The Department for International Development’s programme, Market Development for Niger Delta (MADE) yesterday began a two-day workshop to build the capacity of livestock feed manufactures in Ondo State. It is to enable the workshop produce quality feeds from cassava grits.
Addressing a news conference in Akure,the state capital, MADE’s Team Leader, Mr. Tunde Oderinde, said the workshop which was organised in conjunction with HarvestPlus and International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) was expected to build capacity of processors to produce quality cassava grits which meet the requirement of feeds manufacturers.
Oderinde said the use of Cassava grits by livestock feeds manufacturers in the Niger Delta would cut the cost of production of the feeds.
He said Cassava was known to produce 250,000 calories/hectare/day compared to 200,000 for maize, 176,600 for rice, 114,000 for sorghum and 110,000 for wheat hence the choice of the crop.
Calling on processors to embrace Cassava based feeds; Oderinde said cassava-based feeds were currently cheaper than the maize-based feeds especially in the face of escalating price of Maize in Nigeria.
“Amazingly, 1 metric ton of maize sold for N35,000-N40,000 last year now sells for N140,000 (About 250% increase),” Oderinde explained.