Africa’s biggest maker of ethanol from cassava cites IITA

L-R: Godwin Atser, Kenton Dashiell,Rajasekar Rajavelu, Director (Agro),
AADL and an AADL official during the commissioning.

Allied Atlantic Distilleries Limited (AADL), Africa’s biggest maker of ethanol from cassava, says improved varieties and best-bet agronomic practices in the production of cassava, which it obtained from IITA and passed on to farmers have doubled the yield of the root crop, making it possible for farmers to supply more of this raw material to the industry than earlier expected.

Commissioned on 30 January in Lasada, Igbese community in Ogun State, the ethanol factory will produce 9 million liters per annum of extra neutral alcohol, requiring approximately 250 tons of cassava per day.

Already over 8,000 farmers located within 70-km radius of Igbesa covering Ogun and Oyo states, southwest Nigeria, have been engaged and the factory is providing more than 40,000 indirect jobs to people in the area, Mr Ola Rosiji, Chairman of AADL said.

“With the support of IITA, our farmers have doubled their yields from an average 12 t/ha to 22 t/ha; our farmers now earn double what they would have earned,” he added.

Commending the board and management of the company, Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, Partnerships & Capacity Development, representing Director General Nteranya Sanginga, said the inauguration of the factory was indeed a good opportunity for Africa, and especially cassava growers, who now have more markets for their produce.

He said that the factory would create jobs, attract foreign investment, and create wealth for the people, adding that IITA is willing to partner with the private sector to lift 11 million people out of poverty and also reclaim and put into sustainable use 7.5 million hectares of degraded land.

Collaboration between IITA and AADL, a subsidiary of the Lexcel Group began in the early 2000s when the project was conceived and IITA provided inputs to the feasibility study of the investment. Also under the Cassava Transformation Agenda, which is being coordinated by Dr Richardson Okechukwu, IITA is again linking farmers to the factory. In addition, the Institute is also providing training and improved planting materials and technical advisory support to the firm.

HarvestPlus Country Manager Paul Ilona said the factory would change the outlook of cassava from the global perspective of “a poor man’s crop” to an industrial crop.

The Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun commended IITA for the good work it has been doing to improve the lives of people in Africa.

DR Congo releases six new cassava varieties … names one of the varieties after Paul Ilona

DR Congo has released six improved cassava varieties to help improve yields and incomes of farmers, thanks to collaborative efforts between IITA and the DR Congo National Institute of Agricultural Research (INERA).

Two of the six new varieties were introduced from IITA: MUTIENE (I 92/326) and BOMENGO (M98/115). The other four were selected in the country, LITOY (2006/114), MUZURI (2006/073), KANSAKAKO (MV2007/102) and ILONA (MV2007/126).

The harvest periods of the varieties vary from 12 to 20 months after planting with root yields of 21 to 47 t/ha. In addition, the varieties are resistant to Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD), with a good level of tolerance to Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD). They are high yielding, early-to-late bulking, and adapted to various environments in DR Congo.

“They are all good for fufu, lituma, chikwangue, and pondu (cooked cassava leaves),” says Dr Nzola Mahungu, Cassava Breeder and IITA Country Representative in DR Congo.

The official release ceremony took place on Monday 11, November 2013 at the Research Centre of INERA at Mvuazi (in Bas Congo province, 200 km from Kinshasa). The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (John Chrysostome Vahamwiti) and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific research (Bonaventure Chelo) were both at the ceremony.

Dr Mahungu explained that the varieties were developed through the IITA-Cassava project funded by USAID since 2001.

The addition of six new cassava varieties brings the total number to 20 since the project’s inception.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Augustin Kadima Ngeleka who represented USAID/Kinshasa, appreciated the efforts made in the development of these new varieties and stressed the importance of cassava as the staple food and source of income of the Congolese population. He lauded IITA for putting to good use the US Government’s assistance to DR Congo, and wished that the new varieties would reach the farmers and other producers to have the desired impact on people’s livelihoods.

 “To achieve this, the new varieties must be spread in all ecological zones where they are adapted to meet farmers’ needs,” he said.

Ilona (middle) planting with DRC farmers

Explaining the naming of the new varieties by farmers, the Minister of Agriculture wanted to know the meaning of “Ilona” as it is not a Congolese word. He was told that farmers in Province Orientale always ask after Paul Ilona and have kept good memories of him. They recall the way he worked with them in participatory variety selection and how he fast-tracked cassava recovery in the province after the CMD invasion. Paul Ilona was instrumental in moving cassava breeding, looking at the  bigger picture of value chains,and helped to link farmers to processors. Thus, they named one of their best varieties  “Ilona”.

In accepting the naming, Paul Ilona wrote: “I am completely short of words and I do not know how many thank you rhymes  I should send to you and the team in DRC. However, the fact remains that you (Dr Nzola) with Dr Alfred Dixon gave me all the support I needed to make progress on cassava development in DRC. It is a collective honor for the cassava breeding team in IITA as it truly was a team work”.

Alfred Dixon, former Head of Cassava Breeding Unit at IITA, wrote: “Paul deserves it. When bullets were flying around, Paul was there to make sure the cassava improvement goal was met in DRC. I wish him many more successes in the cassava world.”

Paul Ilona, a former IITA staff, is now the Country Manager for HarvestPlus in Nigeria.

Farmers get provitamin A cassava planting materials for 2013 planting season



Farmers collecting vitamin A cassava varieties for 2013 planting season

Researchers have begun the dissemination of pro-vitamin A cassava varieties to rural households as part of efforts to tackle vitamin A deficiency in Nigeria. Popularly known as yellow cassava, these new improved varieties hold part of the solution to Vitamin A deficiency in Africa. It is no longer news that vitamin A deficiency is widespread in Nigeria, afflicting about 20% of pregnant women and 30% of children below the age of 5. A deficiency in vitamin A leads to poor health, blindness, stunting, and even death.

Through decades of conventional breeding efforts, researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in partnership with the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, with funds from HarvestPlus, have been able to develop provitamin A cassava varieties to tackle this malnutrition menace.

The plan is to ensure that over two million farmers have access to vitamin A cassava stems for planting across the major cassava producing states in Nigeria with initial emphasis on Akwa Ibom, Benue, Imo and Oyo States as regional hubs.  HarvestPlus and partners plan to distribute 300,000 bundles of stems to 100,000 households in Nigeria in 2013 alone. Currently, more than 40,000 traceable farmers in Akwa Ibom, Abia, Anambra, Benue, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and River states received stems in June and July, while more states will receive stems before the end of August. This is possible because over 500 hectares of the vitamin A varieties were proactively multiplied in 2012. Stakeholders believe that rural households deserve better nutrition and the consumption of more nutritious crops is a good opportunity to reduce malnutrition globally.
Two Champions in Anambra State, His Royal Highness Igwe Obi Odimegwu, the Igwe Akwu-udughudu of Ubahuekwem Autonomous Community and His Royal Highness Igwe Gabriel Umeh, the Ezeudemba of Akwaezikenyi Kingdom, both in Ihiala LGA, were united in their efforts to introduce vitamin A cassava to their people to contribute to food and health security. In a very colorful ceremony held at Ihudim primary school Ihiala where over 500 farmers received planting materials of the new varieties, the two Kings praised the Federal government, IITA, NRCRI and HarvestPlus for making vitamin A cassava available to farmers in their communities. They pledged to partner with HarvestPlus in ensuring that all farmers in the local government produce, consume, and market vitamin A cassava products.
Paul Ilona, Country Manager for HarvestPlus advised farmers to cultivate the varieties and consume them sufficiently especially for the under 5 children and pregnant women for better health and nutrition. He also encouraged farmers to give stems to their neighbors at the time of harvest to ensure rapid dissemination of planting materials.
Besides improving the health and nutrition of the people, the cultivation of the varieties can provide jobs, improve incomes and lift poor households out of poverty.
Consumers love the varieties because of their nutritional qualities and they can be processed into several dishes.
 During the dissemination exercises across the states in Nigeria, the Nutrition Unit of HarvestPlus displayed a variety of novel products that mothers could produce using the provitamin A cassava to enrich their family nutrition. Products displayed included cassava moi-moi, chin- chin, gari,and fufu. The success being recorded in the dissemination of these new varieties will be presented at the Africa Agriculture Science Week in Accra Ghana. The Science Week is organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa.