Expert says proper post-harvest management, processing will boost cassava marketability


Dr Sekinat Farinde of the Institute of Agricultural Research & Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, says proper post-harvest handling of cassava as well as processing will increase the marketability of cassava.
Farinde, a food scientist, who said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Tuesday, stressed that proper storage and processing of cassava tubers would reduce their post-harvest losses.
She underscored the need to adopt good post-harvest handling practices of cassava and technologies to preserve the produce.
“These good practices will increase palatability of the developed cassava products, while boosting the income and improving the livelihood of the populace.
“This is because cassava is one of the major staple food crops in Nigeria,” she said.
The food scientist emphasised that careful harvesting and selection of cassava tubers, prior to their storage was a good strategy for post harvest handling of cassava.
Farinde, therefore, stressed the need for the development of effective and simple machines, tools that could reduce cassava processing time, labour and production losses.
According to her, such machines can help reduce losses by 50 per cent and labour by 75 per cent.
“Cassava can be preserved via various ways such as freezing or drying; plant breeding has resulted in cassava species that are tolerant to Primary Physiological Deterioration (PPD).
“Traditional marketing and storage systems could be adapted to avoid root perishability.
“Cassava can be stored in boxes lined with sawdust and covered with another set of sawdust; wood shavings can also be used.
“However, the packing material must be moist but not wet, physiological deterioration occur if the material is too dry and microbial decay accelerates when it is too wet,” she said.
Farinde, however, stressed that fresh cassava roots could not be stored for a long time because they could start to deteriorate within 48 hours of harvest.
She said that cassava must, therefore, be processed into various forms in order to increase the shelf-life of the products, facilitate transportation and marketing, while reducing its cyanide content and improving its palatability.

She said that the processing methods included peeling, boiling, steaming, slicing, grating, soaking or steeping, fermenting, pounding, roasting, pressing, drying and milling.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Re
Read more

NEGPRO project can create more jobs with inclusion of meat production— Badmus

•Tuns Farm leads food safety, quality system audit The Chairman , Tuns Farms Nigeria, Asiwaju Olatunde Badmus, has disclosed that the proposed one million jobs expected to be created through the National Egg Production Scheme (NEGPRO) can be doubled if extended to meat production. He made this known when a team from the office of the Vice President, Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education at the company’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun state capital recently. Olatunde Badmus, while sharing the company’s experience on chicken inclusion in the Osun state’s school meal program which the company has been handling since the introduction of the school feeding program four years ago, said they can achieve so much more in terms of job creation through meat production “As we speak, six state governors among who are Kebbi and Borno, have signalled their government’s preparedness to look into this and have invited TUNS farm to their states to discuss modalities for
Read more