Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has travelled to Tanzania with a mission of introducing to the East African country and others Nigeria’s innovation in cassava bread baking.
Obasanjo, a goodwill ambassador for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), took the bread to Tanzania where he publicly munched it with the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mrisho Jakaya Kikwete.
Former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa also ate the bread for the first time. The leaders supported the innovation, noting that it would bring several benefits to the continent.
The 40 per cent cassava bread was
first developed by IITA in Nigeria as part of efforts to boost the utilization of cassava and create market for farmers.
President Kikwete after inaugurating the IITA Science Building in Dar es Salaam commended IITA for the bread technology, saying that the bread had an “excellent” taste.
He said: “There is no difference between this bread and the normal bread we are used to.”
Obasanjo encouraged the Tanzania President to promote the use of cassava in confectionaries so as to transform agriculture.
He noted that the use of cassava flour in bread would stimulate the demand for the root crop, create jobs and, more importantly, make farmers proud.
Obasanjo, in 2002 initiated a policy on 10 per cent inclusion in bread under “the Presidential Initiative on Cassava” programme. The programme, which was implemented by IITA and national partners, drove the demand for cassava, increased productivity by about 10 million tons in six years and made Nigeria the top world producer of cassava.
Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan called on Nigerians to join hands with the government to unlock the economic potentials of the nation by embracing locally produced products. He said his administration is irreversibly committed to the development of cassava market which he hopes would help in reducing food importation into the country.
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