One of the cardinal objectives of Federal government is the use of indigenous agricultural raw materials in the food chain production.
Hence, the need for cassava flour use as an alternative flour in bread making came to the fore as master-bakers drawn from Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, and Lagos States converged in Ibadan for a seminar.
Addressing the bread bakers in the region, the state coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Oyo State office, Dr. Florence Kakulu said high quality cassava is grown in Nigeria with huge potential for foreign exchange earnings.
Dr. Kakulu explained that participants would find the programme worthwhile when imputed flour is replaced with cassava, thereby driving higher profits.
The Zonal director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture Rural Development and national resources, Southwest, Dr. Marcus Ogunbiyi, pointed out that the use of high quality cassava flour for bread production has been evolving through high quality inclusive policy.
Dr. Ogunbiyi asserted that these were proven technologies and evidence based facts that Nigeria should keep to maximum of 20% of cassava use while starting with 10% in cassava use.
Director of Agricultural Natural Resources and Rural Development, Mrs. Karima Babangida noted that the policy of 10% cassava inclusion in bread making failed due to a number of factors such as the enzyme intervention which required the use of sophisticated equipment with several millions of naira that could only be afforded by less than 2% of entire bakers in Nigeria.
Mrs. Babangida also said 0.05% out of the 450,000 bakeries in Nigeria make use of cassava on daily basis stressing the need for sincere commitment by all stakeholders to achieve the policy focus of President Muhammed Buhari in cassava flour use for bread in the country.
Some of the participants described the seminar as worthwhile and pledge to adopt cassava flour in bread making.
Rotimi Famakin
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