Kampala — CASSAVA farmers in Pallisa, Bukedea and Soroti districts in eastern Uganda have been trained to process cassava into high quality flour for industrial use. The move is part of the comprehensive strategy by Africa Innovations Institute to fight poverty through the Cassava Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) project.

Dr. Nape Otim, the chairperson of the institute, says there is a significant market for high quality cassava flour in the bakery and animal feed industry.

"Cassava has the potential to be transformed from a purely subsistence food crop to an industrial and commercial crop. For example, high quality cassava flour can be used solely (100%) to make cakes and doughnuts and can replace up to 20% of wheat in the bread making industry, with commendable results.

High quality cassava flour is also a potential raw material in the animal feed industry and for other industrial uses such as glucose syrups, paperboards and plywood. It is now time for the various stakeholders to play their roles effectively so that we take advantage of this significant market. This has already been achieved in Brazil and Thailand. We can borrow a leaf from these countries," Nape says.

The C:AVA project started by training farmers within the various farmer groups and associations who will in turn train other members on how to process cassava flour within 24 hours.

Dr. Abas Adebayo, the training facilitator, who is also the coordinator of the Cassava Value Chain with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Tanzania, says the 24-hour process eliminates chances of fermentation. The process begins with cassava harvesting, sorting and peeling, thoroughly washing the peeled tubers and processing them into wet granules using a grating machine. The granules are then loaded into new and clean polypaper bags and loaded onto a pressing machine to remove water, synaid and reduce the starch content as well. The caked granules are then regrated into small particles which are then dried on raised platforms. The dry granules can then be milled into high quality cassava flour.

"Because the granule size is small and the moisture content has been greatly reduced during the pressing stage, complete drying will occur within a short time if you sundry and even much less if the drying is mechanical," says Adebayo. He advises farmers, particularly those relying on the sun for drying their cassava, to start the process early enough so that by noon, the wet granules are already spread out on the raised platform. This way, they will take advantage of the hot temperature and ensure that they attain the recommended 10% moisture level.

Emutu Zaituni, one of the farmer trainers representing Popular Knowledge Women Farmers Initiatives, an association of over 1,560 farmers in Bukedea district, commends the training, saying putting the knowledge into practical skills will help them improve the livelihood of the farmers.

"Team work is the best way to go in order to achieve high quality cassava flour within 24 hours. Fortunately, the market is readily available and the price is affordable. So we are sure that our determination and effort will pay off," Emutu says.

Naome Mwidhu, a member of Pallisa Agri-business Training Association, an organisation of over 30 farmer groups in Pallisa, confirms the readily available market, saying their association has already been awarded a tender to supply 75 tonnes of the high quality cassava flour to the project by April 2010.

"Our only challenge at the moment is lack of the recommended drying and milling equipment."

Robert Gensi, the country manager for Africa Innovations Institute and the in-charge C:AVA field activities, says the project will benefit over 16,000 small holder farmer households and disadvantaged groups.

The project, also implemented in Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and Malawi, is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It focuses on three key intervention points for the value chain namely;

Ensuring a consistent supply of the required raw materials to meet the demand,

Developing viable intermediaries acting as secondary processors or bulking agents

Driving market demand and building market shares.

"The project will support farmers and farmer groups to produce cassava and also undertake primary processing activities. The business development specialists will support the intermediaries to meet the requirements of the end users such as those in the confectionary industry.

"The project will also be provided with technical support, to help them use high quality cassava flour for quality products which suit the taste of the market," Gensi says.