Overview
Cassava is the most widely grown food crop in Nigeria, planted in almost every state and processed into garri, fufu, starch and flour. Unlike the export crops, its importance is domestic: it is the staple that carries households through poor seasons, because the roots keep in the ground until they are needed.
Where it's found
Cassava is grown nationwide, most heavily in the forest and middle-belt states, including Benue, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun, Imo, Abia, Delta and Cross River states, spanning the south-west, south-east, south-south and north-central zones.
History of exploitation
Cassava reached West Africa from South America through Atlantic contact from around the sixteenth century and spread inland over the following centuries, taking hold as a famine-resistant crop. Processing methods that remove the plant's natural cyanogenic compounds — soaking, fermenting, grating and frying — developed alongside it, and gave rise to the foods described in the Nigerian food pages, garri above all. Improved, disease-resistant varieties were introduced through research institutes from the later twentieth century.
Economic role
Cassava is a staple food and a source of income for very large numbers of smallholders and small processors, rather than a historic export earner. It also supplies industrial starch and flour. No current tonnages are given here.
Environmental and social impact
Cassava tolerates poor soils but is a heavy feeder, and continuous cropping without fallow depletes land. Mosaic virus and mealybug outbreaks have caused serious losses in the past, prompting the breeding programmes that followed. Processing is arduous work carried out largely by women, and untreated effluent from grating and fermenting is acidic and harms nearby streams.