We produce garri with protein – Akwa Ibom Farmer

Uyo – In a bid to make garri produced from cassava more nutritious, the Managing Director of Safe Foods Processing Farms, Mr Felix Nyong, said that the company now produced garri with protein. Nyong,

 who disclosed this in an interview in Uyo, said that the protein level in garri produced by subsistence farmers was very low. “But we raised the protein content to between 12 per cent and 15 per cent and when we achieve this we know that value has been added,” he said. Nyong said that his farm was producing cassava that could be


processed into other industrial products. “In my farm, we specialise in food processing here, we process cassava and grains, we also go into poultry and fishery. “Apart from the food, we produce multiple products from cassava. Here we produce proteinised garri because protein has been introduced into it. “Again, we take plantain and process it into plantain flour, and also make cassava chips,’’ he said. Nyong, who is a retired civil servant, said:

“For us, cassava flour is very important because the Federal Government is encouraging us to use it for bread. “I think our people should take advantage of this.’’ He said that formerly it was the Southern part of Nigeria that was encouraged to produce cassava because it had the ability to do so, but noted that the North was also going into cassava production.
 Nyong said that cassava could also be a weapon for Nigeria at the international level, but warned that Nigerians depended mainly on wheat which was not produced in high quantity. He encouraged farmers to go into cassava production, noting that the need was enormous as it served a lot of purpose.
 On the challenge facing his cassava processing business, he said that the major problem his farm had was lack of machines as he could not go into full scale production. “Yes, we have equipment because we run what we call cassava competitiveness cluster. “We have gone through what we call cassava agric value chain where we have all the activities that we are involved with here
. “Now we talk about the fabricators because you cannot effectively process or produce without mechanisation,’’ he said. Nyong said that his farm also served as a training ground for different groups of people and that the United Nations, the New Nigeria Foundation, Citizens International and FADAMA had worked with his farm in different capacities. (NAN)