MOBILE CASSAVA

CATALYTIC INNOVATIONS IN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE CENTENNIAL SERIES
MOBILE CASSAVA
DADTCO
■
MOZAMBIQUE
The Catalytic Innovations in African Agriculture Centennial Series was developed as part
of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Centennial publications. The Rockefeller Foundation,
as an institution with a long history in agricultural innovation, commissioned this series
to highlight promising developments in African agriculture, agricultural markets, and
value chains on the continent. The projects and programs featured were selected
from a review of nearly 150 such initiatives based on criteria that included a focus
on smallholder farmers.
THE ISSUE Cassava has been an important staple
food in Mozambique for centuries. This root,
however, has not been commercialized because
market demand has been poor and rapid spoilage
makes transportation of cassava from rural areas
to urban centers and processing factories difficult.
As a result, farmers have been unable to generate
significant cash income through selling cassava.
THE INNOVATIVE RESPONSE Peter Bolt,
founder of the Dutch Agricultural Development
& Trading Company (DADTCO), spearheaded the
development of a new technology that brings
the cassava processing factory to the farmers.
The Autonomous Mobile Processing Unit (AMPU)
ALL PHOTOS: TOBY ADAMSON / OXFAM AMERICA
is a small factory that transforms the root into
high-quality cassava cake that can be stored for
two years. The AMPU operates in a cargo container that can be moved from one rural area to
another during harvesting. DADTCO buys cassava
roots from individual farmers living near the AMPU
and processes the roots into cassava cake. Cassava
cake can be used in numerous agricultural and
industrial products, including Impala beer, a new
product that currently uses all the cassava cake
produced by DADTCO in Mozambique. DADTCO
is operating AMPUs in Nigeria, Mozambique, and
Ghana, with the prospect of rolling out to 27 other
African countries.
ABOVE: It takes about two
metric tons of roots to produce
one metric ton of cassava cake.
Here, workers load bins of fresh
cassava to be washed, peeled,
and pulverized.
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MOBILE CASSAVA
DADTCO ■ MOZAMBIQUE
PROJECT
BACKGROUND
THE STAKEHOLDERS
DADTCO’s Mozambique subsidiary, DADTCO
Mandioca Mozambique, has been operating in
Nampula province since 2011 in collaboration with
partners. They include the Instituto de Investigação
Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM), a public research
institution that has developed improved cassava
varieties suited to the environment of northern
Mozambique, and Corridor Agro Limited (CAL),
which multiplies IIAM’s improved varieties. The
International Fertilizer Development Center
(IFDC) provides training in improved techniques
and distributes new varieties developed by IIAM
to farmers. ORAM is a local nongovernmental
organization that organizes the information-sharing
events where DADTCO representatives introduce
the company to the community and explain how
cassava producers can sell their roots to them.
Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM), a subsidiary of
SABMiller, is buying DADTCO’s high-quality cassava
cake and using it to manufacture Impala beer, a
new product. In 2011, about 280 farmers sold to
DADTCO; in 2012, that number climbed to 951;
and in the first five months of 2013, it reached 932.
DADTCO plans to have four AMPUs operating and to
reach 12,000 to 15,000 farmers in the next few years
in Mozambique.
Farmers are improving production methods,
reducing post-harvest losses, and selling more
of what they produce while using less labor.
OVERVIEW
DADTCO, a Dutch company with a social mission,
has introduced a new cassava-processing technology and business model in Mozambique that has
the potential to substantially raise the incomes of
cassava farmers.
DADTCO purchases cassava from farmers in
Nampula, Mozambique; processes it; and sells it to
Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM), a subsidiary of
SABMiller. CDM produces Impala, a new cassavabased beer that is sold locally. However, the
potential exists to produce numerous other food
and nonfood products with cassava cake. In
Nigeria, DADTCO has built a factory that produces
flour to be sold locally that can replace expensive
wheat imports.
DADTCO has helped IFDC procure donor funding to support the training of farmers in new
planting techniques, and it works with ORAM to
sensitize communities to the idea of adopting new
varieties and practices and selling the company
their cassava roots. DADTCO arranges transport
of roots from rural communities to the Autonomous
Mobile Processing Unit (AMPU), where they are
weighed and famers are paid in cash. The roots
are then processed by the AMPU into high-quality
cassava cake, which is packaged and loaded onto a
CDM truck and taken to the CDM brewery. There, it
is brewed into Impala beer, packaged, and then sent
to rural retailers.
As a result, farmers are improving production
methods, reducing post-harvest losses, and selling
more of what they produce while using less labor,
which means that they can earn more income and
have more time for other activities.
GOALS
Peter Bolt’s vision—which drove the AMPU and
DADTCO business model—was to decrease
African countries’ dependency on food imports
while giving farmers realistic, competitive markets
for their products.
Goals of the innovation:
• Engage with farmers as business partners to
commercialize cassava in a profitable way
• Improve food security and incomes of farmers
through increased cassava production and sales
• Address post-harvest losses and add value by
processing cassava near the farms
• Replace imported grains with domestic cassava
for multiple uses in profitable domestic industries
and for export
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WHAT IS INNOVATIVE
ABOUT THIS PROJECT?
BRINGING THE FACTORY TO
THE FARMERS
Traditionally, farmers have cultivated cassava
primarily for consumption but have sold some
in local markets after shredding and drying it.
Selling fresh cassava to DADTCO, which arranges
transport and buys in large quantities, offers
farmers the opportunity to earn larger amounts
of cash while using less labor. The AMPU is mobile; it can be moved to different areas according
to harvesting schedules.
NEW USES FOR STAPLE CROPS
Cassava is processed in the AMPU into cassava
cake, which can be further processed to produce
starch for food and industrial uses, fiber, animal
feed, ethanol, beer, sugars, and flour. Cassava is
resilient and can thrive with little rain and in poor
soils, making it a good multipurpose crop for a
changing climate. In Mozambique, the only product
currently produced is Impala beer, but DADTCO
plans to begin producing cassava flour to replace
expensive wheat imports.
CREATING MARKETS
DADTCO has implemented an attractive forwardcontracting scheme that gives farmers a guaranteed
market, training in improved practices, and diseasefree stems to plant, but does not compel farmers to
sell. This contract scheme seems to provide great
opportunities for farmers to increase their incomes
with little risk.
ABOVE: Dutch Agricultural
Development & Trading
Company (DADTCO)
operates two autonomous
mobile processing units
that can be transported
by tractor-trailer. These
factories on wheels typically
stay in one location for two
to three months.
SHARING RESEARCH AND BEST
PRACTICES WITH FARMERS
Farmers have access to new varieties of cassava,
which are disease-resistant, have high yields, and
have been tested in the climate and soils of this
region. With traditional varieties and techniques,
farmers generally produce only 10 tons of roots
per hectare, whereas with improved varieties and
techniques, IFDC and IIAM estimate that they will
easily produce 20-25 tons per hectare.
New techniques are being introduced by IFDC
extension agents. These techniques are easy to
learn and adopt. They include using a particular
part of the stem for planting, pretreating stems
with pesticide and fungicide to protect them from
pests such as termites, and planting at a density
of 10,000 stems per hectare. Also, farmers can
further increase their yields by killing diseased
plants and experimenting with four new cassava
varieties that have been developed for their
disease resistance and high yields.
CATALYTIC INNOVATIONS IN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE CENTENNIAL SERIES
Featured innovation
■
MOBILE CASSAVA
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MOBILE CASSAVA
DADTCO ■ MOZAMBIQUE
THE FUTURE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
OPPORTUNITIES
SCALE DADTCO sees its prospects as strong both within
Mozambique and on the African continent as a whole. CDM’s
demand for cassava cake is high and is growing owing to the
popularity of Impala beer. With improved cultivation techniques,
farmers will increase their yields from 10 tons per hectare to
20–25 tons per hectare. DADTCO hopes to reach 12,000 to
15,000 farmers in Nampula and to expand into cassava flour
production in coming years.
REPLICATION SABMiller’s interest in replication and ability
to prefinance it in several other countries, including Zambia,
Tanzania, South Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda, over the next few
years makes replication almost certain.
NEED FOR RESEARCH AND MONITORING Understanding the
sustainability of cassava commercialization will require studying
how it is affecting the most vulnerable households, gender relations, migration, and other social issues.
A monitoring and evaluation system should be put in place to
understand how the business model is affecting farmers and
local communities. This system would help to mitigate the
risks of any unintended effects on household food security or
increased alcohol consumption, and could also identify ways to
improve the current operational model for maximum economic
and social value.
SUSTAINABILITY DADTCO’s business model is profitable.
Environmental sustainability is a priority, and DADTCO is working
with IFDC to promote crop rotation and protect soil fertility.
CHALLENGES
TIMING, communication, and transportation Cassava
can stay in the ground 12-18 months, but when harvested, it spoils
within two days. Therefore, DADTCO must coordinate harvesting
and transportation activities carefully with farmers and truck drivers. Coordination presented challenges because farmers’ access
to phones is limited, and some were unaware that they needed
to communicate with the company to arrange transport. Spoilage
resulted when transport was not possible. Transporting crops on
very poor roads and with high fuel costs has also been a challenge. In the future, DADTCO plans to establish regular pickups
at collection sites and to strategically rotate the AMPU to new
areas to minimize transport costs throughout the year.
Competition Interest in cassava commercialization has been
demonstrated over the past decade by the government of
Mozambique and by donors, who have funded research on the
sector and on improved varieties of cassava. Large-scale commercial production could push cassava prices down, which could
negatively affect farmers’ incomes. However, given the various
uses of cassava and high world food prices, this threat may not
be significant.
Food security Nampula province produces a surplus of
cassava, and improvements in productivity promise to increase
supply further. But at the individual household level, the
opportunity to sell in bulk for cash could create an unintended
risk, because farmers may sell too much of their harvest,
creating food shortages later in the year.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DADTCO pays farmers for fresh cassava tubers. ▪
The introductions of mobile processing factories, disease-resistant stem varieties for
planting, and organized collection and transport of harvests are turning cassava into
a cash crop in Mozambique and cassava processing into an industry. ▪ Cassava is 70
percent water and starts to rot within 48 hours after harvest if it’s not processed.
CATALYTIC INNOVATIONS IN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE CENTENNIAL SERIES
Featured innovation ■ MOBILE CASSAVA
The Catalytic Innovations in African Agriculture Centennial Series recognizes innovations
across the continent and includes projects not funded by The Rockefeller Foundation.
5
“”
I have been able to buy a
bike, clothes for the children,
and school supplies.
ERNESTO SEBASTIAN
NAMPULA PROVINCE, MOZAMBIQUE
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PROFILE: ERNESTO SEBASTIAN
Like most residents of Nampula province, generations of Ernesto Sebastian’s family have
relied on cassava for survival. Now, thanks to an innovation that brings the factory to the
farm, cassava can do more than keep him alive—it can help him make a living.
Ernesto Sebastian wrapped two roughly
hewn hands around the smooth stalk
and yanked to no avail. Stooping over,
he yanked again, lost his footing and fell.
When he pulled a third time, he produced
something never seen in the ruddy
Mozambican soil until recently: evidence
that smallholder farmers can play a
key role in an expanding commercial
cassava industry.
Cassava is key to survival in northern
Mozambique. The tuberous plant
supplies the country’s largest single
source of calories—30 percent, according
to a 2011 survey by the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization—and is a way
of life for 300,000 smallholder farms in
the region. Sebastian has farmed cassava
for more than 30 years, as his father and
generations untold did before him.
Yet, as with most farmers in Nampula
province, Sebastian has grown cassava
largely as a staple crop, rather than as
a cash crop. Cassava’s high water content—which causes unprocessed cassava
tubers to start rotting within 48 hours
of harvesting—plant disease, poor roads,
and lack of transport had made cassava
commercially unappealing.
That is, until 2011 when the Dutch
Agricultural Development & Trading
Company (DADTCO), a private agricultural business, set up a mobile cassava
processing unit just five kilometers from
Sebastian’s farm. The factory on wheels
washes, peels, and pulverizes cassava
into a moist pulp that can be packaged
and warehoused for up to two years.
Bypassing the middlemen
Previously, if Sebastian wanted to sell
any portion of his cassava harvest he had
to first shred the tubers by hand and dry
them in the sun. Even then, he was at the
mercy of the 100 or so itinerant traders
who roam the area, buying dried cassava
from farmers and reselling it to wholesalers. When he sold to the middlemen,
he would get no more than 1,500 new
Mozambican meticals (MZN), about
US$49, for the dried equivalent of one
metric ton of unprocessed cassava.
Usually, it would be far less. Now, he has
a contract with DADTCO that guarantees
him 1,500 MZN for every metric ton for
the heavy, unprocessed cassava tubers.
The price does not fluctuate with weather-related supply-and-demand levels, as
it does with traders. In fact, DADTCO
offers 2,500 MZN if the farmers can deliver it themselves, though few can do so.
“Life is good,” said Sebastian, 51, who
shares several single-room dwellings with
his wife, Amelia Jorge, seven children
aged 10 to 26 years, and sons-in-law and
their children. “If the factory stopped
working, we would still grow cassava,”
he said matter-of-factly. “But because
it is here, I have been able to buy a bike,
clothes for the children, and school
supplies,” he said in his native Mecua.
Securing a future
Sebastian hedges his bets, nevertheless. He earns extra income as a
security guard at the DADTCO
processing plant. And, more
importantly, he dedicates one
and a half hectares of cassava
for his family’s consumption and
a similarly sized plot for cassava
sale to DADTCO. It’s a practice
that DADTCO began recommending after finding that
farmers would sell their entire
crop and would run out of food.
He also intercrops cassava with
RIGHT: Ernesto Sebastian, 51, is one of 300,000 smallholder farmers in Nampula,
Mozambique, who grow cassava. Sebastian has farmed cassava for more than 30 years,
as his father and generations untold did before him.
maize and two varieties of beans to protect soil integrity and provide additional
food security.
So far, his bet has paid off handsomely.
Using improved varieties of diseaseresistant stems for planting he received
from Cassava Plus, a program run by
DADTCO and the International Fertilizer
Development Center (IFDC), a US-based
nonprofit organization funded by public
and private sources, Sebastian’s commercial plot yields three metric tons of
cassava. Previously, the same land yielded
only 1–1.5 metric tons.
The cassava traders still ply the area,
particularly for the many farmers who
simply live beyond the eight collection
points that surround the DADTCO site.
They also come by Sebastian’s farm from
time to time, but he has no plans to sell
to them. “They still come by because
there are people who don’t want to sell
to DADTCO. They say the price is not fair,
that they want 2,000 [MZN],” he said.
“I tell them I’m satisfied.”