Agency begins capacity building on cassava cultivation for pharmaceutical products

The Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) says it has embarked on capacity building for youths across the country on cassava cultivation.

The Director-General of NNMDA, Prof. Martins Emeje, at a webinar organised by the agency on the Cassava Value Chain Initiative (CVCI) with Nigerian youths, said that the capacity building would be on cassava cultivation for pharmaceutical products.

According to Emeje, Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world, yet does not have good value addition on cassava and its products.

He said that if the country should harness the value chain in cassava properly, the nation would be attractive globally, especially due to its starch that could be used for pharmaceutical products.

According to him, the uniqueness of the CVCI is the decision by the National Assembly, which charged NNMDA to harness the value chain of cassava, making it a national project.

‘’The project is to begin capacity training to support each youth available to work on the farm, and we are starting with the representatives of the youths in the entire country, all six geopolitical zones.

‘’The agency is going to move from one geopolitical zone to another in what we call capacity building and training on cassava cultivation, using good agricultural and cultivation practices for the purposes of making medicines.

‘This cassava initiative is for making medicines and excipients that are important components of making medicines,’’ he said.

According to him, every medicine that one sees has two parts—the active pharmaceutical ingredient and the excipients; cassava starch is an excipient as well as ethanol.

“Ethanol is a chemical and could be derived naturally from cassava for use in making medicines.”.

He said that in all of these, NNMDA required hands and would want to engage the youth and women in rural communities to achieve its objective.

Emeje, addressing representatives of different groups across the nation, including youths and women, said the national project was specifically for making pharmaceutical-grade starch from cassava.

He said the agency, by its protocol, was converting and leveraging its ability to create jobs and wealth for people, beginning from ground level—which is cassava cultivation.

The director-general said that after the training for each of the zones, particular places where there would be cultivation would be identified, and each youth available to work on the farm would be supported.

‘’We are interested in the youth and the women that are available on the farm to put into practice what we are going to teach.’’.

“This would form the raw materials that would be harvested when the crops are matured, to take to the laboratories for purposes of making the pharmaceutical-grade starch. That is the sustainability plan.”

According to him, NNMDA has a technology—buyback technology, which has been put into the project—and will be responsible for the market, as the youths job is just to cultivate the cassava.

“What is needed from the youth is availability to contribute to this national project for the development of the country and to lift our people from abject poverty.”.

Emeje said that NNMDA projects were community-driven projects, with interest in contributing to the lifting of Nigerians from poverty.

Supreme News reports that NNMDA, under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, has the mandate to research, collate, document, develop, preserve, and promote Nigeria Natural Medicine, defined as an indigenous health system.