The head of Nyanya station of the institute, Dr Eddy Nwoagu, stated this in an interview with our reporter in his office.
“We have the high yielding varieties of cassava for starch, ethanol, and the cassava varieties suitable for gari production,” he said. Highlighting the benefits of the new improved cassava varieties they have developed, Nwaogu said the product does not deplete the soil as some farmers fear.
Dr Nwaogu noted that cassava is naturally a heavy nutrient demanding crop. So when farmers plant cassava in the soil, it requires heavy amount of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and indeed all other nutrient that are necessary for plant growth.
“What happens is that when you plant cassava in a plot of land, it is expected that you should know that the cassava will draw up nutrient of that soil. In this case, we are now recommending complementary application of organic and inorganic manure as a way of sustaining fertility potential of the soil where you plant your cassava and other crops so that the fertility and sustainability of the soil will be maintained on continuous basis,” he said .
The package the institute has, also recommends what farmers should do so as to encourage the productivity of that soil on continuous basis. In those days people used to maintain fertility or enhanced fertility through crop rotation or shifting cultivation.
Today, because of demographic pressure, land is very limited. Available land has been taken up. “So you cannot tell people not to go to farm. If you have only a piece of land, there is no other one available, you must be advised on what to do so that you maintain the productivity of that land and use it to achieve your agricultural purposes.”
In this case the farmer needs the services of soil experts who will advise him on how to go about conserving the fertility strength of the soil for continuous productivity.
Nwoagu stressed that the institute has developed 38 varieties of cassava. “We have a good range of them, ours is not specifically to go into mass production. That is why we are calling on private partners to come and collaborate with us.”
He said the institute is looking for people that will commercialize the production of these varieties they have developed, so that it will be very much in abundance in the country.
This is because the research institute does not have enough land to go into the kind of production that will cover all the farmers in Nigeria. Which is why it makes use of farmers and other agencies to come into play, so as to make the cassava varieties and other crops varieties relatively abundant and easy to access by farmers.
He called on farmers with problems in root and tuber crops in Nigeria to come and take advantage of research findings at the National Root Crops Research Institute, Nyanya substation. “We have what it takes to solve problem for people especially problem relating to root and tuber crops production, processing, utilization and marketing.”
In the area of storage, the institute encourages value addition. Cassava deteriorates easily as soon as it is harvested because of it nutritional composition and the high water content. There are some varieties that have been developed for some purposes. “The problem is that our people harvest their cassava and eat it either as fufu or garri,” Eddy lamented.
Cassava today is being used for so many things. Some cassava varieties are being used for the production of ethanol, which in some countries are used for driving automobiles.
Currently, cassava flour is now been used to complement flour requirement in making of bread. These are different aspects of cassava, which the institute now highlights. Instead of farmers to harvest and keep it raw, or keep it to spoil, or eat it as garri and fufu, they can go into value addition, processing it to get flour and other value added products that will yield lots of money.
Storage is generally a problem not only in root and tuber crops, even in vegetables. That is the greatest problem the country has for now. If the country will be able to harness the entire root and tuber crops over time, through value addition, the country will have enough food to put on the tables of Nigerians.
Responding to the issue of market for cassava products, which many farmers in the villages find difficult, he said in the National Root Crops Research Institute, they have Extension Department that deals with issues of extending information, both in terms of what they develop as technology and in terms of the market response and fluctuation of certain products. They also serve as a link, linking farmers to the industrialists looking for some of these products.
It is observed that the greatest problem is not even the market, but lack of adequate information on where the market is. “The market exists, but people because of one constraint or the other, do not know who to go to and how to reach that individual for market. So we have a lot of marketing channels we are creating in root and tuber crops,” he said.
The institute also encourages formation of cooperatives in order to constitute a block. According to Dr Nwaogu, if they constitute a block, those in dire need of their products will always locate them wherever they are, even if they are in the hinterland.
