HOW TO MAKE WEALTH IN CASSAVA FARMING BUSINESS HOW TO MAKE WEALTH IN CASSAVA FARMING BUSINESS | Page 21

A COMPREHENSIVE & PRACTICAL GUIDE ON HOW TO START CASSAVA FARMING & PROCESSING BUSINESS By: Micheal B. O. HARVESTING CASSAVA: HOW MUCH TUBER WILL MY FARM YIELD? With effective practices and management, you should be able to turn out 25 tonnes of cassava roots per hectare of farmland. Cassava is a very interesting crops. Apart from the fact that it is a surviving crops which make it easy to grow under various climatic and agronomic conditions. Unlike other crops, the amount of money to be spent on agrochemicals is very minimal in cassava production, which thus makes the production very profitable. POST-HARVEST HANDLING In the processing of cassava starch it is vital to complete the whole process within the shortest time possible, because as soon as the tubers have been dug up, and also during each of the subsequent stages of manufacture, enzymatic processes tend to have a deteriorating effect on the quality of the end-product. This will require a well-organised supply of tubers within a relatively short distance of the processing plant, and the stages of processing will have to be scheduled so as to minimise delays in manufacturing. Thus, while basic in principle, the production of good-quality cassava flour still requires great care. The tubers are normally received from the field as soon as possible after harvest and cannot be stored for more than two days. Since the presence of woody matter or stones may seriously interfere with the rasping process by causing stoppages or by breaking the blades, the woody ends of the tubers are chopped off with sharp knives before the processing operations begin. PEELING AND WASHING In small and medium-sized mills the general practice is to remove the peel (skin and cortex) and to process only the central part of the tuber, which has a much softer texture. With the relatively primitive apparatus available and limited power, the processing of the whole tuber would entail difficulties in rasping and in removing dirt, crude fibre and cork particles, while comparatively little extra starch would be gained. The roots are longitudinally and transversely cut to a depth corresponding to the thickness of the peel, which can Hotlines: 09090040011, 09031617999. 21. E-mail: [email protected]