Thread by @sarnchos

I want to talk about cassava tonight.

For some key states like Ondo, Nassarawa, Ekiti, Kwara, Oyo, Osun, and Kogi, cassava plays an absolutely vital role of economic security for ordinary farmers and small scale food processors

There's just one little problem

#Thread

For every crop value chain, the bulk of value (and profit) should go to the processor.

In this case, the major processors of cassava are the millions of micro processors that transform the crop into garri, flour and starch for consumption

Cassava Is a relatively easy tuber to

cultivate compared to yam and cocoyam (dominated by states in SE Nigeria) and so farmers easily regulate the supply end of the market only harvesting their crops when they know prices are highest

Cassava can stay relative large periods underground after maturity without spoiling

Therefore, the farmers have a crude means of hedging themselves from outright losses due to market fluctuations

If sales in a particular season is bad, you can be sure that cultivation for the next season will reduce. But largely the supply of cassava roughly tracks demand

However for the cassava processor, this isn't the case

Because of horrible infrastructure that distorts supply of cassava to the rural markets that micro processors frequent, they are the sole victims of the lacuna in the cassava value chain

You see, nobody else buys cassava

except microprocessors.

You can't eat cassava unless it is processed (unlike other tubers)

When yam prices rise, the cost is transferred to consumers in the cities almost directly.

The farmer doesn't lose, & neither do others.

For cassava, garri, starch, fufu & flour, prices

hardly fluctuate as wildly as cassava does

This is because of the role played by the middle men who straddle the divide between the urban and the rural

These players ensure that prices of cassava derivatives follow a predictable curve of lower prices in rainy season & higher

prices in the dry season

So in all these, the millions of cassava micro processors end up on the losing end of the bargain

A vast majority of them are trapped in poverty because they are hardly able to eke out a profit from cassava processing

Most of the time they only realise

enough to eat from one market day to the next, while relying of deforestation as a source of processing fuel

Therefore, as I have described above, there exists a solid gap in the chain to disrupt the entire industry.

How?

Due to the opportunity presented in utilizing wasted

products of the cassava processing cycle

What are these wasted items during processing of cassava?

1. The peels
2. Starch

1. Cassava peels consist of at least 5% of the cassava processing cycle which ends up largely wasted

It is a proven fact that cassava peels can substitute

for maize in livestock diets (as long as it is properly processed)

Unfortunately most micro processors don't have the ability to process cassava peels and often leave it to waste

Processing outfits that can buy these peels from the micro processors by weight will put more cash

in their pockets

2. Starch is wasted in 2 ways during the cassava processing cycle

The first way is during the pressing of the cassava to remove the poisonous content in it

A good part of the expelled liquid is actually starch which can be collected and sold (provided it is in

demand by a paying customer)

The second way is the starch trapped within the cassava mulch on its way to pressing and frying.

A sizeable quantity of starch can be collected from grated cassava before it is pressed, without affecting the volume of garri produced

As above, this

is as long as there's a paying customer willing to buy it.

Let me lay out my strategy for disrupting the cassava market and breaking the monopoly of middlemen who make it impossible for micro processors to earn a profit from their back-breaking work

1. We will set up a storage facility for all sorts of crops and produce including garri

2. We will make it know that we will match any prevailing market price for garri (and purchase from all producers) as long as the following conditions are met

a. A minimum quality of

clean, crunchy, fried garri will be enforced before acceptance

b. We will only buy garri from those who also sell a specific weight of cassava peels per garri weight to us

c. We will only buy garri from those who extract & sell a specific weight of starch per garri weight to us

In other words we will only buy garri from those who want to earn double their income from processing their garri from us (which hopefully will be everybody)

This way, we will be a more reliable source of high quality garri to the market, because we will act as a clearing house

between micro processors and middle men.

And we will also earn a tidy profit from the process.

Our aim will be to ensure that the distortion in the cassava value chain is set right, while improving the livelihoods of millions of small scale processors.