Description

Cassava is the most important root crop in Nigeria. Apart from being a staple crop in both rural and urban house-holds cassava is a major source of income to cassava farmers and processors in the rural areas.

Cassava alone contributes about 45% of agricultural GDP in Nigeria for food or domestic purposes but its industrial processing and utilization has been very limited.

Nigeria is the highest producer of cassava in the world with an output of 54 million tonnes in 2012.

Cassava root is made up of about 55% water and thus is a highly perishable crop and do not usually remain fresh few days after harvest. There is therefore the need to process cassava into shalf stable products so as to reduce post-harvest losses.

One of such products is cassava chips. Cassava chips are dried, irregular slices of cassava root which vary in sizes but do not exceed 4-5cm in length.

The production of cassava chips presents a way of reducing post-harvest losses and generating more income for farmers and other stakeholders in the cassava value chain.

The demand for Cassava Chips as an industrial product is wide. It cuts across so many manufacturing industries such as distilleries, pharmaceutical, food and most especially the animal feed industry. The production technology is simple and the equipment’s are locally fabricated.

This report seeks to examine the financial viability or otherwise of establishing cassava chips production in Nigeria using cassava tubers as basic raw material.

The production capacity of the proposed business is ten (10) tons per day for of eight (8) hours each working at ninety percent (90%) of the installed capacity in the first and second year of operations respectively.

An Input output ratio of 1:0.45 was assumed from raw materials to finished products and the finished products would be packaging in fifty (50) kg printed PP woven sack with inner protectively polyethylene material.