By Mercy Omoike/Mariam Akande
Lagos – Prof. Kolawole Adebayo, of the Department of Rural Development, Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB), Abeokuta, has lauded the Cassava Adding Value for Africa project (CAVA), a new agricultural initiative.
Adebayo, who said that the CAVA initiative would improve Nigeria’s cassava value chain, made this disclosure on Monday, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to Adebayo, the aim of the project was to diversify Nigeria from an oil-based economy, create employment opportunities and provide foreign income for Nigeria.
“We want to improve people’s livelihood that could help our nation diversify our economy beyond oil and to create employment for people.
“The CAVA project is a project in partnership among many institutions.
“What we do is; work across the entire cassava value- chain, creating opportunities and ensuring that those business opportunities are commercially viable.
“And finally generate some external reserves in terms of foreign exchange income, to the country,’’ he said.
Adebayo revealed that at all levels CAVA was focused at rendering interventions and supports to every actor in the Nigerian cassava value chain.
“If you are a farmer, we interject with how you make the best of your resources, so that you get a better yield than your neighbouring farmers or from other competing farmers.
“If you are an end user how do you use cassava products, in ways that will enrich your business and give better nutrition to the consumers?
“At the end of the day, we focus more on the market end of the chain in the hope that there is a market too for cassava based products.
“The cassava farmers too will have opportunity to benefit from, in the sector.
“We have a team that train people on how to use cassava in the various baked products and pastries,” he said.
The don also highlighted how the improvement of the cassava value chain would in turn improve the country’s foreign exchange revenue and boost the local farmer’s business.
“The more people use cassava in all these products, the more we reduce our import bill and the amount of money we use to import wheat flour.
“We also enrich our farmers because this cassava comes from here and the local farmers will then be able to sell more cassava.
“There is a lot in between the farmers and end users. The processors, the transporters, the loaders and off loaders; a lot of employment is created in our country.
“That is what CAVA does and these are some of the things the project contributes to the nation’s economy,” he said.
NAN reports that the CAVA is a project in partnership among several agricultural institutions.
The leadership of the project is provided by FUNAAB.
The project also has collaborators in Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and Tanzania.
(NAN)