SPECIAL REPORT: Despite huge spending over decades, Nigeria unable to produce enough cassava

IMG; Agro4Africa

Grace Ebit, a farmer in Ibogo, Biase Local Government Area of Cross River State, recalls her childhood with nostalgia. After her father lost his job in the mid-1960s, she dropped out of school and the family struggled to get food.

Her distraught father began to grow cassava and processed garri. That became the turning point.

“The business became big to the extent that we barely had free time to rest. Traders came from different states to buy garri in large quantities from us,” Mrs Ebit said.

Mrs Ebit said they were able to return to school later. She continued with the business for over two decades, supporting her family with it and sending her own children to school. Now 57, she says the business has been significantly different from what it used to be.

“I can’t boast of such production rate again, the land is not fertile anymore and there is a high level of insecurity in the farmland which made most farmers scared of going to farmlands,” she said.

For all the successes and failures of Nigeria’s agricultural sector over decades, there is an ironic reality: the country has never been able to produce enough of one of its most iconic food crops, cassava, a staple for millions across the nation.

And the low production has left the two most popular derivatives of the crop – garri and fufu – perpetually expensive despite huge spending by successive governments on the sector.

“The issue of cassava is that we do not take the crop seriously; the situation we are facing now is a wakeup call to everybody. We must be serious if we are to attain food security and sufficiency,” said Godwin Atser, programme manager for Cassava and Maize Value Chain Project at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture.

“As long as the supply for the cassava is low due to the use of traditional/local varieties and inappropriate pattern of weed control, the price of its derivative will be high because the demand is high.”

Nigeria’s inflation reached a four-year high in March 2021 and garri and other staples such as rice have been the worst hit. A 100kg bag of garri has increased from ₦16,000 to ₦40,000 lately, while a 25kg bag of fufu grew from ₦3500 to ₦8000.

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