Cassava is one of the most perishable foods that can easily deteriorate within two or three days after harvesting. Many local farmers however, forget this and harvest loads of it at the same time thus making losses.
Ephraim Nuwamanya, a crop scientist from the National Crops Resources Research Institute in Namulonge says losses from cassava growing come as a result of predisposing factors including pre-harvest, harvesting practices and post harvesting as well as processing practices and many farmers do not know how to deal with these factors.
Nuwamanya says farmers should only harvest what they can consume or sell in time. He cites they should also prune or cut off the cassava leaves even before harvesting and use them for more productive things like making their own animal feeds rather than throwing them away.
‘’We have proved pruning over years that the cassava does not go bad. A farmer can cut off the leaves, because it is the roots that condition a plant to protect itself from damage so it won’t get spoilt. At an industrial level, traders can do also waxing to preserve the roots and in Dubai it will be selling like a value added product.’’
Nuwamanya says cassava is a very important raw material but most farmers do not know it and they decide to only rely on it for home consumption.
He says apart from the flour which most individuals are very conversant with, many other things can be milked from cassava including animal feeds.
“For example we have cassava chips, fish feed and chicken feeds, the leaves are also used to grow maggots as a source of proteins for fish feed,’’ Nuwamanya says.
He adds the crop also has an unlimited market since many companies both internally and outside the country including Uganda Breweries Limited require raw materials from cassava to make particular products.
‘’Cassava has a very big market that farmers are yet to satisfy, Uganda Breweries for example requires about 6,000 metric tonnes to produce Engule beer, ethanol processing industries and other various companies come to us demanding for cassava starch to export to China for pharmaceuticals,’’ he explains.
He adds, ‘’Biodegradable polythene bags, alcohol all that can be made from cassava for example one day I was in Apach and a man told me he makes 20 jerry cans of ethanol and each jerry can goes for about 20000 shillings that is a lot of money.’’