Profit Margins on Cassava Production

Cassava is the basic food for over 600 million people in the world and produced by 105 countries. Nigeria is the leading producer of cassava in the world, producing 35million metric tons while Uganda produces approximately 5 million metric tons per year. In Uganda, cassava is the second most important staple food crop, after bananas in terms of production and consumption. The traditional growing areas of cassava are West Nile, North, and Eastern parts of the country. Today, it is increasingly becoming an important crop in the south and western areas of the country.

The crop is mainly grown by smallholder farmers (on 1-2 acres of land) for food security and income generation. Most of it sold as dry cassava chips or cassava flour milled from the dried chips but gradually more and particularly in urban areas as fresh cassava roots.

There have been efforts by the government of Uganda for large scale production for the ever-increasing commercial uses of cassava in the baking industry, industrial use in the manufacture of paper board and starch, alcohol, biofuel, pharmaceutical industries.

The yield from an acre of cassava ranges 4-8 MT, which translates into 1.5-4 metric tons of dried cassava chips and 1.2 -2.5 metric tons of cassava flour.