Description

Nigerian agriculture is characterized by considerable regional and crop diversity. Analysis of this sector, particularly the food sub-sector, is fraught with serious data problems. However, the available statistics provide a broad overview of development in agriculture upon which we can make some broad generalizations about its role in economic development and structural change in Nigeria.

In the 1960s, the agricultural sector was the most important in terms of contributions to domestic production, employment and foreign exchange earnings. The situation remained almost the same three decades later with the exception that it is no longer the principal foreign exchange earner, a role now being played by oil.

The sector remained stagnant during the oil boom decade of the 1970s, and this accounted largely for the declining share of its contributions. The trend in the share of agriculture in the GDP shows a substantial variation and long-term decline from 60% in the early 1960s through 48.8% in the 1970s and 22.2% in the 1980s. Unstable and often inappropriate economic policies (of pricing, trade and exchange rate), the relative neglect of the sector and the negative impact of oil boom were also important factors responsible for the decline in its contributions.

Some of the crops grown in Nigeria is Maize and soya bean. Maize (Zea mays L.), or corn as it is called in USA, has a multitude of uses and ranks second to wheat among the world’s cereal crops in terms of total production. Also, because of its worldwide distribution and lower prices relative to other cereals, maize has a wider range of uses than any other cereal.

Maize can be processed into different products for various end uses at the traditional level and on an industrial scale. While a large proportion of products utilized in developing countries are obtained via traditional processing, industrial processing meets the bulk of the demand in developed countries.

Nigeria has an annual maize production in excess of 10.3 million metric tons and is ranked as one of the top twenty largest producers in the world.

Soybean is an important source of high quality and inexpensive protein and oil. With an average protein content of 40% and oil content of 20%, soybean has the highest protein content of all food crops and is second only to groundnuts in terms of oil content amongst food legumes.

Nigeria presently produces about 500,000 MT of Soybean annually making it the largest producer of the product on the African continent. Soybean is a legume which is produced in most the middle belt of the country with Benue state accounting for about 45% of the total production in country.

Soya Beans is a leguminous crop whose importance and economic benefits cannot be over emphasized. Products that can be gotten from Soya Bean include Soy Cake, Soy oil, Full Fat Soya, Soy meal, soy meal, soy flour, soy milk, tofu, textured vegetable protein amongst other things.

“Ogi” is a fermented product made from maize. Traditionally, it is obtained in wet form and serves as breakfast cereal for both children and adults. “Ogi” prepared by the traditional method has short shelf-life, and therefore, requires adequate processing to make it shelf-stable and of high quality.

It is low in protein content due to low protein content of maize. Soy-Ogi is Ogi fortified with soybeans to improve its protein content. The infant and the adult brands can be produced due to the different nutritional requirements of the two groups. The infant brand is good for meeting protein requirement of children and most especially for weaning babies. The adult brand is good for adults of all age categories.

Soy- Ogi powder is consumed as a breakfast cereal and also as weaning food for children. For many families, it comes as a cheap but good source of carbohydrate especially when compared with and other brands of cereals in the market.

The production plant comprises of Flash Dryer, Steeping Tank, Grains Destoner, Sedimentation Tank, 3KW Milk Pump, Aspirator, Blender, Fiber Mill, Fiber Wishing Screen, Hydraulic Press, 2KW Cake Granulator, Centrifugal Sieve, Automatic Powder Filling and Sealing Machine, Weighing Scale and other accessories.

The proposed production volume is one point twenty-five (1.25) tons/day and the plant would operate at ninety percent (90%) of the installed capacity for a single shift of eight (8) hours per day for three hundred (300) working days per annum and producing three thousand, one hundred and twenty-five (3,125) pieces of four hundred and fifty (450) grams of both infant and adult brands of soy-ogi powder bi-monthly.

The purpose of the feasibility study is to consider the economic viability or not of establishing a soy-ogi powder plant in Nigeria using maize, soya beans and vitamin pre-mix as the raw materials.