SYNOPSIS OF THE KOREA/NIGERIA ASSISTED CASSAVA PROCESSING CENTRE, EGBEDA-EGGA – IJUMU, KOGI STATE By Dr. Duro Oniemola Facilitator BACKGROUND The Korea/Nigeria Assisted Cassava Processing Centre, Egbeda-Egga – Ijumu is a responsive project that aims at poverty reduction among targeted farming population of micro, small and intermediate level cassava growers in its area of operations. The project is a manifestation of interactive engagement/dialogue among farming community, the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) of the Federal Government, and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Several surveys and roundtables took place between 2005and 2013, which now translate into a rural industrialization agenda driven jointly by the Federal and the Kogi State government on one hand, and the KOICA – representing foreign development assistance from the people and government of the Republic of South Korea. The initial proposal to NAPEP from the community was seeking support for equipment and expansion of the community’s capacity building center, the Academy of Basic and Vocational Education, Egbeda-Egga. But at one of the bottom-up roundtables held in 2007, KOICA opined that the hunger conditions expressed on the faces of the participants necessitated the review of the focus to properly target the objective conditions of the poor stakeholders – the down trodden poor represented by the men and women representatives of the community that attended the roundtable. The participants were requested to appraise the basis of their poverty and choose among many options, one area of priority assistance that would bring quick and sustainable relief to the observed abject conditions. Facilitating this observation in a participatory manner, therefore, yielded a different choice of a project – efficient sale outlet for cassava produce that would (1) halt the glut and decay of their products in the soils; and (2) enable farmers earn equitable prices/income for welfare and reproductive activities – since cassava production has become the main “cash crop” or cash income for the farmers. This new shift from vocational capacity building to value-chain agriculture went into both national and international development clinics for about two years after which the Korean government announced the location of a Cassava Processing Center in Egbeda-Egga, Kogi State, as one of the three such locations (two others in Enugu and Ogun States) in Nigeria. The centre will buy cassava produce directly from the farmers (and other suppliers) and transform the produce to food/industrial commodities in the global agribusiness market. The processing centre is strategically located to enable the micro-farmers have direct access to a central market, i.e. the value addition plant that would constantly buy-up the cassava produced by the farmers. By this support, it was opined that the processing depot will become a business market for the farmers to sell and receive instant rewards for their labour, thereby preventing the glut that inhibited agro-business development hitherto. It would also enable farmers to access direct benefits from the global agricultural industrialization process and earn competitive prices in global agribusiness. CASSAVA GROWERS/SUPPLIERS SOCIETY Cassava growing has become a major “cash crop” occupation particularly in the catchment area of the Processing Centre. Information has revealed that the soil system everywhere in Okunland , i.e. 64 wards or five (5) contiguous Local Government Areas of the Western Senatorial District of Kogi State - carries any variety of cassava very well. No wonder that the cassava farmers in the area were at the mercy of bulk buyers from Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo States. But apart from the growers, there are other categories of people that are closely associated with the cassava business at the local level. These include, among others, local processors (gari and laafun – cassava flakes and flower makers), large labourers at different stage of land preparation, planting, weeding, uprooting, loading and off loading at farm gate markets, transportation, peeling and washing, frying, packaging, and products marketing, etc. These local farmers, processors and labourers constitute what may be called the Cassava Growers/Suppliers Society living and working around the Processing Centre. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOCIETY Cassava growing and its auxiliary business engagements have created a society of many occupational groups doing different things with cassava produce. Visibly, there are about four groups in the society, viz.: (1) The micro or household farmers, growing about 1acre to 1 hectare of farms; (2) Small scale individual or informal cooperative farmers, growing about 1-5 hectares and employing labour-exchange at peak period of labour need; (3) Cooperative societies holding about 5-20 hectares of cassava farms and engaging between 10-20 workers at different task periods; (4) Intermediate level cassava growers/ cooperatives holding about 20-50 hectares of cassava farms, and deploying technology, i.e. for land preparation and, herbicides, but still relying heavily on manual labour for planting and harvesting; (5) Large scale cassava growers, holding more than 50 hectares of farms (6) Local cassava processors – buying, grating and frying cassava produce into gari fast food, laafun, starch, etc, for local and regional markets (7) Cassava produce transporters – engaging in the carriage of cassava tubers from farm to market or processing centres (8) Auxiliary services also extend to Thrifts and Savings Cooperatives and Micro-Finance Banks in the area. PROCESSING CENTRE PRODUCTS Until take-off, the products from the Centre cannot be ascertained yet. Many organizations and agencies are yet to play their roles to confirm the exact commodities that will be produced by the Centre; but the assurance in the work-plan is that the Centre will produce cassava products that would be highly competitive in global agribusiness market and food industry. It is also inescapable for down-stream industries to emerge and take advantage of the Centre to cut down cost and earn more income on their businesses. JOBS OPPORTUNITIES The work-plan aims at opening up about 1,000 job opportunities in the plant area, while unquantifiable opportunities will also emerge through land-use, farm activities, agro-allied businesses, manufacturing and food industries, environmental services, banking and other social services like schools, medi-care, water, housing, entertainment, communication and transportation, tourism, security, etc. The down-stream industries/businesses in the area will also become window of job opportunities. The inherent uniqueness of the job opportunities offers by the Centre is in its focus on direct improvement in the living conditions of the poor faming and other working population. This is the objective that NAPEP wants to achieve, and which the Korean Government is supporting. And this is the demand of the Cassava Growers Society – that they want to work the land, and live happy and secured livelihood. ANCHORING THE PERCIEVED BENEFITS There is no doubt that the Processing Centre would have direct positive impact on the living styles of the Cassava growers/suppliers society. But it will also impact on other farmers – as larger consumer markets for other farm products like yams, bananas, pine-apple, fruits, etc, will be easily accessible to growers of other farm products. And this will rob on a more active use of the very massive agricultural land area in Okunland. In other words, agricultural industrialization will open the economy of the rural area, integrate it with global agribusiness, and through well strategized organization, endear the targeted population to large benefits. The Cassava Growers Society in the catchment areas of the Processing Centre is billed to take maximum advantage of the plant through systemic transformation of their occupational organization and management techniques. Knowledge and experiences from the Korean Rural Industrialization Programme (KRIP) known as (Saemaul Undong) will be combined with the thorough understanding of the tradition, social setting and rural economy of Nigeria, to enhance optimum benefits. It is envisaged that the successes of this Korean supported value addition agriculture will be replicable not only in the other two centres – Enugu and Ogun States – but by other State governments and private investors in the Nigeria’s food and manufacturing industry. We opine that the fastest route to improvement of poor working people’s livelihood is through agricultural industrialization framework. This is a worthy agenda. At the community level, the enthusiasm is high, just as the hope to overcome undeserved poverty through the programme is very real. Hence the fanfare that was accorded the visit of NAPEP, Kogi State officials and the Resident Representative of KOICA, Mr. Jung, Sang-Hoon, to the site of the project in Egbeda-Egga on Tuesday 28th May 2013.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 15:46:46 +0000
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