Aboluyo Women's Cassava Processing Cooperative, Ibadan

   Since the mid-1990s, CHRRD has been collaborating with the Aboluyo Women's Cassava Processing Cooperative.  The cooperative is located just 500 metres east of the CHRRD offices on Old Ife Road, in the Agodi area of Ibadan.  Aboluyo presently provides year-round, full-time employment for fifty women. The women say that the need to provide for their families brings them to work at the cooperative.  Under the coordination of Mrs Fagbolu, Aboluyo is one of a dozen cassava processing centres in Ibadan.  This south-west Nigerian city had a population of 1.35 million, based on the most recent census in 1991, but with rapid urban growth, Ibadan's population is estimated to be around four million in 2003.

   Cassava, which is also known as manioc, is a starch-based tuber crop that was introduced to Africa from South America around 1500 by Europeans. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Nigeria produced 34.0 million tonnes of cassava in 2001, more than any other country in the world.  Virtually all of it is consumed domestically, as Thailand and Indonesia are the only significant exporters [FAO. “Global cassava production rises by 1 percent,” Food Outlook 4 (October 2001): 22].  It is a versatile foodstuff that has the convenience of being harvestable during any time of the year, and can be left in the ground until harvest. Nigeria's cassava production increased at an annual rate of around 8 per cent over the last decade, largely through area expansion [Rosegrant, Mark W. et al. (2001). Global Food Projections to 2020: Emerging Trends and Alternative Futures, Washington D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute, p. 42].  Its low cost has made it the principal carbohydrate source among Nigeria's rural and low-income urban population, however its nutrient composition is poorer than yams, and the processing of cassava leaves traces of the poison hydrogen cyanide.

   CHRRD has assisted the Aboluyo Cooperative in upgrading its infrastructure once in the 1990s and again in 2003, with assistance from the Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation in Canada.  The women were able to upgrade their aging cassava grater in May 2003, and have a new well dug to supply water for processing.  The grating of the peeled cassava tubers is the only stage of processing currently mechanized by the cooperative.  Peeling, sieving, frying, and packaging are all performed manually.

   The women produce several different products from the cassava root, including powdered fufu, lafun and gari all which are sold to local markets and bukaterias - small roadside restaurants. For a typical meal, gari is mixed with hot water to produce a staple carbohydrate food eaten with palm oil sauce, cooked leaf vegetables, and meat. Problems reported by the women to CHRRD staff in November 2003 include cash flow and capitalization  hindrances brought on by the need to supply their products to customers on credit. Presently the shed housing the grater operation is constructed of wooden planks, with a cement floor. The women have expressed the desire to extend the coverage of cemented area behind the shed to enhance the cleanliness of their operations.

Above: Aboluyo women sieving the ground cassava pulp 
by hand. A mother on the left has her baby wrapped to her back.

Below: grated cassava drying in the sun. 
A de-watering press and fryer area are visible in the background.

Recommended Reading:
Tinker, Tiller, Technical Change, Matthew, Gamson S. et al., Editors. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1990.
Adegboye, R.O.; Akinwumi, J.A. "Cassava processing innovations in Nigeria," p. 64-79.
Adjebeng-Asem, Selina. "The Nigerian cassava grater," p. 80-96.

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Last modified: 16 November 2003