With the changing weather patterns, maize diseases and the high cost of production, cassava could just be the answer to Kenya's food insecurity
"For me, cassava represents food, a source of income and a
way of life," says Peter Atanga, a 42-year-old man from the North West
highlands of Cameroon. He is just in the process of measuring a basin of gari
(also Garri or tapioca), one of the many ways that cassava is processed for
value addition and storage purposes in Central and West Africa.
Cassava is the region's main staple food. Yet you go into a
restaurant, you will never hear the word cassava spoken out loud. If you didn't
know better, you would not imagine that it is even grown here. This is because
it is rarely consumed in its original form. A large amount of time spent on
farming, business and household activities is dedicated to a chain of
activities related to cassava production and processing.
Atanga is a cassava farmer. At the same time, he has established
a small gari processing plant in his backyard. Gari is the most widely traded
processed cassava product and a popular food in Central and West Africa. It is
estimated that more than 75 per cent of the cassava produced in Africa is
processed into gari. As one can imagine, Atanga rarely goes without business.
When he is not processing his own batch of cassava, he is paid by other traders
to do their own.
"It is a very good business," he proclaims
confidently, explaining that the production of gari is a long and laborious
process: First, the fresh cassava tubers are washed and peeled and grated. The
grated cassava mash is fermented for a couple of days, and then it is pressed
and sieved. It is fried on open fire until it forms coarse flour, which can be
stored for years. "I know that people find it difficult to do all this
work without machines, so they prefer to buy the ready product," he
explains the sense behind his enterprise.
