Cassava
By TOM CHIAHEMEN, Abuja –
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has budgeted the sum of N25billion to finance cassava production in the country for the year 2020.
The amount is split into two, with N11 billion allocated to five-star farmers (those growing from 5 hectares and above) and N14 billion to conventional farmers (those planting between one and four hectares).
A senior official of the apex bank, Chinedu Ogbonnaya, who represented the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, made this known during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) BASIC-II Cassava Seed Entrepreneurs and Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA).
The event, which took place at the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) in Sheda, Abuja yesterday, was witnessed by major stakeholders in the sector, including the CBN, NASC, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), National Root crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike Seeds, and IITA Go-Seeds.
Ogbonnaya said that in 2020 alone, the CBN was targeting 105,000 cassava farmers in the country from all states of the Federation.
Speaking at the occasion, the Officer in charge of IITA Abuja, Dr. Gbassey Tarawali, on behalf of the Director-General Institute, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, described the second phase of Building an Economically Sustainable and Integrated Cassava Seed System (BASDICS-II) as another opportunity for stakeholders to address the major problems that had limited the power of cassava in Africa in terms of poverty and livelihood improvement among growers.
“We are here to midwife a new role for cassava seed producers and root farmers in Nigeria. We are sealing an alliance by all actors to ensure facilitation and supply of quality certified and disease-free seeds to farmers to help Nigerian smallholders improve their productivity and family income,” Tarawali explained.
While commending the CBN, NASC, CRS, Umudike Seeds and IITA Go-Seeds for the alliance, Tarewali said, “our vision is to see that at the end of this project, we have a commercially sustainable model for cassava seed system that can be replicated in other parts of Africa.”
In this regard, he said, the Nigerian model must increase not only farmers’ incomes “but also roots for processors and the industry who will in turn contribute to the socio-economic development of our communities.”
National President of NCGA, Pastor Segun Adewumi, in his remarks, explained that the MoU with the IITA BASICS-II was for the regeneration of various varieties of casava to ensure more yield and better quality our farmers’ products.
“We are really exited as we look forward to the Cassava Revolution that will enable our cassava industrial derivatives compete favorably in the domestic and international market,” he said.
He believed that with this development, many of the utility industrial items like Ethanol, industrial starch, sweetener, etc, for which Nigeria spends hundreds of billions of Naira to import, could be produced in the country.
“Incidentally, these products are raw material to other essential utility items with limitless market potentials. This is to say cassava can trigger industrial revolution in Nigeria,” Pastor Adewumi said.
Professor Chiozie Egesie of the NRCRI, on his part, assured that Umudike would stand with the MoU between IITA BASICS-II and the NCGA to see that it succeeds, stressing that any cassava grower that does not get the improved certified seeds from the right source was starting on a wrong footing.
Chairman of Benue State Seed Producers Cooperative Union (BSSPCU), Mr. Francis Chia, in a brief remark, thanked the major stakeholders for the opportunity given to Cassava growers to be part of the evolving Cassava Revolution in Nigeria
The BASICS-II project, which was awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to IITA and its partners in May 2020, aims to transform the cassava seed sector by promoting the dissemination of improved varieties thereby creating a community of seed entrepreneurs across the cassava value chain.
The five-year project will focus on Nigeria and Tanzania with spin-off to other African countries.