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Improving marketing strategies in Central and West Africa
Marketing cassava presents some unique challenges. For starters, cassava is a year-round crop, which means that production levels are steady but small. It is also a highly perishable and bulky product, making it very costly to transport without some initial processing. While cassava is still mainly grown by poor subsistence farmers, its use is becoming more widespread. Cassava can be processed into chips, pellets, flour, alcohol or starch, and used in a variety of industries, including livestock feed, textiles, confections, plywood and soft drinks. Many rural development efforts in Central and West Africa have focused on how to improve poor farmers’ yields. But better yields have not necessarily translated into greater incomes, as expected. In Nigeria and Ghana, the boost in cassava production has led to a glut on the market and depressed prices. Neighbouring countries like Benin are also affected, due to market integration. Today, the market value of raw cassava has decreased by half in the last three years, and Nigerian and Ghanaian farmers complain that they cannot sell their product at profitable prices. Likewise, industrial users argue that they cannot find fresh roots at competitive prices. Low prices have discouraged farmers from investing and producing in cassava, thus interrupting the chain of supply. While production and price variations in the cassava
sector can be cyclical in some western and central
African countries, there is an urgent need to temper
this pattern. As cassava use has grown, the role of
efficient markets has become increasingly important
to both producers and processors who depend on a stable
cassava sector for income. Breaking the cycle: linking supply and demand During a recent field mission in Ghana, IFAD discovered
that the Ayenso Company – a starch factory based
in Bawjiase in the country’s central region –
is having a difficult time purchasing and processing
enough fresh cassava. Not only are local farmers not
producing sufficient quantities, but poor roads and
inadequate transportation are delaying root collection.
Starch production requires that cassava roots are collected
and processed within 24 hours, but current delivery
to the factory is taking as long as 72 hours. But before small farmers can take advantage of such new market opportunities, they need to learn new production techniques suitable for animal feed. IFAD is preparing a pilot project to help farmers learn about feed quality requirements, as well as the accompanying technology and costs. Cassava can also be processed into flour and marketed as a substitute for wheat in snacks and biscuits. IFAD has launched another pilot project in Ghana to look at opportunities – and constraints, including limited access to credit and technology – for development in this area. If these pilot projects are successful, they will be
incorporated into the next stage of an IFAD programme
currently underway in Ghana. Phase Two of the Root and
Tuber Improvement Programme (RTIP) will focus on marketing
roots and tuber crops like cassava, building on the
achievements of the first phase. The RTIP, a six-year
programme, was approved in 1997 and shows how cassava
can improve household food security. The main objective
has been to help poor farmers boost their income by
increasing the production of root and tuber crops. The
programme focuses on improving farmers’ technical
knowledge, promoting small-scale enterprises and strengthening
community institutions. Cameroon : building on experience IFAD’s experience in countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Benin has shown that the major obstacle for developing the cassava sector is a lack of appropriate marketing strategies. New projects in the area are being designed with much more focus on market development, and contact and collaboration between the region’s four roots and tubers programmes is increasing. A new IFAD-supported programme in Cameroon, for instance, will capitalize on the lessons learned in previous projects and give more emphasis to marketing issues and strategic alliances with the private sector. In countries like Cameroon, most cassava producers are women who cultivate for self-consumption and generate little surplus for sale. Living in remote areas can make it exceedingly difficult for small-scale producers to deliver their cassava to marketplaces or factories. Likewise, factories often have a difficult time collecting enough fresh roots from rural suppliers. The programme will work with 120,000 small roots and
tuber farmers to help them forge new links with the
processing industry. One of the main components of the
programme will be to enable small farmers and processors
– 90 per cent of whom are women – to organize
themselves better at the village and region level in
order to meet consumer demand.
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Cassava
is one of the world’s most important food crops. Throughout
the Tropics, the plant’s root and leaves serve as an essential
source of calories and income. Around 600 million people in Africa,
Asia and Latin America depend on the plant for their survival.
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