The government of Nigeria has initiated a ‘cassava transformation plan ‘to create a new generation of cassava farmers, oriented towards commercial production to generate a surplus dedicated to specific value-added chains.

The overarching aim is to turn the cassava sector in Nigeria into a major player in local and international flour, starch, sweeteners, ethanol, and dried chips markets by adopting improved production and processing technologies, and organizing producers and processors into efficient value-added chains. Implementation of the value-added chain activities will be driven by the private sector with support from the public sector.

One of the issues to be worked out is the use of cassava waste, typically the peels of cassava, that are mostly burned to produce energy. Another way to add value to the industrial cassava value chain is to turn these wastes, and possibly part of the cassava root production as well, into a cassava-base system…