Cassava tubers will be the stars at the international cassava festival that will be in the economic capital soon, in the presence of authorities who are working towards the amelioration of its quality and quantity.
The governor of the Littoral Region Samuel Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua will be presiding over the first edition of the cassava festival named “ALL CASSAVA” at the Bonanjo Party House in Douala from the 11th to the 16th of November 2024. This event falls under the framework of the international cassava festival that had its curtain raiser last Monday 4th of November in the Governor’s banquette hall in Bonanjo. The event is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This laudable initiative is aimed at showing the importance of one of the most consumed tuber in the sub-Saharan Africa.
Cassava in a tuber that is useful to human from its roots to is leaves. It could be transformed in at least 30 different kinds of food stuffs. The “All Cassava” festival will help in the valorization of cassava which helps in that, it puts the women who are mostly the ones engage in the local production of cassava as well as its transformation and puts them in theposition of economic independence. Transformed cassava is exported and it is present in the battle against food insufficiency.
The tuber is not only used for feeding but it is a raw material for cosmetics industry, not leaving aside the brewery industry. Though cassava and most of its derivatives will always boil down to carbohydrate, its economic value cannot be over emphasized. Cassava is the only tuber that could be found in most homes in Africa day after day in different forms. This justifies the reason why women must be encouraged to grow and transform cassava.
The satisfaction is great to see that machines are manufactured nowadays to grind cassava and produce garri in large quantities for commercialization purpose. Not forgetting cassava powder that gives different kinds of fufu which are always present on our tables. The food and nutrition industry has modernized the tuber to produce cassava cake and cassava bread.
It is in the backdrop of all these potentials that belong to the only one cassava tuber that the governor of littoral region has accepted to alter his tight schedule to accompany the women in the celebration of the first edition of the “All cassava” festival come 11th to 16th of November 2024. It will be an opportunity to see in the faire the different transformation of cassava, after the most have been through different workshops to brainstorm on different means of the ameliorations in the quality and quantity of the wonderful tuber.
Peter TAMBE
