With the changing weather patterns, maize diseases and the high cost of production, cassava could just be the answer to Kenya's food insecurity
“For me, cassava represents food, a source of income and a way of life,” says Peter Atanga, a 42-year-old man from the North West highlands of Cameroon. He is just in the process of measuring a basin of gari (also Garri or tapioca), one of the many ways that cassava is processed for value addition and storage purposes in Central and West Africa.
Cassava is the region’s main staple food. Yet you go into a restaurant, you will never hear the word cassava spoken out loud. If you didn’t know better, you would not imagine that it is even grown here. This is because it is rarely consumed in its original form. A large amount of time spent on farming, business and household activities is dedicated to a chain of activities related to cassava production and processing.
Atanga is a cassava farmer. At the same time, he has established a small gari processing plant in his backyard. Gari is the most widely traded processed cassava product and a popular food in Central and West Africa. It is estimated that more than 75 per cent of the cassava produced in Africa is processed into gari. As one can imagine, Atanga rarely goes without business. When he is not processing his own batch of cassava, he is paid by other traders to do their own.
“It is a very good business,” he proclaims confidently, explaining that the production of gari is a long and laborious process:
First, the fresh cassava tubers are washed and peeled and grated. The grated cassava mash is fermented for a couple of days, and then it is pressed and sieved. It is fried on open fire until it forms coarse flour, which can be stored for years. “I know that people find it difficult to do all this work without machines, so they prefer to buy the ready product,” he explains the sense behind his enterprise.
A solution to food security
Often referred to as the answer to Africa's food security problems, cassava is a versatile and hardy food crop. Its high adaptability makes it a highly reliable crop that can almost always guarantee a harvest even when other crops fail. What’s more, this ability to withstand adverse weather and soil conditions has been further boosted by the millions of dollars invested in researching and improving cassava production.
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation, 893,122 tonnes of cassava were harvested in Kenya in 2012. In comparison to Cameroon, which has an annual production of 4,200,000 tonnes, Kenya’s cassava production is still quite low. And this is still nowhere near Africa’s leader, Nigeria, which has an annual production of 54,000,000 tonnes. In continued efforts at improving production, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute unveiled five new species of cassava in 2013. Apart from increased produce, these breeds are supposed to reduce cyanide levels in the cassava. High cyanide levels in cassava, especially during drought conditions, is thought to cause Konzo, an upper motor neuron disease which results in sudden and irreversible paralysis in children and young women of child-bearing age.
But even as production is improved, the high moisture content of cassava causes difficulties in storage. Harvested cassava has to be consumed or processed within 2-3 days or else it will spoil. Considering the barriers that farmers have to access markets, such as poor infrastructure or exploitative middle men, it is inevitable that they incur heavy losses.
In this it seems countries like Cameroon have made strides in preservation and value addition. According to Atanga, the cassava market is large and it is unusual for one to find cassava in the market after 10am. “The usual practice is for cassava traders to establish a market before they bring the crop to the market. However, if they do not sell, they simply take it back home and process it into fufu or gari,” he explains.
Gari
is easy to store and prepare into the final dish by mixing the flour with hot water to form a soft dough, which is then consumed with vegetable and meat stews.
For a snack, gari can be mixed with cold water and sugar, and if one likes, with roasted groundnuts or milk.
Predictably, it is also Atanga’s favourite food and he eats gari at least twice every week.
Cassava by another name and flavour
In Kenya, cassava is often consumed either boiled or fried. Those who have ventured to Mama Ngina Drive in Mombasa are no doubt familiar with the thin slices of cassava rubbed with chilli and lemon, and the delicious, crispy, freshly fried cassava crisps. In parts of the country, such as the Western region, dried cassava flour is used as an additive in millet flour, which is then mixed in hot water and stirred to form wimbi ugali, to be consumed with meat, vegetable stews or sour milk.
The possibilities seem endless in Central Africa. Apart from the widespread gari, each country and region has its own specialties.
Fufu, which is eaten with vegetable or meat sauce is also common.
Another variation is called miondo.
Fermented cassava tubers are pressed to remove the water and then wrapped inside leaves and tied with strings. To eat them, one must boil the thin sticks and then unwrap them from the leaves. They are a great accompaniment for meat and vegetable stews as well as roast fish.
That is not all.
Cassava leaves, which are rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals, are also eaten by some of the ethnic groups.
Atanga’s favourite snack is Akra banana. He describes it as a cake which is made by mashing ripe banana and mixing it with grated, pounded cassava, a mixture that is then shaped and deep fried.
Indicator of wealth and status
Cassava seems to have another function — determining one’s economic status. There are those who will plainly say, “You cannot eat boiled cassava. It is the food of the poor.” Even a snack of gari steeped in cold water and sugar, though delicious, is not to be consumed as a meal, because it indicates that one has no means to buy meat and vegetables to make a stew. Atanga does not seem to agree. For him, the only explanation for the rare consumption of boiled cassava is that there are so many other foods that one can choose to eat.
In Kenya, a similar perception made people turn their backs on cassava production, focusing instead on maize, a crop which heavily relies on water to do well. But changing weather patterns in the country, maize diseases, the high cost of production and other problems have worked against the ability of maize to secure the country’s food supplies.
As the government and its partners look for ways to improve Kenya’s food security, it seems that cassava production will continue to be promoted. Latest efforts are also geared at helping farmers to process the crop into flour for the baking industry, for sale to starch making industries and as a maize substitute in industrial cattle feed production.
Another way to secure food could be to exploiting diversity of cassava storage, introducing the palate to new culinary exploits. This could then increase the ways that cassava is consumed and reduce Kenya’s reliance on maize.