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A WELCOME ADDRESS DELIVERED BY DR. ADEBUKOLA ADEBUSUYI, SPECIAL ADVISER, INTERVENTION FUNDS AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS AT A ONE DAY SENSITIZATION WORKSHOP ON HIGH QUALITY CASSAVA PEELS UTILIZATION AND ITS VALUE CHAINS AT THE HOUSE OF CHIEFS ON THURSDAY 13th DECEMBER, 2018.

Protocol
His Excellency, Senator Abiola Ajimobi
His Excellency, the Deputy Governor, Otunbo Moses Alake Adeyemo
The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Olalekan Alli
The Head of Service
Members of the Executive Council
Cassava farmers Association
Livestock breeders
Feed Millers
Special Guests
All Stakeholders

It gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone to this one day sensitization workshop on High Quality Cassava Peels Utilization and It's Value Chains with the theme: " Waste to Wealth: Cassava Peels Utilization". The essence of this workshop is to promote the transformation of cassava peels into valuable feed resource for livestock which is a partial replacement for maize constituting a larger percentage of energy source in livestock and aqua-culture feeds. Transforming this 'waste to wealth' through technology invariably would create more employment opportunities, additional sources of income to processors, increase the cultivation of cassava through availability of off-takers to buy back the produce, curb rural urban drift, improve self worth, harmonize initiatives, and also bring sanity to the environment by reducing the menace of cassava peel heep dumps.

Today, Oyo State is the largest producer of cassava in the world....this is what we have in abundance. This is where we have our competitive advantage and it is in dire need of processors. When farmers are aware of off takers, they tend to grow more, increase cultivation, promote food security, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

Cassava and it's value chains are important engine for the State's economic growth to catalyze investments, inclusive growth and shared prosperity. Increase in yields, investment in processing and other aspects of it's value chain would lead to long term gains, sustainable growth and development of actors along the value chain. In addition, the State's population of about 7million represent a large domestic market that can support and sustain local production and Processing. We should therefore endeavor to be producers and processors and not only consumers of goods and services. It is majorly through value addition, through industrialization that we can improve our status. We should use the 3Es- to get educated, get engaged and empowered because development is an issue of empowerment and growth.

This growth could also be further translated through integration via the South West Regional market in Saki West Local Government at the border with the republic of Benin. This regional market for both import and export has just recently been approved for development and there are tremendous opportunities to access this market and collaborate across regional value chains.

It is highly important at this time also to make agriculture cool, very attractive for the younger generation as Africa is the second largest continent that would enjoy high growth of 4.3% by year 2020 but our population growth is more than our socio-economic growth which speaks entrenched poverty. By year 2034, Africa is expected to have the Worlds largest working age population of 1.1billion and it is highly imperative to prepare to have adequate resources to meet their teeming needs. The social well being of the Youth is critical for the continent and Africa's global repositioning agenda. They will be the driving force behind economic prosperity in future decades but only if policies and programs like this are in place to enhance their opportunities and encourage smaller families.

In this regard, we appreciate His Excellency Senator Abiola Ajimobi for supporting this transformation initiative on cassava peels value chain which is one of the cardinal objectives of this administration to promote industrialization for socio-economic growth.

This is Oyo State, this is Africa and majority of our people are not educated. We should all know that, not being educated doesn't actually mean that one cannot and should not be productive. We need more people in agribusinesses especially agro- processors though a lot of people are interested in these ventures but don't exactly know where to go or who to talk to. It is highly imperative for federal and State governments therefore to establish Business Facilitation Centres using our indigenous languages as means of communication. These Centres would be one stop shops with step by step support on growing and facilitating agric businesses. Through these medium, it is possible to get a multitude of people interested in farming and agro-processing in order to achieve inclusive growth.

We should therefore note that the challenge at hand is to translate strong growth into inclusive growth so that the benefits of economic integration is enjoyed by all.
It is time for continued investment in human and physical capital. It is time to fill infrastructure gaps, it is time to incentivize investors and collaborate with each other, it is time to fix policy issues and health outcomes for socio-economic well being, it is time to increase female labour force participants, it is time to increase productivity for industrialization, it is time to drive growth by boosting workforce participation and finally, it is time to achieve the goals of increased shared prosperity.

By doing these, we are investing, building for the future- taking our destinies in our own hands...let us work at it...starting now.

Ki Oyo le daaa, Ajumose gbogbo wa ni.

This programme was organized by the special Adviser on interventionFunds and Development Partners in collaboration with Oyo State Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development; Raw Materials Resarch Development Council and the international Livestock Research Institute. ... See MoreSee Less

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