Cassava production can generate over N15trillion which is more than the country's budget in a year, it has been disclosed.
The National President of the Cassava Growers Association of Nigeria, Prophet Segun Adewunmi disclosed this in an interview with The Hope, in Akure, Ondo state.
He said the country can replace oil production with cassava which he said has lost its value and dwindled the nation's economy as the global economic recession continues to bite hard.
Nigeria, he said is the highest cassava producer in the world and can give the country three trillion naira in a year.
His words:"Import bill for items that cassava can generate is more than three trillion in a year and if we want to do it on export basis, we can generate over N15trillion from cassava"
"Cassava is better than oil now. The budget of Nigeria is seven trillion and we can make 15trillion from cassava".
Adewunmi said the country can derive more than 20 types of local foods from cassava, describing it as one of the easiest crops to plant and very dependable which does not require too much effort to grow.
He stated five major industrial products of cassava to include Ethanol, Industrial starch, Glucose shrub, sweetener and cassava flour.
"These five items can also be raw materials to numerous agro allied industries with numerous market potentials like ethanol", he noted.
According to him, 100 different types of products could be got from ethanol, classifying it into fuel grade and bio fuel.
"Ethanol is used to produce all the different alcohols, industrial starch into panadol, glucose syrup into pharmaceuticals and cassava flour for bread", he said.
While explaining that what is produced is not enough to make seven percent of what is needed for bread, Adewunmi attributed the low production to non-availability of processing facilities.
He charged governments at the state and federal levels to create enabling environment for cassava production in the areas of land provision, access to easy loan, provision of tractors for mechanised farming and processing facilities.
"All these are the enabling environment that we must meet to penetrate the international market", he disclosed.
