An assessment of the Current Status of cassava processing and marketing in five selected districts in the Central, Volta and Northern regions of Ghana

Abstract

A market study of the cassava value chain was necessitated by the observation that even though cassava is the most-cultivated staple crop in Ghana, engaging the time and effort of about 83% of farming households in Ghana which translates to about 1.8 million smallholder farmers (Dziedzoave, 2008) and constitutes about 22% of the country’s Agricultural GDP (Angelucci, 2013); it has not graduated from its subsistence / semi-commercial level to a commercial level. Ghana produces over 16 million tonnes of cassava of which an estimate of about 11 million tonnes is available for human consumption. However only 4 million tonnes of the cassava available for human consumption is consumed leaving a surplus of over 7 million metric tonnes. An increased drive towards the marketing of this huge surplus is therefore very necessary. In view of this, a study was undertaken to: identify the market size for value added cassava products (Traditional & industrial) in five districts in Ghana namely Nkwanta South, Kpando, Awutu Senya, Gomoa East and West Gonja districts.  identify constraints to exploiting these market opportunities,  propose mitigating measures in overcoming these constraints,  identify available cassava processing equipment, their capacities and costs in order to inform decision making on the establishment of processing enterprise, and  Establish the operational status of processing plants within the specified districts. The findings indicated that the market sizes for the three most important cassava products produced in the target districts area 22,276.80MT/annum, 18, 837.36MT/annum and 3,035MT/annum for gari agbelima and kokonte respectively. Two high potential industrial products that could be taken up by the processors are HQCF and Cassava Chips. The demand for HQCF within the target districts was estimated at 1, 383.20MT/annum but with a regional demand of 29,733.2MT/annum for the three regions. It was observed that though most industries are currently not using cassava chips, there is an enormous demand potential with major private sector players highlighting interest in inclusion of cassava chips in animal feed. The animal feed processors in Ghana offer an annual demand potential of an estimated 80,000 metric tonnes if cassava chips were to be used to replace current energy sources in feeds. This calls for clear policies on the inclusion of cassava flour in the milling industries in addition to demand creation through product awareness to stimulate its utilisation especially at the consumption level. Despite these huge opportunities for cassava, the existing institutional framework in the country does not favour the optimal exploitation of the emerging and potential opportunities. First the absence of cassava policy in itself is a disincentive to potential processors. Vague guidelines on standards and quality issues from the regulatory bodies do not give direction to the sector. Also the operational capacities of processors are inadequate leading to lower margins which deter key private sector players from investing in cassava. Value addition technologies though available, are still underutilised due to lack of awareness, financial constraints among other reasons. Generally the efforts by key stakeholders in the value chain are disjointed with no clear partnership or collaborative structures. The lack of these synergies among the key stakeholders has led to fragmentation of ideas, price fluctuations for cassava based products and above all its absence within the country’s cash crops until recently. Processing operations in the districts under the study are constrained by factors such as price fluctuation of the raw materials, limited finance, seasonal supply, inappropriate equipment for processing and access to profitable and sustainable markets and stiff competition from substitute products like wheat, maize and sorghum. The main value addition challenge identified is poor access to value addition technologies and knowledge. Key constraints for the intermediaries along the cassava value chain is high trading cost notably transportation and market fees which affect their profitability, lack of marketing information and the seasonal availability of the product At the consumption level there are still a lot of unutilised markets due to lack of awareness on its existence, usage and application. The challenges faced in the industry make cassava processing unattractive. It is however recommended that the institutional context be based on principles of commercialisation. Government and other stakeholders should actively promote local content policies in the industry to serve as an incentive for end users to adopt cassava products to whip up interest of key players