Cassava Varieties

While a large number of different varieties of cassava existed, several new and improved varieties had been developed in the decade prior to the start of this project. Thus, there was a need to carefully screen for cassava varieties that deliver acceptable quality characteristics and that meet end user requirement. This was achieved using a national survey that was designed and implemented to ascertain cassava varieties that are predominantly used by HQCF processors. In addition, a desktop literature review was conducted to identify common cassava varieties grown and utilised in Nigeria.

While studies on cassava varieties were conducted in Nigeria, a total of 150 cassava farmers, 112 HQCF processors and 146 bakers were surveyed and 29 bakers were interviewed in Ghana.

Two sets of questionnaires (for farmers and processors) were developed and used to survey the selected respondents in Nigeria. These respondents were sampled using a multi-stage sampling technique whereby, the first stage was the visit to the Agricultural Development Agencies of State covered in the survey to access the sampling frame. From this frame, the respondents were drawn using simple random sampling technique with access to respondents facilitated with support of the ADP extension personnel.

A total of 150 farmers (30 per state) and 8 small and medium enterprise owners (SMEs) producing HQCF were interviewed in Nigeria. Results showed that the majority of cassava farmers in Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ondo states were within the 50-60 age bracket while in Ekiti, the majority of farmers were slightly younger and belonged to the 40-50 age bracket. The fact that most respondents were over the age of 40 indicated that youth in Nigeria were no longer involved in cassava farming.

Similar to Ekiti State, the majority of SME owners surveyed were aged 40-50 years.

One underlying reason for this ageing farmer trend could be attributed to rural-urban migration as youth are seen to move to urban areas in search of more technical training and job opportunities. Another possible explanations was that farm practices in southwest Nigeria at the time, still heavily relied on the age long use of hoe and cutlasses as opposed to mechanised farming equipment which made cassava production less attractive to youths especially those with an education. Additionally, old age was found to be a disadvantage in cassava production and processing as most activities needed for the process were physically demanding. Thus, improvement of rural infrastructures by the government was potentially a method that could curb the rural-urban shift and attract more youth to partake in the cassava value-chain enterprises.

Other than the ageing farmer trend, results also showed that a large percentage of farmers were make across all states implying that production of cassava was predominantly a male affair. This was expected given the drudgery and physical nature of most activities involved in cassava production at the time. It had been widely reported that men performed cassava production activities such as land clearing and preparation, preparation of agro-chemicals, weeding as well as harvesting.

With regards to education levels, over 80% of the farmers interviewed had formal education with the highest percentage (93.3%) found in Oyo state while the lowest percentage (80.8%) was found in Osun state. Previous studies had reported that the level of education has a positive relationship with a farmer’s level of openness to to the adoption of innovative and modern farming techniques. This explained why the majority of farmers interviewed did not keep a record of their farming activities.

In actuality, some of the respondents revealed that keeping records was taboo in the farming business with some farmers going so far as to say that they believed farm book-keeping would bring them sadness if they eventually found out their farms were not making a profit. This way of thinking discretely affected their production methods, their farm productivity as well as their ability to accept new information. This was a clear-cut opportunity and reason for the need to create a new generation of agribusiness entrepreneurs.

Unlike farmers, 75% of the SME respondents attended tertiary educational institutions.

The average farm size in southwest Nigeria was found to be larger than 3 hectares with the exception of Ekiti state where average farm size was between 1 and 3 hectares.

Most of the farmers in Ekiti and Oyo state allocated 25 to 50% of their farmland to cassava cultivation while in Ogun and Ondo, 51 to 75% of farmland was allocated to production of cassava. Results in Osun showed that the majority of farmers allocated 76 to 100% of their farmland to cassava cultivation. Thus, southwest cassava farmers were found to be smallholder farmers predominantly which undoubtedly had an impact on their decision to cultivate cassava for food security purposes or whether to produce cassava for business/income purposes.

Subsequently, any meaningful cassava value chain development would have needed to cluster farmers to own at least 10ha within a 10-15km radius of cassava processing facilities. The low level of agricultural mechanisation which in turn compelled farmers to cultivate cassava at a smaller scale was one of the limiting factors inhibiting increased cassava productivity.

Results from the interviews with farmers in all five states showed that they mostly grew local cassava varieties. Based on the surveys administered to the 8 SMEs, findings showed that the processors used different varieties of cassava supplied by the farmers.

However, findings showed that SMEs preferred some cassava varieties over others based on HQCF yield and quality. The preferred varieties comprised of both local and improved varieties namely:

• TME 419
• TMS 30572
• Oko-iyawo
• TMS 30555

Additionally, the SME survey results identified major constraints which included:

• The lack of a consistent and competitive market for high-quality cassava flour
• SMEs did not have enough sufficient capital for commercialisation
• Farmers and processors had limited access to credit facilities
• When SMEs and farmers did have access to credit facilities, conditions were stringent and at times beyond their reach