The Director-General of the institute, Dr. Gloria Elemo, said the Federal Institute of Industrial Research plans to build cassava factories in the 36 states of the federation.
She said the move would also help to stimulate interest in agriculture not only for food security, but as a means of empowerment.
The DG said already, a model cassava plant had been constructed in Lagos, adding that with the completion of the factory, it would soon be inaugurated by the government.
Elemo said, “The critical aspect of agriculture apart from production is processing the food into a form that can be kept for a long time to ensure maximum utilisation of your crops.
“We have to show the government that we are capable. We are building model factories, which will be opened very soon at Owode. We have built a complete cassava processing plant that can allow people to come in on cluster basis.
“We hope to establish small factories all over the country and when government sees that, I hope they will be able to buy into the programme.”
To boost the processing of agricultural products, the DG said that the institute had developed about 250 technologies, while over 75,000 entreprenuers had been trained.
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