IMPLICATIONS OF USING OVER AGE AND UNDER AGE TUBERS IN CASSAVA PROCESSING

I never knew buying an over aged cassava tuber could be an output quantity disadvantage in garri production until I bought TME 419 of 19 months old for production in year 2019. Yes, it was TME 419 I went for. Then, I had no knowledge of suitability of cassava varieties in different cassava processing areas. It was a big farm Oke nla, Sunren (I think under Ifo or Obafemi Owode local government of Ogun state). That time, we used to cross the Abule Asha river with boat through Shonde to get cassava for my Oluke garri factory. The experiences and learnings of those days were another stories entirely.

We were buying the already harvested tubers with basket measurements, so we did not have problem with those that have rotten. I must confess, it was a good purchase at that time that cassava scarcity was already showing its face. But due to my inexperience, I never knew I was actually the one being cheated. At the point of grating, I was so excited on how dried the tuber was despite being in the raining season. To get the tubers through the grating machine was a serious work. The solidness was so promising of a good output.

After the 3-4 days fermentation, and we started frying. The first observation my manual fryers raised that the pulp was not rising on fire triggered my worries. 'Oga, garri yi o gbe o'. Oga, this garri is not rising was a monotonous song at my factory that day. After we completed the frying the second day, I was so disappointed of the quantity output. It was years later I later got to understand that at that age of TME 419, almost all the available starch content of the tubers has been converted to cellulose and is no longer available to support the solid matters for optimum rise during the frying operation. This same scenario also applies to local varieties. That is why you see some traditional farmers using such over aged tubers for 'Lafun' production. But never for garri or fufu production meant to be sold.

So, it was not strange to me when a big processing cassava starch processing company I helped sourced tubers recently turned down an offer because that grower had an history of over aged cassava farm with same buyer, though at another farm location. The grower is now conducting new tests on the tubers from this new farm to convince the buyer. Of course, it would be a great loss if a starch processor had bought over aged tubers. Instead of getting starch extracted, the output would be more of shafts, which are waste materials. Same applies fufu production. Even if such tuber is used for cassava Chips production, the starch content would not be impressive enough for onward conversation in Ethanol production.

The lessons here are that those who are planting cassava for industrial supplies should be conscious of the duration of their cultivation. At 9-10 months, starch content of cassava tuber is at its peak desirable by industrial buyers, though the tuber size at this time may not favour the grower optimum profitability. But at 12 months, the content/size is balanced for both parties. On no condition should such growers targeting industrial supplies allow the farm to stay beyond 13 months before harvesting, especially for the hybrid cassava varieties. Local varieties can still stay up to 15 months and still have good starch quality.

At some point, in my early days in garri processing, I have also bought under aged cassava tuber out of desperation of keeping the factory running. Probably the tiny tubers of not more 6 months was rejected somewhere and the supplier decided to bring it to me to take even at a credit. It came at a point that I got disappointed by another supplier and I decided to make do with it.

Apart from the fact that tubers took a longer period of manual peeling, the extent of water dripping during the grating was just too much. After the frying, I ended up getting only 4 bags of garri from a pick up load of cassava tuber from which I suppose to have gotten 10 bags of garri. The shafts we got was almost 2 bags. Not even much garri lumps. It was an unfortunate experience that I had to renegotiate the payment with supplier. At that stsge, the milk (starch) content of the tuber has developed to a large content but the solid matters has not. The middle strands of the tubers were responsible for the too much shaft we got after the production. Had such tubers being used for cassava starch production, probably the output would have been impressive.

The conclusion is that as farmers or processors, we should always target accessing cassava tubers of ages between 10 months to 13 months. On no account should our target goes beyond 15 months. Over time, experience will teach us how to physically identify if the harvested tuber is over aged or under aged.

God no go shame us.

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