Abeokuta, April 15, 2019 (NAN) – The Value Chain Development Programme and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD-VCDP) on Monday trained cassava farmers in Ogun on the use of cassava peels as livestock feeds.
Mr Tunde Adebiyi, Deputy Director, Technical Services for Livestock in Ogun, South West Nigeria, said that the training was to reduce, to the barest minimum, wastage incurred across the cassava value chain.
Besides, Adebiyi said the training would improve farmers’ means of livelihood as well as create jobs.
« The essence of this workshop is to enable our farmers to see the reality and stop the wastage in cassava.
« Although, value addition is capital intensive, what the farmers need is fund to add value to the cassava peels, which can be used as a veritable ingredient in the production of livestock feeds, » he said.
Adebiyi noted that if farmers could key into the production of cassava mash and produce sufficient quantity, the demand for maize as feeds would reduce significantly.
In his remarks, Mr Williams Babalola, Ogun State Processing and Quality Enhancement Officer in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the training was to build capacity for agro-processors and other stakeholders.
According to Babalola, before now, cassava peel is seen as nuisance to the environment, but today, high quality cassava peel mash can actually serve as feeds to cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.
« We are trying to create climate change adaptation measure as to how we treat our agro-waste and how we manage our agro-waste of which cassava peels is one of them, » he said.
Also, a Consultant, Mr Olufemi Ojo, who spoke on the technologies involved in the production of high quality cassava peel mash, said Africa currently produced more than 150 million tonnes of cassava tubers annually.
He said that failure or inability of the country to salvage and reuse the cassava peels economically would result in unnecessary wastage and depletion of natural resources.
Ojo urged the farmers to take advantage of what they had been taught to generate more income and employment for actors in the cassava value chain.
