“We are dedicated to assisting in building a befitting cassava processing plant here in this community, including the provision of grants and support through cooperative groups, to enhance production capacity,” she said.
Nigeria News
FG Floats Scheme To Boost Cassava Production
The Federal Government has announced that efforts to resurrect the Garri Processing Factory in Alapoti Village, in the Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, have been completed.
Naija News reports that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation said in a statement that the decision was made in recognition of the community’s agricultural potential since it is the second-largest farm settlement in Ogun State and a key producer along the cassava value chain in South-West Nigeria.
The ministry claims that the village has enormous potential to be a significant supplier of cassava crop to Lagos, as well as the larger South-West area and other regions of Nigeria, which is why the intervention is considered vital.
Noting that the project was an answer to prayer for the town, the traditional ruler of the town, Mattew Oluwaloni commended the ministry for bringing the initiative to his community.
He also emphasized the key hurdles and obstructions to the community’s economic livelihood, such as the community’s long-standing reliance on manual and peasant methods for cassava processing due to the lack of a functional mechanised garri processing facility.
The traditional ruler claims that the restriction has made it much more difficult for the community to provide the strong demand for staple foods in the area’s major marketplaces and throughout the Southwest in general.
Additionally, he said that the village’s access road had been in terrible shape for a number of years, making it extremely difficult for them to find raw materials and find customers for their goods.
In response to those difficulties, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, stated that every effort should be made to provide the support required to step in and create a state-of-the-art cassava processing facility in the area.
