava and its derivatives are also used to make glucose syrup, adhesives, ethanol and alcohol, livestock feed and biodiesel fuel,” he says.

Dr James says cassava is referred to as a poor man’s crop because of its diverse uses and unique characteristics.

It is a hardy crop that does well during times of drought and in poor soils.

It requires little inputs such as fertiliser and the whole plant is useful from the leaves, and stems to the roots.

“I do not know what is wrong with us in Africa. We are just sitting on our green gold,” says Dr Bussie Dixon, an IITA food scientist based in Nigeria, and one of the trainers.

“It is about time we stopped thinking of cassava as a poor man’s crop and promoted it to take its rightful place as a foreign exchange earner alongside coffee, tea and cotton.”

The training introduces new ways of processing and using cassava such as the production of starch, high quality flour and new food recipes for rural and urban populations and the creation of income generation opportunities.

“Cassava flour can be used to make cakes, doughnuts, bread, biscuits and other products, either on its own or mixed with wheat, saving developing countries precious foreign exchange by reducing importation of wheat, while creating income for poor farmers,” she says.

Processing challenges hamper the full commercialisation of cassava in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Dr Adebayo Abass, an IITA food scientist based in Dar es Salaam, cassava is a bulky perishable crop, whose roots start rotting within 48 hours.

It must, therefore, be processed fast into a more stable form. This is a labour-intensive task.

“Getting farmers, especially women, who are the main processors of food in the village, energy-efficient implements such as graters, peelers, and crushers, and linking them to markets, will motivate them to grow and process their cassava,” he says.

The scientist also cautions that cassava for human consumption has to be processed extremely well due to the high level of cyanide in some varieties. Sweet cassava has the least.

“Diseases such as goitre and Konzo occur when a person is exposed to high levels of cyanide over a long time, coupled with poor nutrition. Women and children are particularly vulnerable,” he says. “The cyanide levels are particularly high during drought, calling for extra care in processing.”

Disease that causes paralysis

Konzo is a disease that causes paralysis, which is not reversible.

Prolonged exposure to cyanide in cassava also stunts growth in children. The other challenge is low yields.

According to Dr James, cassava production levels in Africa are generally low.

“On-farm yields are mostly below 10 t/ha compared to 25-40 t/ha in Asia and South America and on experimental farms.

“UPoCA project is also providing farmers with improved cassava varieties to increase production, while equipping them with the knowledge and skills on cassava enterprises that help mop up expected gluts in production and reduce post-harvest losses,” he says.

He calls upon African governments to develop appropriate agricultural development policies if their countries are to fully tap the food security and poverty reduction potential in cassava.

Nigeria is the largest producer in the world, generating about 45 million tonnes of the crop annually, but does not rank among the top 10 exporters.

Thailand is the world’s second largest producer and the leading exporter, earning over $8 billion annually.

Tanzanian farmer Shenyagwa has not given up hope on his cassava.

He is now more determined than ever to exploit the benefits from the crop after learning new ways of processing commercially viable food products.

He hopes to set up a processing plant on his farm.

He says he will share his knowledge and skills with his neighbours to motivate them to grow and process cassava.

“If Tanzania could made good use of cassava, it would no longer be a poor country.”

And so would many other African countries that are sitting on their green gold.