Great progress by a CFC-funded project pushing for cassava processing in Tanzania

Cassava is also a source of industrial raw material.

 Huge strides have been realized in transforming cassava from a food crop grown and eaten mostly by the poor to a commercial crop that can make money and improve the livelihoods of small-holder farmers in Tanzania. This is thanks to, among others, the activities of a two-phased project funded by the Common Funds for Commodity (CFC), led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and working with a wide range of partners in the country.

Cassava, a versatile crop that grows well under drought and in poor soils, is also a source of industrial raw material. However, this potential has not been well tapped in Tanzania where it is the second most important staple after maize. 

A CFC supported centre grating cassava to make HQCF  

 According to Nicholas Cromme, CFC project manager who was in the country recently, after years of talking about cassava’s potential they were in the last mile of making cassava a commercial crop.

The first four-year phase of the project tested different technologies to process cassava. Farmers were organized into groups and supported to set up small-scale processing centers to produce high quality cassava flour (HQCF), starch, and dried chips. 

HQCF was, in the end, identified as the most profitable product from cassava in the country.

The second phase, from 2009 to 2013, focused on promoting the medium- and large-scale processing of HQCF. It also engaged a marketing specialist to carry out a market study to identify people’s perceptions on HQCF and the best way to market it. This led to the development of a brand for the flour which will be launched next year as a pilot phase.

 

“We first started by testing what farmers can do with cassava. But now for the first time, we have a product to market that has been developed as a result of a sophisticated market research. We have piqued the interest of a big flour milling company to process and sell it,” Cromme said.

  Two-step processing

A manager at Ukaya farm shows the processed HQCF

According to Dr Adebayo Abass, IITA’s Food Technologist and the regional coordinator of the project, a two-step cassava processing technique was introduced by the project to tackle the bottlenecks identified in Phase one.

“We have introduced two types of processors—intermediate and final processors. The intermediate processors purchase fresh cassava from farmers. They peel, wash, grate, and extract water using a pressing machine. The semi-dried grits which have a longer shelf life are then transported and sold to the final processor who dry, mill, package, and sell to the final consumers or industry.”

The project is also installing a mechanical drier which can process 8 tons of cassava per day with one of the final processors, Ukaya farm in Mkuranga district which is 40kms from Dar es Salaam, to enable the drying of semi-dry grits even during the rainy season. This will therefore ensure that the final processor is able to deliver HQCF with consistent quality and quantity to markets and industrial users.

Ukaya farm currently has nearly 80 acres of cassava and also has entered into contract farming agreement with 280 surrounding farmers to supply fresh cassava roots to it.

Sefu Mlaki, the director of the farm, says after hearing about cassava processing, they approached the project staff for more information and received a lot of support.

Employees at the farm spreading cassava grits to dry

First, the project team developed a business plan for the farm which showed that it was possible to even recover all their investment in one year.

This convinced Mlaki and his partners to invest in cassava processing. They put up a processing plant following the designs provided by the project. They also dug up a borehole to ensure they had an adequate supply of water. After these, the project leased processing machines to the farm and provided training on cassava processing.

The farm has also entered into an agreement with the project to receive a flash drier on loan to enable it to process all year round. It will therefore receive and sell semi-dried grits from intermediate processors.

One such intermediate processor is Juma Mteta, 35, who set up his processing center in Bungu village, Rufiji, and sells dried chips to a Dar es Salaam-based company for milling into flour. He buys cassava for processing from over 350 farmers in his village.

One of his challenges is the lack of adequate water. He also needs a grating and pressing machine. The project will therefore help him to get a loan to construct a borehole and purchase large machines to process large quantities of cassava into semi-dried grits for sale to the final processor.

Juma Mteta and his wife show the cassava chips spread to dry

“The banking sector is still scared of giving credit to the farming sector. The project is therefore trying to link up with local banks to give credit to the processors in market terms. However, to make it affordable to the farmers and processors the project is considering providing credit guarantee to the bank and full technical assistance to the credit beneficiaries. This two-pronged approach will significantly decrease the risk margin for the banks, which in turn will lead to reduced interest rates,” said Cromme.

Significant increases in cassava processing

Dr Elifatio Towo, a scientist from the Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) and the project’s national coordinator, says there had been a remarkable increase in cassava processing in the country due to the project’s activities. 

“HQCF production has increased from 28 tons in 2010 to 112 tons in 2012. The acreage of cassava grown for HQCF production has also increased from 28 acres in 2010 to 154 in 2012,” he said. “The number of farmers supplying the processors with cassava has increased by nearly four times from 549 in 2010 to over 2,000 farmers in 2012.”

The project is also being implemented in Zambia and Madagascar.

Extension worker retires to lead way in cassava processing

Two years ago, a great belief in the power of the cassava and impatient with the slow uptake of processing technologies motivated Ernesto Lopes to leave his job as an agricultural extension officer, after 25 years, to set up OLIMA Ltd to practically show that the crop can be a source of food and money. OLIMA means to farm in one of the local languages spoken in Nampula.

“We started promoting cassava processing from the 90’s in Nampula province which is Mozambique’s number one producer and consumer of the crop. However, up to now, the technologies have not picked up. So I decided to take it up upon myself to show by example,” he explained. “Many times people need to see things practically to believe.

The 47 year old father of nine set up a processing centre in an abandoned garage of the Caminhos de Ferro de Mozambique (Mozambique Railway) borrowing old machines that were lying idle at Mozambican Agricultural Research Institute (IIAM) at Nampula - a chipper, 2 graters, and a press to extract water from the grated cassava.
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In March 2010 he started processing very slowly, experimenting with piles of cassava purchased from nearby farmers and processing into high quality cassava flour and starch. After a training by the Unleashing the Power of the Cassava in Africa (UPoCA) project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) funded by USAID, he added rale.

As his products improved, his orders increased. He says he is now buying truckloads of cassava from the nearby farmers who are only too happy as it saves them a trip to the market and he purchases at a much better price.


UPoCA also worked with him to develop a business plan in which he projects to increase his production to five tonnes of high quality cassava and one for starch, dried chips, and rale.

Currently, he has seven permanent employees and in a month sells approximately 500kgs of the flour, 100 kgs of starch, and 50 kgs of rale to local consumers who come to buy at the processing centre or at OLIMA offices in Nampula town.

“The government should also lead the way in exploiting the wide range of opportunities the cassava offers. For example promote the use of cassava in the bakery industry, ” he said.