About C:AVA
The Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) Project
will develop value chains for High Quality Cassava flour (HQCF)
in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Malawsi to improve
the livelihoods and incomes of at least 90,000 smallholder
households as direct beneficiaries including women and disadvantaged
groups. It will promote the use of HQCF as a versatile raw
material for which diverse markets exist.
The project is led
by the Natural Resources Institute of the University
of Greenwich working closely with: University
of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria; Food
Research Institute, Ghana; Tanzania
Food and Nutrition, Tanzania; Africa Innovations Institute, Uganda;
and Chancellor College, University
of Malawi and a range of
other partners.
The project will focus on three key intervention
points in the value chain:
- ensuring a consistent supply
of raw materials;
- developing viable intermediaries acting
as secondary processors or bulking agents in value chains;
and
- driving market demand and building market share (in,
for example, bakery industry, components of traditional foods
or plywood/paperboard applications).
Farmers and farmer/processors will
be supported in production and primary processing activities through
partnership with NGOs or other extension services. Business development
and other specialists will support intermediaries to meet the requirements
of end users. End users will be supported technically in adopting HQCF.
It is anticipated that incomes of smallholder households will
increase significantly over the life of the project. .
There will be additional benefits including: employment at the village
and intermediary level, reduced raw material costs for end users, reduced
need to import wheat (particularly relevant with increasing
prices), development of the capacity to upgrade other similar food ingredient
value chains, and, where comparative advantage exists,
exporting HQCF.
C:AVA is supported by a grant from the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of Greenwich.
