THE CASSAVA PLANT, IT'S IMPORTANCE TO THE CULTURE AND ECONOMY OF THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE.

Photo Collage from a Cassava farm in Sapele, Delta State of Nigeria.(Camera Type: Tecno Pop2)
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The Cassava plant with scientific name Manihot esculenta is one of the most important crops in West Africa and possibly the the second most important crop in Nigeria after the Rice (Oryza sativa).

It is the greatest source of starch in Nigeria where a wide range of starch based food products are processed from it, most notably amongst all is the Garri.

A bowl of garri, a food stuff from processed cassava tubers.(Camera Type:Tecno Pop2.)

Garri is a popular granular powdered food stuff processed from the tubers of the cassava plant. It is the cardinal ingredient in the making of the Nigerian most popular dumpling, the Eba with which we eat our traditional soups.

A plate of Eba, made from hot water and garri(Camera Type: Tecno Pop2.)

I remembered as a young man in junior secondary school, I had always thought the cassava plant was native to Nigeria and this was because of the vast hectares of it planted in our rural communities. It was my father who later corrected my erroneous views and told me the cassava plant was native to the South American continent and it was only introduced to the African continent by foreign explorers. He made me understand that the cassava plant has great adaptability for the tropics hence it's preponderance amongst our native crop plants here.

The cassava plant and it's food derivatives are so deeply ingrained into the culture of the Nigerian people that at times I really find it hard to believe that it is actually not a native plant of this geographical region. Garri as a food stuff features in our traditional meals accross all ethnic divides, from the northern fringes of the Sahara desert to the Atlantic coast in the southern part of the country here in the NIGER-DELTA region.

In our cultural activities like traditional marriages, Kingship coronation and chieftaincy ceremonies certain dishes feature as symbols of cultural heritage and amongst these, most are prepared from cassava tubers. One such food is the starchy dumpling called Akpu. Although less popular than the Eba, it is a regular feature in the traditional cuisines of the Anioma people from Delta State. It is usually served with delicious bowls of Egusi Soup(melon seed soup) at traditional parties.

A plate of Akpu, another type of dumpling made from the cassava tuber like the Eba.(Camera Type: Tecno Pop2.)

The cassava plant grows well in the fertile soils of tropical Africa but in Nigeria it grows best in the southern wetter part of the country. It needs at least six months of modest rainfall for optimum yield at harvest so most cassava plantations are in the southern part of the country where the rainfall is longest.

Economically the cassava plant is the most important cash crop in the southern part of Nigeria and one of the most important in the whole country competing for first place with the rice plant and oil palm trees. It makes up as much as 50% of the bulk of the harvest of the plant crop farmers. At harvest the harvested tubers are sold to garri and tapioca producers and a good bulk are also shipped off to foreign countries as export crops.

The cassava plant is a major source of income for both small and big mechanized farmers. The cassava plant, although an introduced foreign agricultural element has found great adaptation into the agricultural economy and culture of the Nigerian peoples.

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ALL PICTURES USED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE MINE, CAPTURED THROUGH THE LENS OF MY TECNO POP2 CAMERA.