The meeting aims to draw a
roadmap for a cassava-based animal feed system that will highlight action plans
for adding value to the cassava business in Nigeria. The roadmap will have a
potential to serve as a model for all cassava-producing countries in Africa.
“We need to seize this opportunity and harness
the benefits of every part of the cassava crop for national development, income
generation, nutrition enhancement, and poverty alleviation,” says Dr Kenton
Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, Partnerships and Capacity Development.
Nigeria, the world’s top cassava
producer, is transforming its cassava sector and strengthening the value chain
of the root crop to make it more competitive. Reforms in cassava-growing
countries in Africa, backed by supportive government policies and improved
varieties developed by agricultural research centers have significantly raised
the productivity of cassava. In Nigeria, annual production of cassava climbed to
52.4 million tons in 2011.
The increase in production of
cassava roots is also generating 5 – 7.5 million tons of wet peels (10 – 15% of
whole tuber), as farmers and industry rev up processing of cassava.
Dr Iheanacho Okike, a researcher
with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) based in IITA, says the
peels could contribute largely to the income of farmers, and provide additional
economic options for livestock and fish producers if converted to animal feed.
Additional benefits accrue to
consumers due to increased production of milk, meat and fish, and the
additional availability of maize and other grains that could otherwise have
gone into the feed system.
The IITA-hosted meeting involves
representatives from many international research institutes and is organized by
the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century, the CGIAR Research Program
on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) and co-hosted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development (FMARD).
As the second most important food
crop in the least developed countries and the fourth most important source of
food energy in the world after wheat, maize, and rice, cassava is generally
grown by small holder farmers, who appreciate its tolerance of drought and poor
soils, one of the reasons why the root crop has been dubbed “the crop of the
21st century.”
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Cassava also holds great
postharvest potential as food for the household, feed for livestock, and raw
material for a wide array of value-added products – from coarse flour to
high-tech starch gels. Both the roots and leaves can be directly fed to
livestock, or used in producing commercial feed.
According to the Food and
Agriculture Organization, “animals raised on cassava have generally good
health, good disease resistance, and a low mortality, and require few, if any,
antibiotics in their feed.”
Dr Claude Fauquet, GCP21 Director
notes that “When the cassava transformation agenda of Nigeria is completed, the
production of cassava by-products (peels) is expected to reach 2 million tons dry
matter per year… this is the perfect time to set up a feed manufacturing system
on an industrial scale.”
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