Speech by (Chief (Dr) Alfred Dixon at the Second National Cassava Summit
Theme: Catalyzing and Scaling Private Sector-Led Cassava Seed Development
Venue: Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja: Date: 04 November 2021
Protocols
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to stand on existing protocols.
It gladdens my heart to be in your midst today to present a keynote address, on the theme, Catalyzing and Scaling Private Sector-Led Cassava Seed Development at this second National Cassava Summit. This summit comes at a critical time that the world is recovering from COVID 19. There is a high momentum to scale out proven technologies and innovations that would ameliorate the impact of the pandemic on the vulnerable populations in Africa. Even though the rate of infections from COVID 19 is on the decrease, its impact on our food system will linger for a while.
But let me remind us that apart from COVID 19, agriculture in Africa is bedeviled with several challenges, including climate change, pests and diseases, low productivity and an informal seed system that constrain the dissemination of improved varieties amongst others. The earlier we arm ourselves to catalyze the scaling of technologies and innovations to boost food production and embrace youth and women empowerment for Agricultural transformation, the better for Nigeria and the continent.
We must also not forget that Africa is spending about $35 billion annually importing food due to a number of constraints mentioned earlier above. The danger is if we do nothing about this, food import would rise to $110 billion by 2025. If this happens, our trade and particularly exchange rates will be in jeopardy. We will be exporting jobs and importing poverty. Unemployment will rise and raise the tempo of youth restiveness to a higher degree. The impact will be precarious on the food and nutrition security of the continent. It is more timely to double our efforts to arrest the situation. I trust you can and we all can.
Several years ago, precisely in 2016, we were in this same conference hall discussing the way forward for cassava in Nigeria. I recall that our focus and theme then was “Towards a U.S.$5 billion Per Annum Cassava Industry in the Next Five Years.”
Our key objectives then were to address the factors driving low yields of cassava in Nigeria.
Today is five years down the line, since we met last, and the question is: to what extent were we able to achieve those objectives? Are the goals still relevant? What do we need to continue doing, and what needs to be changed.
- The state of cassava: The state of cassava is a ‘mixed bag.’ Though Nigeria remains the largest producer in the world, on the one hand, the yield per hectare and production has not changed much. However,there has been more appreciation for cassava and cassava products. Its derivatives, such as gari and fufu, command better market prices than they did years ago.
- Promoting inclusive investment: Here, the cassava sector made remarkable progress with increased private sector participation in the cassava value chain. Although empirical evidence hasn’t been well established, some evidence suggests that we have new investments in the cassava sector scattered across the country.
- Developing strategies for launching cassava into a high performing and growth-oriented sub-sector: We witnessed new investments from organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, International Fund for Agricultural Development, the African Development Bank, World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, and the German Agency for International Cooperation GIZ to mention but a few. These institutions are investing in the cassava sector with new strategies and models.
- Building consensus on a policy framework: We participated individually and in some cases collectively in the development of the Agriculture Promotion Policy and other initiatives of the government of Nigeria to bring cassava to the front burner.
In summary, we have made progress but more needs to be done to achieve the cassava sector of our dream in Nigeria. Today, we are gathered again to look at cassava.
And there are several reasons for our gathering:
- Our yield per hectare must increase significantly above 20 tonnes per ha up from the current 9 tonnes per ha to make us globally competitive.
- The cassava sector needs to attract new investments to cut imports of other alternatives and save foreign exchange.
- Jobs and wealth need to be created to engage the young men and women and have a prosperous nation.
- Cassava must remain a pillar and beacon of our food security.
To achieve these goals, we must urgently develop the cassava seed sector, which had hitherto been largely informal with about 60 percent of the seeds grown in Nigeria being local varieties with low yield potential.
The Building an Economically Sustainable, Integrated Cassava Seed System, phase 2 (BASICS-II), has shown how Countries, states, Programs and Projects can set up a sustainanble seed system for jobs and wealth creation. Suffice to say that sustainable Cassava Seed System goes beyond cultivating improved varieties on a parcel of land. Rather, it involves the careful arrangement and establishment of Breeder, Foundation and Certified seeds in a manner that engenders genetic purity and quality assurance, and brings about commercialization and wealth creation in the seed value chain, while at the same time integrates the development of a pipeline of improved varieties by breeding programs.
BASICS-II project has developed the BASICS model to deploy, replicate, and disseminate in a an economically sustainable manner improved enduser-preferred varieties of cassava, and tackle the challenge of low yield. It links root producers, processors and consumers with Early Generation Seed (EGS) producers (breeder seeds and foundation seeds) and certified Commercial Seed Producers (CSPs) providing feedback from consumers, processors and farmers to continuously improve product profiles used by breeders for end-users’ (farmers and processors) preferred varieties. The seed regulatory agencies provide oversight along the seed production value chain with emphasis on EGS production. This model is illustrated pictorially in more detail in the profiles being circulated at this summit.
We are successfully using this model to positively impact the livelihoods of farmers by driving the adoption of improved varieties and creating jobs and wealth across the seed value chain and ensuring that farmers have access to land and the use improved cassava varieties.
One example, is the Benue women that are also here with us today. Before 2020, these women were producing certified stems on about 5 hectares. We worked with the women in 2020 using the BASICS model, trained them using the Six Steps to Cassava Weed Management and Best Planting Practices, strengthened the group and linked them to market. The women were able to increase their hectarage in 2020 to 42 hectares. This year, the women acquired 100 hectares to grow quality cassava stems.
Furthermore, we have successfully used the BASICS model to build seed system in Oyo state. What have we done? At the height of COVID 19 in 2020, we supported the Oyo State government to invest in seed production. The state through the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) was linked to IITA GoSeed. Today as I speak, the state has cultivated 100 ha of improved cassava seeds. The plan is to make the state the hub of cassava seed production in Nigeria.
We have also partnered with the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) to establish 150 Commercial Seed Entrepreneurs (CSEs) in the Niger Delta. Some of the CSEs are here and will be giving their testimonies. There are many more stories to tell during this summit.
Furthermore, industrial cassava processors are beginning to embrace the model to ensure their out growers schemes provide roots in the right quantity and quality from the required varieties.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I have dwelled a lot on the production side and I am sure you may be asking: Where is the demand? Who are those buying?
Studies from the literature show that 60 percent of cassava grown in Nigeria are not improved varieties. Added on that layer is the fact that majority of the improved varieties which account for 40 percent of planted area are recycled materials most often diseased. This reduces their genetic/ yield potential and requires replacement.
In 2020, the IITA GoSeed received a demand from the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 5 Star Project to supply improved cassava planting materials for the cultivation of 100,000 hectares. That is, 6 million bundles worth N6 billion (assuming each bundle is sold at N1000).
Unfortunately, this demand from the CBN was not met. Several other projects and farms also made requests for cassava stems here in Nigeria. While the modal price for cassava stems per bundle was N1000, in some locations such as Benue, Abia, Enugu, etc; cassava stems were sold at N2000 per bundle.
In addition, the burgeoning cassava processing sector is beginning to request specific varieties as raw materials. All of these point to the fact that there is a huge demand for improved cassava seeds (planting materials) and that demand needs to be filled in such a manner that is economically sustainable to create jobs and wealth.
Ladies and gentlemen, this summit, therefore, aims to fill the gap in seed demand, and the private sector has a critical role to play to provide farmers with access to affordable, quality-assured seeds of the cassava varieties in demand by local food and processor markets through the establishment of a commercially viable seed value chain operating across breeder, foundation, and commercial seed levels.
The summit will showcase success stories of cassava seed initiatives such as the Building an Economically Sustainable Cassava Seed System, phase 2 (BASICS-II), the Commercial Seed Entrepreneur model of PIND and several others that are enabling a more efficient dissemination and adoption of new varieties to improve productivity, raise incomes of cassava growers and seed entrepreneurs, enhance gender equity, and contribute to inclusive agricultural transformation in Nigeria.
The private sector is pivotal in any market-driven endeavour, while ensuring the support and buy-in of government and local authorities for providing the enabling environment. The overarching goal of this Summit is for the private sector and government to embrace our shared learning from these projects, programs and initiatives, and scale cassava seed system to other geographies in Nigeria for greater impact and sustainability, while pre-emptively protecting Nigeria’s cassava production from the threat of the devastating cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) that is ravaging Eastern, Southern and parts of Central Africa. It will feature sessions addressing seed quality and quantity issues, enabling environment regarding policy directions and legislative frameworks, industry demands, finance, production and marketing, capacity development, and productivity enhanceing technologies.
Distinguished participants here present, we must produce food in ways that create wealth, The present upwards trajectory of catalyzing and scaling private sector-led cassava seed development portrays a bright future for the country and will lead us to the promised land.
We are changing the narrative of cassava from poor farmers’ crop to pacesetter of African rural development.
Thank you all for coming and giving me the opportunity to give this keynote address.
WE ARE TOGETHER!!
God bless you all and I wish you a productive summit.
