Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike promised that the state will provide funds for cassava growers to feed the newly commissioned Rivers State Cassava Processing Plant at Afam Town in Oyigbo Local Government Area of the State.
Present at the commissioning was the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo; The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele among others.
The Governor in his address stated the willingness of his administration to encourage proper cultivation of the vast fallow lands available in the State to ensure that the processing plant does not lack raw materials.
He disclosed that ‘seed money has been set aside by his administration to encourage massive cultivation of cassava across the State while adding that the seed money would not be administered like previous grants offered by the state government.
He said the grant will be given to genuine farmers who will go through verification as this is to encourage an increase in the production of cassava in the State.
“The other day, I went to see one of my friends. I went to his farm of over 56 hectares of land. He’s trying to cultivate cassava and I was very impressed.
“And I told him, that government will identify and verify those genuinely involved and are registered as cassava producers. Apply to us that you want to farm one hectare of land for only cassava.
“Government will give them seed money to continue farming cassava so that there will be no problem of Cassava supply to this plant,” he said
Governor Wike explained that it is no more fashionable for youths and leaders of local government councils to be content raising revenues from stickers. He urged them to avail themselves of opportunities offered by the cassava processing plant.
He solicited for more loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria to fuse the visible gain made already in boosting agriculture in the State while assuring that any of such loans from the banks will be paid off before he leaves office as he has already made a commitment not to leave any burden for his successor.
Inaugurating the facility, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Nanono said the plant is a direct response to addressing the challenges of food security in the country.
He stressed that the ministry is on a constant meeting with bakers on the need to embrace import replacement of wheat and flour by incorporating 10 per cent of cassava flour in their baking activities. He added that the new Rivers State cassava processing plant is now available to meet that need.
The minister thanked Governor Wike for setting the pace in making agriculture work in the country while announcing his support by donating 10,000 stems of cassava from the National Root Crops to cassava farmers.
Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, who also graced the occasion expressed that most manufacturing companies will be happy to source their demands from this new plant without the stress of importing either glucose, starch or any other cassava by-products.
Emefiele noted that the processing plant would ease the development of cassava into various by-products needed for the industrial development of Nigeria. He enjoined companies like Nestle that import starch and glucose to begin procurement of these raw materials from Nigeria to enable the country to save foreign exchange.
Representative of the country chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Igo Weli in his speech said that Shell hopes to support Rivers people to earn much more revenue from the cassava value chain as the cassava plant makes use of foremost technology in processing the crop, adding more value to it.
“Today, we have the Rivers Cassava Processing Company Limited that will process cassava into High-Quality Cassava Flour via a unique split processing technology based on the operating principle of taking the factory to the farm gates rather than having the farmer bring the cassava tubers to the factory gate.”
