A Decade (2002 – 2012) of Presidential Intervention on Cassava in Nigeria; the Successes and Challenges

Agriculture used to be the mainstay of Nigeria before crude oil was discovered in commercial quantities in 1956. However, Nigeria neglected agriculture in preference to oil due to the oil boom in the early 1970s, resulting in the country to become a major importer of food, particularly of wheat and rice to the detriment of the country’s economy. Hence, the government of Nigeria, which wished to reduce the food importation bill of the country, pursued a presidential intervention on cassava (PIC) programme. The government created policies that supported the industrialization of cassava, such as 10% cassava bread policy, 10% bioethanol in gasoline and replacement of paraffin with ethanol gel fuel as the cooking fuel. The paper presented both the success and challenges of the PIC in Nigeria. The PIC brought massive investment and employment in the cassava subsector, reduction in the food import bills of Nigeria and increase in cassava yield from 10.8 t/ha to 20 t/ha. As a result, Nigeria became the largest producer of cassava in the world. However, the PIC led to some problems, such as the expansion of cassava farm into virgin forest, cassava gluts in some areas of the country whereas scarcity in other areas and increased amounts of cassava processing wastes which were among the challenges of the policy.