FG to re-introduce cassava bread initiative

by Azeez Adeniyi

The Federal Government has said it will encourage the use of cassava in food production by reviving the cassava bread initiative.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said this when he featured at the News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Abuja.

Ogbeh said Nigeria has not fully explored the potentials of cassava even as it is the largest producer of the crop in the world.

He said the revival of the cassava bread initiative would help reduce importation of wheat.

He said the revival of cassava bread would encourage cassava farmers to increase their productivity.

He said, “The use to which we have put cassava has been very low. We haven’t produced industrial starch even though we are trying to revive textiles, we haven’t done ethanol, we are importing ethanol.

“We haven’t exported cassava chips because of the cost of transportation from the hinterland to the ports.

“We haven’t done syrup which is used in the brewery industry, even industrial brews, the peels for feeding livestock, the leaves for feeding livestock; we haven’t done much.

“The bread one is still coming up. There is something you must add to bread if you use the cassava flour called bake shop.

“There is a Nigerian who wants to come and set up the factory here. You add that so that the bread can rise; that is what we are waiting for, it will be done.’’

Former President Goodluck Jonathan had in 2012 launched the cassava bread, which was made from composite flour containing 40 per cent cassava and 60 per cent wheat.

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