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The Federal Government is to start a Cassava Marketing and Trading Corporation (CMTC) aimed at boosting cassava production.?
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, disclosed this in Abuja at a meeting with chief executives of flour milling companies in Nigeria, noting that despite Nigeria’s current position as the largest producer of cassava in the world, the country was not a player on the global cassava market.?
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Adesina stated that when established, the corporation would address the nagging challenges confronting cassava farmers in Nigeria such as lack of access to high yielding varieties, limited access to appropriate cassava processing technologies and highly volatile price swings for cassava due to poorly developed markets.?
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He however explained that poor market development caused the price of cassava to plummet from N20,000 per metric ton during the Presidential Initiative on Cassava Plc to as low as N5,000 per metric ton today.?
The minister directed Flour Millers Association (FMA) led by Aliko Dangote, to substitute 10 per cent of cassava flour for wheat flour which according to him would lead to an increase in the market for cassava tubers of more than 800,000metric tons.?
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He further said the Cassava Transformation Plan (CTP) of the present administration, would expand cassava production to 51million metric tons by 2015 as well as generate an additional 1.2million jobs, create markets for the Nigerian farmers and stabilise the price of cassava.?
Responding, the leader of the delegation, Aliko Dangote, urged the government to create an enabling environment for their businesses to thrive.?
He said that many agro-allied industries have collapsed in Nigeria due to unfavourable government policies, calling for the production of high quality cassava in order to meet their demands and international best practices.?